Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Mr. Speaker, I phoned the community of Wrigley recently and told them the ferry services to Wrigley are very important to them. This is what I’m going to be talking about today. [Translation ends]

…closure of the Ndulee ferry. Tentatively, the Department of Transportation is looking at Monday, October 25th. The community has requested until October 31, 2010. The closure will have a big impact on the residents because they do not have a full-time store. They’re also awaiting shipment for their small concession store of staple items that they have...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I move we report progress.

---Carried

Just for my reference, was there any indication from the federal Ministers as to the timing of the detachments? I understood, talking with our Member of Parliament, that it may actually be in the capital plan. Has the Minister seen anything like that? Is he able to at least give a round, an estimated date of when the federal government may seriously consider providing the capital dollars for the detachments in these communities?

What type of plan is in place if shutdown is imminent, and how much warning can the community get? I know that sometimes they give 48-hour notice when they shut down in 24 hours. I’d like to ask the department to try to guard against that and try to give the community as much notice as possible. October 31st, if we can get it to that date it will be an extreme benefit to the residents of the community.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement regarding the concern of the residents of Wrigley and the impending closure of the Ndulee ferry. As I indicated, my constituents are very concerned. Last year at this time when the ferry closed early, residents were faced with extreme additional costs. This time the residents are asking for an extension to the end of this month, October 31st, only because they have low-income people, pensioners, people on social assistance that want to get out during that time to stock up on groceries for the two to two and a...

I’ve got nothing further to add. I just urge the Minister and our government to continue to press the matter. I don’t know, the Minister sounds like there’s a meeting in November. I’d be pleased to be given notice about that.

The other one is, I don’t know if and when we do our NWT Day it might be another opportunity to raise that issue as well.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to raise once again the issue of community policing, especially in the community of Wrigley in my riding. I know, of course, that the government supports two of the smaller communities getting a full RCMP detachment and it would, of course, have given me great pleasure to have seen that in our capital plan. I know that I spoke with the Minister in the House last week and he spoke about being at the Justice Ministers federal/provincial/territorial meeting. Maybe the Minister could just advise me of some of the deliberations that happened and...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Municipal and Community Affairs has a lot of... Because I have the riding with the most communities, I often hear lots of concerns, especially during my last visit to the communities. They just revolve around the New Deal. The concern is that they’ve been operating for about three or four years now and they’re not really convinced that there’s enough O and M funding in there for them to run their communities. The biggest one for me is I hear consistently about the cost of street lighting. I’m not sure if it’s an arrangement with NTPC or not, but there is...

Perhaps the Minister can clarify for me exactly why that rule is there. Why is there an upper limit? In the bigger centres it kind of makes sense, right? I mean, you don’t want to disrupt the existing housing market, but a small community like Nahanni Butte, even Fort Simpson, which is not really a market community either and these people are being denied. So I’d like to know the reasoning why this guideline and/or policy exist. Maybe the Minister can clarify that for me.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation some questions.

I raised the issue about the core needs income threshold and the application guidelines for constituents. I just wanted to know if there is an initiative out there that we have lots of homes and they need to be given away this fiscal year, how the process is going and what kind of special accommodations are they making when they are applying the guidelines there, Mr. Speaker. Are they going to stick to the old guidelines or will they be more flexible this year in terms of allocating units and...