Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In using the housing needs assessment, if in this case of the assessment being done in 2013-2014, I wonder if I can ask the Minister if he can check with his officials if they’re aware of this private housing provider about his units, 12 to 14 units being shut down and how that would affect the current needs assessment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That’s certainly something that we can move towards. I was talking to my colleague Mr. Yakeleya, and the Housing Needs Survey of 2014 indicates the Nahendeh region, of course, is number one again in core needs. We had addressed that the last survey but it’s creeping back up again, and some of the issues are new and emerging young people and families. So I appreciate that answer about homelessness.

Can that program also work in conjunction with our Anti-Poverty Strategy and accessing more funds to make units available for the homeless in the regional centres like Fort Simpson? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As a small community MLA, in the past I have blasted Yellowknife, but today I want to commend them. I was pleased to see the City of Yellowknife address the needs of the homelessness with their Housing First initiative. They have developed a five-year strategy to deal with the homeless, especially with the youth.

In my Nahendeh riding and throughout the other regions of our NWT, there is a need to increase the amount of housing units and even homelessness shelter complexes, much like Yellowknife has planned. In Fort Simpson there are over 30 single people...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I don’t know if the Minister wants to confirm those numbers. I thought our senior management was a lot lower than that. I don’t know if he’s speaking specific for Human Resources that the upper management was 20 percent. I thought HR and Finance were having problems staffing from the Northwest Territories. Perhaps the Minister can clarify that.

As I go along, too, the 20/20: A Brilliant North, NWT Public Service Strategic Plan, I’m not too sure if this is the activity that’s rolling out the Regional Recruitment Strategy. I noticed that the Minister’s opening...

Thank you very much. I certainly look forward to the results of that study and sharing it with the community. I know that the community of Trout Lake and I have always advocated for a replacement stand-alone school.

I’d like to ask the Minister what his department can do to move forward with a new replacement school. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in the day I spoke about the need to replace the school in Trout Lake. I know that the Department of Education is currently assessing the facility and I also spoke about the Premier and Minister of Transportation going to Trout Lake, but the Minister himself has been to Trout Lake and indeed seen the school for himself. I know that they’re doing an assessment as we speak.

So I would like to ask the Minister if there’s a current report completed for the assessment of the school in Trout Lake. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I rise once again to advocate for the new stand-alone school for the community of Trout Lake. Currently, the department is assessing the facilities and even leaning towards renovations. This is not acceptable to the community.

I’m pleased that during the Nahendeh tour in December of 2014, our Premier and the Minister of Transportation were able to see that one room schoolhouse in the current community centre. A little partition was put up last year, but I’m sure that the Ministers will concur that this is still like the one room schoolhouses that some of our parents went...

Just with the Regional Recruitment Strategy, I’m glad that the Minister was able to explain it a bit. I’m really curious why he didn’t reference it specifically in his opening remarks, because it was a significant initiative by the Executive to say, look, you’ve got to start hiring our local people and our Aboriginals. I don’t know what the number is at now of empty positions, but I’m sure my colleagues must have asked that earlier as they deliberated this department.

A lot has to be said about some of these entry level positions being over-qualified. What happens there is that as our people...

Thank you very much. There were some repairs needed for that building that the school is currently in.

Are there any plans to ship any repair material up the winter road currently? Thank you.

Thank you very much. The Minister spoke about the completion of the planning study. Just for clarification, does he mean that will be completed by the end of March of this year? Thank you.