Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier in follow-up to somebody’s questions here today about the distribution of work amongst the Premier and the seven Cabinet Ministers. I observe what is happening in the Cabinet and I don’t sense that everybody is pulling the fair share of the weight, as the Premier indicated in an answer to an earlier question. He spoke to the even distribution of the work. I don’t think it is evenly distributed. I think some Cabinet Ministers are doing more than their share of work. I could go down the line one by one and tell you who I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, perhaps there's more to the workload than meets the eye, and I can see that that may be the case. However, I have heard a rumour, I don't know if it's true, but I've heard that Mr. Krutko has gone to Calgary 72 times in his tenure as Housing Minister and I don't know if that's true or not. But if that is true, I would suggest that Mr. Krutko doesn't have enough to do and I don't know what you could do to address that, but I have a concern with that. I do think there is not an even distribution of the workload and I would like to see the Premier come forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Krutko says that they have developed land availability issues in these communities, but he has a lot of boarded up, dilapidated units that are scheduled for replacement. Doesn't it make sense that land will be made available when you demolish the units that are being replaced? Is that the plan, or what do you plan to do with those? In conjunction with that, is it true -- I've heard this rumour, I don't know if it's true -- is it true that the Housing Corporation is collecting some kind of a grant or contribution from the federal government towards...

Well, to the supplementary I tried to sneak in on the last question, let me ask that question again. Currently, today, does the NWT Housing Corporation have boarded up, unoccupied units in the Northwest Territories for which they are collecting operations, maintenance and utilities subsidy from the federal government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, and I know it comes as no surprise to the Minister that I have issues about his issues and affordable housing initiative is the next big one on the block. It's rolling out now as we speak. Then, of course, there's also the Novel housing, which may roll out as well. These are big initiatives. We need good planning. As a former Member on this side of the House used to say, we need "blue chip information." We need good, recent information that's accurate and current.

Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I also mentioned in my Member's statement, when touring the communities we see boarded up houses, we see great numbers of pallets of building materials parked in people's front yards dated back three and four years. How can the Minister explain that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to continue to throw out resources in this shotgun approach without proper planning and consultation. We can’t wait for the findings of the Auditor General to tell us that we have a problem. We need a concise mandate. We need a competent Minister who can answer our questions because there’s too much at stake and there’s too many people in need to be running this Housing Corporation the way it’s being run now. I’ll have questions later on in question period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Arlene Hache, who is an activist on behalf of northern families and victims and she's not my constituent, I believe she's Premier Handley's constituent, but I'd like to recognize her and the women with her and I'm sorry I don't know your names. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation has a role as a Crown corporation under the GNWT to provide housing and housing programs to northern residents in need. Their degree of accountability to this Assembly is different because their budget comes from various sources, only a portion of which is voted by this government. As such, the line-by-line level of information in accompanying scrutiny by committee or Members is different and far less than the regular line departments of this government.

In years past there was a board of directors to provide governance to the NWT...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement, please.