David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to all Members about the Canadian Young Worker Memorial Life Quilt that will be unveiled today at 12:00 noon in the Great Hall.

The memorial life quilt, Mr. Speaker, pays tribute to those young workers involved in a workplace injury.

The quilt was created in 2003 for the Day of Mourning and was sewn together by volunteer quilters from across Canada. The quilt is a lasting memorial to 100 young workers aged 15 to 24, who were killed at work. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, it spreads a powerful message about the importance of accident...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled 2004 NWT Community Survey, Community Housing Needs, Detailed Results, Report No. 2, October 2004.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are open to finding a usage of that facility. If the Member is right, that facility was designed for an alcohol and drug treatment centre and the usage of it is restricted because of that. So the purpose of the facility does meet that goal. Like I said earlier, we are open to proposals and we’ll definitely look at anything out there right now because we are paying for this facility. It’s unoccupied and it is a $300,000 cost to the corporation just to keep the place heated. We are open to proposals.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the Somba K’e Lodge, we are looking at proposals. We have put out calls to different non-government organizations and are considering looking at usage for that facility. It is presently unoccupied. We’re paying somewhere in the range of $300,000 for the operational costs of that facility. We are looking at proposals from different organizations, the people in Detah and Ndilo and also we’ve been approached by the Salvation Army. So we are looking at offers right now.

Mr. Speaker, I think that is one of the problems that we're having, trying to get this unit taken over by someone else. We will not take on the responsibility of the O and M. We want to dispose of the asset by way of selling it outright, or basically working out some sort of a long-term lease agreement. But we do not feel that we can afford at this time to continue to pay for the operational costs and have that ongoing responsibility. We would like to offload that responsibility to an agency or organization to take that on.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the facility is an asset of this government and because it is unoccupied, we are looking at offers right now. We’re open to discussing this matter with anyone who wants to come forward with a reasonable offer. It is open for proposals for which they should maybe contact the president of the corporation to open a dialogue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a young man who has been a Page in this House and who used to work for the former Premier, Vital Manual. Vital is up in the gallery.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I am willing to sit down with the Member and go over the plans for that particular project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to Fort Liard and the information that we have been looking at and where we know there is a need, we have been implementing housing programs by way of the EDAP programs and also the Independent Housing Program. There has been an increase in the number of housing units that have been built in Fort Liard. We are seeing more people apply for programs. I think that is one thing that we are trying to do, is get more of our field staff from Fort Simpson into the communities to make people aware that these programs are out there to make improvements...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize two of my employees in the gallery today, all the way from Fort McPherson from my constituency office: Liz Wright; and with her is Evan Walz who is my executive assistant.

---Applause