Kevin A. Menicoche

It gives me great pleasure, as well, to recognize a nursing graduate, and that is Malerie Hardisty, who is from Jean Marie River. As well, I’d like to recognize Ms. Leanne Niziol, who’s got Wrigley roots. Welcome.

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to make a statement today about family violence shelters in the NWT. The five NWT shelters provide safety and support for women and children fleeing family violence. In some cases the shelters provide outreach programs for women and the children who have witnessed abuse programs in the communities. The five shelters are: Aimayunga Women and Emergency Foster Care Shelter in Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik Transition House, Alison McAteer House in Yellowknife, Hay River Family Support Centre, and Sutherland House in Fort Smith.

These shelters have been assisted for the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Wilbert Antoine, a constituent from Fort Simpson. He’s working with Canadian Zinc. Also accompanying him is Mr. Chris Reid from Canadian Zinc as well.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have been working with the school boards as we progress with some type of plan for the school grounds.

Once again, is there any provision for extra funding or resources to help maintain the school grounds during the summer months?

In the case of Fort Simpson, at the start of the school year that certainly didn’t appear to be the case. I was just wondering, I did contact the Minister’s office as well as the Minister of Public Works on it and I’d just like to know what exactly happened. Have they reviewed what occurred during the summer? Will they come up with a good plan for next summer?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I still have more yet to do. I’d also like to recognize the hardworking community health rep, Ms. Gloria Hardisty, from Wrigley. As well, once in a while we get somebody who gets their name mentioned about three or four times, Ms. Karen McLeod of Fort Liard. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[Translation] It seems like it’s going to be a little hard for aboriginal people in the Nahendeh riding...[Translation ends]

…has managed to increase its available and public homeownership housing stock. This is very good news. Unfortunately, in regard to homeownership, there appears to be problems matching available homes with residents who can purchase them. Residents are frustrated at the narrow programming guidelines of the Housing Corporation.

It seems that the people who have a decent income and can afford to buy and maintain a home are the ones who cannot access...