Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have to keep in mind that the majority of people, even those who draw income support, have some income; the majority are earning some money. Again, there are some who aren’t. Anyone who is earning income but hasn’t got the money to be able to rent the unit that’s available in their community can go to income support to have it topped up. It isn’t just for $32 rent; in some cases it’s $1,000, $1,500 rent that they need some help to be able to pay the rent. So they can do that. Mr. Speaker, as I said, through income support we are reviewing the rates; through the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m sure there are many people who would like to have their rent lowered. Mr. Speaker, the current arrangement we have is that housing units are based on market value. So a rent is set depending on the condition, the age, the size and so on, of the house. That’s how we determine what that house is worth to rent. It’s the same way one would have if you were to rent a house in Yellowknife or Edmonton or wherever it may be. Individuals are asked to pay up to 30 percent of their gross income as rent. If you went to a bank, they would ask you for 32 percent. So we’re...

Mr. Speaker, as this Legislative Assembly is in the final year of its mandate with an election scheduled for this fall, it seems like an appropriate time to take stock of our work to date. In particular, I want to speak about some of the major initiatives we have moved forward over the past year and those that will be the focus of our work for the remainder of our mandate.

I want to congratulate all students from the Northwest Territories who have or will be graduating from high school and post-secondary school programs this spring and summer. The education of our youth remains one of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, as I say, the Bridge Corporation will be signing the agreement. They have undertaken to complete the agreements within a month, or by early June. Mr. Speaker, if we have the information that can be shared with the Members, then certainly we will do that. There is nothing secret in here other than the confidentiality by the partners in the agreement. Mr. Speaker, I must say I appreciate the Member’s support for the project. We will make it a project that is good. Mr. Speaker, if I might say, as well, there is P3 money in the federal budget for this year and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me just remind Members that in 1978 I believe it was, the Legislative Assembly of the day looked at the price of the bridge and decided then that $6.2 million was too much, so they put it on the back burner. Today we're looking at, as the Member had said, something in the neighbourhood of 130, somewhere in that range. If we had done it in 1978 instead of putting it on the back burner, we would have had a bridge a long time ago and we'd have a cost of living that's a lot lower than it is today.

Mr. Speaker, I'm concerned of putting it on the back burner because the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We use Yellowknife as a rate because it’s probably the most reasonable rate. We could base it on Colville Lake or somewhere else but I don’t think people would like that, Mr. Speaker. So we have to use a base and we compare it to something. We also have to compare the quality and the condition of our units, as well, and that’s fair that we need to do that. Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t matter how we do it, we want to make sure that people have the money to be able to rent decent accommodation and at the same time meet all their other obligations. Mr. Speaker, I’ll take...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The rent scales and our formula for determining rent are always being revisited. I might say it doesn’t really matter whether we do it based on gross salary or on net salary, we take into consideration the other costs that individuals may have anyway. So the dollar amount would work out the same; we would just…If we used net, we would take out a higher percentage of their net income. The way we do it is they pay 30 percent, or we calculate 30 percent and then we take from that, in fact, costs of operating the house and other deductions, so the net effect is much...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will refer that question to the Minister of ITI. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said before, I recognize the amount of work and time that's spent working with the Tlicho people, and also have to balance the responsibilities of the North Slave executive offices and other departments with the work they're doing with the Akaitcho and the Metis and the other people in this area. But, Mr. Speaker, I will take a look at it, I will take a look at what the workload is, and certainly we have no hesitation about moving offices to Behchoko if the work and the economics of it really work out. We'd have to look at office space and housing and so on as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s an interesting proposal to have more of the North Slave region located in Behchoko. Mr. Speaker, it’s something I’d want to think about. It’s something I’d like to take a look at the load of the North Slave offices and various departments. I know their responsibility is certainly for the Tlicho people. It’s also for the Akaitcho and for the North Slave, Metis in the North Slave and Yellowknife in some cases as well. So, Mr. Speaker, it’s an interesting one. There’s nothing saying everything has to be in Yellowknife. Certainly we’ll take a look at it.