Henry Zoe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason why I am questioning the Minister and requesting this type of service for the small communities is that I don’t believe that the good work that the RCMP is doing is not what the Minister is indicating. I believe that the smaller communities may be occasionally visited by the RCMP, but not on a regular basis. They don’t thoroughly talk specifically about this problem we have with drugs. That is real. I would like to ask the Minister if he can provide for me, my riding and maybe other smaller communities also, statistics in regard to how many times the...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to see the rollout of the "Get Active" NWT Community Challenge yesterday at lunch. The three departments, Municipal and Community Affairs, Health and Social Services, and Education, Culture and Employment, are to be commended for working together to implement and fund this exciting initiative.

The government needs to have more cooperation across departments on issues where the lines of responsibility are blurred. Imagine, Mr. Speaker, just for getting out and being active, you can contribute to the chance of your community getting some needed...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on the issue of the Northern Strategy that we are anticipating to develop, I echo a lot of stuff that is in the Premier’s Minister’s Statement 86-15(3) that was given in the House, but I think the framework that he made reference to has a number of visions, principles, goals and objectives. It is for the three territories to develop. I am not sure, even if we do develop this Northern Strategy, the three governments at the end of the day will have to agree to the final document.

Now, in terms of priorities for the pan-territorial stuff, I am not sure if the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on August 22, 1921, with the signing of Treaty 11 by Chief Monfwi in Fort Rae, my people started on an historic journey to find and define their place in Canada. We’ve recently marked some very important milestones of this journey, including the signing of the Tlicho agreement and passing of legislation in this House and the House of Commons.

Last year, this Assembly passed the Tlicho Community Government Act and I hope we will be passing another milestone later today. Mr. Speaker, a lot of work, a lot of time and a lot of sacrifices went into getting the...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I will be speaking in support of Bill 15. As I said earlier today in my Member's statement, it has been a long journey for the Tlicho people to get here. This bill is the final piece of legislation needed for our agreement to come into effect. It is the part that lays out how health, social services and education will be delivered in the Tlicho region. These are core programs that have a tremendous impact on everyone's wellbeing, personal growth and ability to take advantage of opportunities life brings. It's very significant that they are now being put...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So all these income support workers at the community level have different rate structures pertaining to food, clothing, et cetera.

Madam Chair, could I ask the Minister, I think his department is the lead, about the total amount of money that our government is putting forward with our partners.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Under the section advanced education and careers, I believe there are grants and contributions for literacy. As Members would note, I made a Member’s statement relating to literacy funding. I note, Madam Chair, under the details, that literacy funding has gone down substantially for this current year. I’m wondering why the department has cut the literacy funding to the tune of before $400,000 versus what we currently. For me, Madam Chair, I think it’s very essential and from my understanding from the Literacy Council that oversees literacy in the Territories, they...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today, Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House to focus on a serious issue in my riding, and that is the transition from public housing to homeownership. The current NWT Housing Corporation policy on homeownership programs is creating an impossible environment for people to become homeowners.

Mr. Speaker, many of my people are employed with the diamond mines. According to the rent scale increase policy, anyone working at a diamond mine basically has no alternative but to consider homeownership. With household income, their rent will go through the roof with the new rent scale....

Is the Minister saying that the number of people that we have on the frontline, that you feel they are serving the people to their best ability? I'm hearing something a little different, particularly for the outlying communities; not particularly Rae, because the income support is there only periodically. When they're in need, some people don't have phones and they have to go to the band office and start to phone Rae, and if there's a need, it causes some logistical problems where they can't get in touch with the income support worker. Thank you.