Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister named off a number of subsidies and supports that are available -- tax relief -- things that are available to seniors in their own homes. All of those particular supports are means tested. In other words, if your household income is over a certain threshold, you do not qualify. However, if you are fortunate enough to get approved for public housing, there is no means test. You could be a millionaire and live in social housing as a senior for nothing, as long as you are over 60 and you are in need.

---Laughter

Seriously, you can have a big...

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The motion is in order. The motion is not debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Thank you, committee. I will now rise and report progress.

Agreed. Thank you. Then I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the Minister's witnesses to the witness table.

Minister Bell, for the record, would you please introduce your witnesses? Minister Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will continue on asking questions of the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. It’s when I hear my colleagues like Mr. Lafferty talk about real and core needs in the community that it just becomes so offensive that we could somehow misdirect millions of dollars in funding. I saw the Tuk seniors’ facility too, and it cost millions of dollars to build that. It’s a beautiful facility that overlooks the ocean; the units are gorgeous. I want to live there, but the people and seniors in Tuk don’t want to live there. How the Housing...

Does committee agree that Bill 3 is ready for third reading?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. At this time, I would like to ask the Minister if he would like to bring in witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not getting any feelings of assurance that the number of people at headquarters is being well monitored and managed. It would just seem too coincidental that you could take a $30 million program activity out of Housing, transfer it to ECE, and somehow you would need exactly the same number -- no, more people under the new mandate. It seems a little bit unscientific to me. Could the Minister give us a general idea of what the new mandate is going to include in terms of activity that could not only absorb the existing staff, but require more? Thank...

Clause 3.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we switched from fee-for-service to salary, it was intended to be a recruitment tool to get physicians to come here so that they would be able to enjoy a quality lifestyle. We could offer a definitive package which was competitive with other jurisdictions in Canada. Is the department looking now at doing a combination of fee-for-service, where there is a salary and a fee-for-service combination, something that would encourage physicians to see more patients on a daily basis? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I want to make it abundantly clear that I know extremely well, as do the people across the North and in Hay River, that there are many challenges facing health and social services in the big picture. But I want to say that a good working relationship is the premise of why I remain very optimistic about continuing to address those concerns. I would just like to thank the Minister for his attention to those issues. Thank you.

---Applause