Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Now is the Minister willing to move the capital plan up? Thank you.

---Laughter

Thank you. He spoke for about five minutes, but I think he said no.

I’d like to ask the Minister, is a treatment centre for the Northwest Territories even on the 20-year capital plan, the capital needs assessment. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You can see how passionate we are when it comes to mental health and addictions and programming dollars that we need. We have good and moderate programming dollars for communities who wish to initiate health, wellness and addiction workshops. These are well used in my constituency as I travel. However, there is a weakness and gap with the programs available.

The Health Promotion Fund of around $10,000 and the Community Wellness Fund, about $5,000 to each community, does not take into account the high cost of travel and accommodations. As a result, remote communities like...

Mr. Speaker, I think the importance of this is that it should be looked into as soon as possible, because we do have a budget session coming up in February/March and the time for planning is now.

This is going to be my final question. Can the Minister give it a priority item, assess the situation and come up with, hopefully, a plan to have that in this upcoming budget? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask the Minister of Education some questions. I was recently, through my constituency tour, in Fort Liard. I often visit the schools. I am not too sure about the design of the school and parking area, but residents have been stating over the past three years that there is limited parking space at the Echo-Dene School in Fort Liard. I would like to know if the Minister is aware of this situation. Thank you.

Madam Chair, I move we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m actually appalled by the resistance of the Minister on this motion to make changes. In fact, Cabinet shouldn’t abstain, they should vote against it if they are that adamant that they don’t want to make another change. The motion is quite simple, Mr. Speaker. They didn’t have it as income before. The ECE subsidy program doesn’t include the child tax benefit. So we are just asking them to revisit this, look at it. If you want to be consistent, reasonable and fair to our constituents and residents of the Northwest Territories, then you should apply the rules right...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much, colleagues, for allowing me to continue on with this motion.

WHEREAS the NWT Housing Corporation implemented new public housing rent scales on July 1, 2012, including new criteria for determining tenant household income in order to assess their rent;

AND WHEREAS the new criteria for household income includes child tax benefits which were not previously assessed as income;

AND WHEREAS federal and territorial tax benefits are intended to help eligible families with the cost of raising children under 18 years of age;

AND WHEREAS the Government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, November 5, 2012, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the NWT Housing Corporation immediately cease treating child tax benefits as income for the purpose of calculating public housing rents;

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories work to identify and eliminate other similar inconsistencies in its subsidy programs;

And furthermore, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this motion within 120 days.

At the appropriate time I will be...

Mr. Speaker, due to the increased number of vehicles, it is actually becoming an unsafe issue there. I think there are 10 stalls available for staff there, but there are more than 10 vehicles. They are actually parking on the road. It is creating a hazard.

Can the Minister take a serious look at it? Like he said, he can check with the department officials. Perhaps there is already a plan in place, but perhaps the resources aren’t there. If the Minister can do that, thank you.