David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Capacity building in the Northwest Territories is more than bricks and mortar. Mr. Speaker, the whole idea of building capacity is building the most fundamental resource we have: our people.

Mr. Speaker, in a lot of our small, rural, remote communities, we are struggling to basically see the benefits of these developments, regardless if it is government contracts and services, building of houses and homes, and like the Minister of Transportation mentioned, improvement to the community access programs. Mr. Speaker, all of these programs are needed to build capacity.

Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs in regard to the emergency measures plans we have in place in light of the storm that hit the Beaufort-Delta and Sahtu last week. I think it should be a real eye-opener for ourselves and municipalities and the people that we serve that we are going to see some severe challenges.

I’d just like to ask the Minister, has your department, working through the local governments and the different affected departments, Transportation and also Public Works and Services, and more importantly, NorthwesTel...

Question has been called.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This storm will also probably put us straight on financial resources of municipalities, government departments and whatnot. I would like to ask the Minister if he could possibly come back with a cost assessment of what this storm has cost by way of costs to basically not only react to the storm but also the cost to dig ourselves out. The Department of Highways I know were having to put Cats and everything on the roads because graders just couldn’t cut it. I would like to know if the Minister can look at the financial implications of the storm. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I for one feel that it is critically important that we do formulate some sort of a working relationship with all of the parties that were affected by the storm. Like I say, the winds were clocked at 167 kilometres at James Creek. That was where they knocked out the NorthwesTel communication system which totally knocked out communications in the Beaufort Sea/Mackenzie Delta and even the Sahtu. Also, by road closures and everything else, the cost it is going to take to reopen all of these roads are costs that we weren’t really aware of. I would just like to ask if the Minister can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A storm hit the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu regions last week for five days, with winds over 100 kilometres an hour. At one point the James Creek, where the NorthwesTel tower was disrupted knocking out all telecommunications in that service, was clocked at over 160 kilometres an hour. This was one of the most fierce storms that we’ve had for some time, in which it knocked out the telecommunication systems and Internet systems, not being able to access the Internet and banking services. It completely shut off our communities by way of road closures, airport closures...

Mr. Clerk. A recorded vote. All those in favour, please rise.

Mr. Speaker, also in light of the loss of life in the storm that affected a resident who was lost in Colville Lake. I think also a lot of our residents were stuck or trapped in other locations, either going to Inuvik or basically getting in and out of our communities, where it came so fast people just weren’t able to get back home and they were stranded in a lot of different communities. More importantly, even the airline companies couldn’t get in and out of our communities and the same thing because of the road closures. As part of their review, could they consider the whole response in...

Mr. Speaker, I think that we also have to realize that there is a cost associated with the operation of a long-term care facility, incarceration programs. I will use the Arctic Tern Facility in Inuvik where we had one inmate which was costing this government some $5,000 a day to keep that one inmate in that facility, in excess of $150,000 a month. I think that we have to be realistic. The cost of keeping elders in their home is a lot cheaper than providing them that assistance and putting them in long-term care facilities where you have 24-hour care and provided by their families. I would just...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have over 120 elders over the age of 70 in my constituency, all the way up to 98 years of age. Mr. Speaker, most of these elders have lived independently all their lives. They own their own homes. They’ve worked hard all their lives. Now, Mr. Speaker, they depend on a fixed income, which is their pensions.

Mr. Speaker, so many times as an MLA we get calls from the elders in our communities about the challenges they face trying to access government programs and services, and especially when realizing that they have a fixed income, being told to fill out tons of...