Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I, too, shall be voting in favour of this motion. It is very timely. I’ve got the riding with the most communities, and we’re having many housing issues. One of them is access to funding and different types of funding arrangements. Right now we’re really, really limited, and the pool of funds is getting smaller. It limits the types of actions that we can have in the community, especially when it comes to federal assistance, as they do it to all our reserves down south and the other jurisdictions.

When it comes to the North, there’s always a barrier in terms of...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of cutbacks to the public service in Fort Simpson. The petition contains 12 signatures of Trout Lake residents, and the petitioners request that the Legislative Assembly represent Nahendeh residents by opposing proposed layoffs in the public service that would have an economic…

Interruption.

Without getting too specific, I’ve got this instance in Fort Liard of this elderly couple I spoke of in my Member’s statement. Last fall they were going to get their repairs done. I don’t know what happened there, but somehow they slipped through the reporting mechanism and they were forgotten. On my recent visit just last month their home was still not repaired, and there is no indication whatsoever of when they will get the work done. Once again, just for the recording mechanism, how would someone’s repairs slip through on an issue like that?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my housing statement earlier today with respect to delays in repairs to constituents’ housing, especially in the community of Fort Liard, where I notice the apparent delays. I just wanted to see what stage or what the current status would be, from the Minister’s office, in terms of delivery of repairs and home construction in Fort Liard.

Absolutely. I certainly agree with the Minister that building secondary homes for people is not a goal of this government or should be for anybody else. If they want to do that, they should certainly do that on their own, but primary residences are certainly something that I believe we have to continue with, and I certainly support that.

With respect to elders eligibility programming, I’m finding that some of our elders are actually being denied programming. I don’t think it’s an arrears problem at all there, Mr. Chair, but it’s an income threshold problem. They’re senior citizens, and their...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to revitalize an old friend of mine, Granny from Nahanni. She’s got one of our new modern homes that we had built for her, but we’re finding that the cost of living and the pressures are impacting her income. The cost of heating fuel has really risen astronomically, as well as the cost of power and electricity. Actually, I tell people we’re fortunate that summer has come along here, because I don’t think that people could have afforded their homes much longer. It’s very stressful on households and on everybody throughout the North.

I know that we had...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Like I said in my Member’s statement at the beginning of today’s proceedings, I’ve got six small communities in my riding, and we’ve got many, many housing issues. Every time I travel to the communities, my constituents come to me, and they’re concerned about their program or if they’re being approved or about their housing and home repairs and even the condition of the homes. There are mould issues; there are construction issues.

The way I see it is that what they’re actually doing is that, because they’re not getting satisfactory answers from the Housing...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of the Fort Simpson Airport maintenance services. The petition contains 12 signatures of Trout Lake residents, and the petitioners request that the Legislative Assembly represent Nahendeh residents by opposing plans to privatize Fort Simpson Airport maintenance services. Mahsi cho.

Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker. I’ll certainly do that. I just want to ensure that once it looks like they’ll have to reapply, they’re not bumped off the list.

I’d like to recognize Mrs. Candace Brown, who’s actually been watching the proceedings all week. She’s a constituent from Fort Simpson. Welcome, and hope you had fun this week.