Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you. I’d also like to ask the Minister what type of education or advertisement does his department do to ensure harvesters are tracking what they sell from the harvest. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of ITI. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, it’s been a year and a half now since a lot of my constituents were flooded out in the spring of 2013. I also mentioned that we had a few cabins that floated down the river, of which none of those applicants were approved for their funding.

So I’d like to ask the Minister, out of the total number of applications filed in the spring of 2013, why was there only two applications that were approved. Thank you.

It kind of makes me wonder a lot of times. Referring to the school in Inuvik, we built a nice building there. Yet we didn’t add on other programs that could be provided. For example, shop. Looking at schools down south, they have a nice section there, three-bay garage and they can offer automotives in high school. Yet we build a $100 million new school that doesn’t have facilities like that. Those are the kind of programs I’m thinking of. We want our students to grow up, take on trades and be mechanics and welders, yet we don’t have those simple programs offered in our schools today. That’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason I asked that question was, as I mentioned, in the criteria it’s 25 percent of what you harvest is what is required and that’s what the Minister was referring to.

So I’d like to ask the Minister, is the Minister open to reviewing and making changes to the 25 percent that is needed to qualify for the compensation application? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. That brings me to my next question. When was this policy put in place for the compensation applications? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister. It sounds very promising. While we’re at it we could add in the Willow River. We’re still waiting to build a road up there. The community is still thinking of actually connecting to the Dempster Highway in the near future, and they feel that that can cut costs for freight and also to fly into other communities.

One more thing was the extension of the ferry. The Minister didn’t reply to that yet with the Louis Cardinal, possibly moving the Merv Hardie down there. We’re really looking forward to that and hopefully that can happen within the year...

As I mentioned in my statement, I applaud the department for all the replacing of units, but there’s a big demand for new units as we have many people moving back to the community in a lot of our small communities. But with waiting lists of over two years, some young people who want to start their lives need units. There’s a big demand for single units like the multiplex units that we’ve discussed in this Assembly.

I’d like to ask the Minister, are there plans for a multiplex unit for the community in the near future?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently on a visit to Aklavik, constituents raised the need for more housing units in the community. This government has done a great job replacing units, but we now need to focus on adding units to our small communities.

We have a huge demand for both single units and duplex units in Aklavik because many people are moving back to their home community. I have constituents who have been waiting for up to two years for a unit and today they are still waiting. How can we expect to have healthy communities when we have a shortage of housing?

Thank you. I’ll have questions...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments on our capital budget. To start off, as I mentioned earlier today, a huge need for housing. I know we’ve done a good job over the last number of years replacing units, but as I mentioned, we now need to focus on adding, because our communities are growing. That’s one of the things the Finance Minister wanted to see in future years. So I think we need to prepare for that as we move forward and ensure that the people that move back have a place to stay.

Also, in other communities, for example, replacing units that have been damaged whether it’s due to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement, I’d like to ask the Minister, when will the department be adding units to the community of Aklavik?