David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister look at what is the coordination between areas where land use plans have been completed, where the regulatory environmental assessment process is and where areas were called for preliminary screening in regards to those areas where land use plans are compared to those areas where it isn’t? Can the Minister look into that and give me an idea of what the recommendations in regards to the environmental assessment report is and why those recommendations have not been acted on?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my constituent, in regards to the Gwich’in settlement region in the Mackenzie Delta, has completed a land use plan that has been in place for several years. Yet, Mr. Speaker, under the environmental assessment regulatory process, land use planning is a critical component of the decision-making process. But yet, Mr. Speaker, we heard from a lot of other regions throughout the Northwest Territories…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just following up on my previous questions, I would just like to ask the Premier for a commitment here today that he will come back to this House at the next sitting, which I believe is November, and seriously give us some options with regard to the problem with housing, the income reform program and also to make sure that the $30 million, clarify the $31 million that was transferred to ECE for 14 additional positions on top of the subsidy, is it being expended with regard to the way it was originally intended and why is it that there are so many people in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to ask the Premier, as we know, the majority of people that are now paying rent in social housing are paying economic rent. The $30 million that was there was supposed to subsidize and offset that rent so the individuals will pay a certain amount towards shelter, not the total amount of rent. That is the problem that we have with this program. Would the Premier consider looking at and evaluating the number of people that are in arrears in all of our housing authorities throughout the Northwest Territories? Were they ever in arrears...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, we’ve just gone through an election process where we’ve heard a lot of issues, going door to door and hearing our constituency raising issues by way of problems that they see in our communities. Mr. Speaker, one of the biggest problems I see is the poverty that’s still out there in our communities. We hear about the high cost of living, the high cost of rent, the problems delivering programs by way of income support for individuals who are walking the streets for three months with not a nickel in their pockets because they either missed a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also support this motion. I believe, as a Member of this House, we are expected to act on a higher standard as to how we are seen in the eyes of the public. More importantly, Mr. Speaker, with that power, we should not be seen to be exploiting others or other individuals who have lesser standards in our society, people with less standards of living or poorer conditions. If anything, we are the voice of the people. We have to be seen to be acting for the well-being of all our residents regardless of what their stature is.

Mr. Speaker, I have been here for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with regard to the program itself, I would also like to have the Premier look at the 14 positions that were also handed over to ECE because they said they didn’t have the capacity. Because of that, it seems like the program has been a crisis ever since. I assume that because of that, we don’t have the capacity and we are not delivering it right. So I would like to ask the Premier to also look at that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’ve been sitting around for the last week talking about issues and priorities and I believe this is one of the top issues that has been on all our minds. As a Premier, I would suggest that one of the first things you do is clearly look at reforming this program back to the way it was when it was working. The subsidy was being implemented; every homeowner or income support person was able to access that program and we didn’t say sorry, you’re drinking, you’re late for your appointment, walk the streets for three months and…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe this is a crisis situation. We don’t have time to come back to the Members, work through the business plan. This is a crisis situation that we are in in the Northwest Territories. As a new Cabinet and a new Premier, I suggest that this is the first step that you take in regards to finding a solution to this major problem we have in the Northwest Territories and report back to this House in our next sitting in November.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to speak to the matter in regards to the social housing reforms and the restructure of programs and services. Mr. Speaker, the department of the Housing Corporation gave $30 million to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment by way of income support. That $30 million was in place to subsidize housing in the Northwest Territories. We did not have a problem with arrears, the increased amount of rent in our communities, before this took place, but yet, Mr. Speaker, we have a crisis on our hands in all of our communities...