Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the idea of transitional housing for our small and remote communities. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, firstly, to explain the purpose of the one-year residency requirement to access housing programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The lack of housing is a huge problem in many of our communities. On the other hand, there are also vacant units in some of our communities. I believe that there are also problems with access to housing that is available. That is, there is housing and there are people who need housing, but they’re not eligible for it. For example, I am told that there’s a one-year residency requirement to access some community housing programs. In general, that is fine, but what happens when someone returns to a small community and has nowhere to live? It seems that the NWT Housing...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 64-17(3), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2013-2014.

Mr. Speaker, I think a guideline like that certainly works well in a larger community where people are on a waiting list. It probably has happened in the past where people did get bumped by somebody new moving in. That really makes sense there, but for people returning to and coming to live in the smaller communities where housing is scarce or there is none, that same one-year residency requirement just doesn’t work, because there are no homes there. We are expecting them to perhaps couch surf for a year until they become eligible to come back.

Will the Housing Corporation look at this idea on...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure and pride to recognize and welcome my daughters to the gallery. Ms. Diedra Villeneuve and Ms. Candace Lafferty-Villeneuve. I’m glad to have you here to see your hardworking MLA dad.

As well, my constituency assistant, also hard working, Ms. Pearl Norwegian.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to, of course, continue my dialogue and actually ask a library question, as well, in my dialogue about replacing the school in Trout Lake. I know that government, we do have a 20-year needs assessment, so maybe I can ask the Minister if he can show me that list and show me where the Trout Lake school is on the 20-year needs assessment, and maybe we can start that dialogue there and if he can make a commitment that we can meet sometime this week to look at exactly where the Trout Lake school is on the capital needs assessment.

We had a good debate in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Where is the replacement for the Trout Lake school identified in the capital plan?

Given the number of children attending the school, what are the department’s long-term attendance estimates for Trout Lake?

What are the parameters and guidelines required to ensure a planning study for a new school in Trout Lake is undertaken?

Is there a portable school in our education or government system that can be used in Trout Lake?

Certainly, in this case in Nahanni Butte, it was an act of God. It was a new issue. I was over at the Dehcho leadership meeting and the chief and the band manager from Nahanni Butte brought this to my attention. But some of the parameters, some of the guidelines are making it difficult for people to claim damaged hunting and trapping equipment. I’d just like to ask the Minister of ITI: Can he review this, because there must be a way around it?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That eventual reality of getting a new school is why I am up here and been raising the issue for years and years. When will that school be replaced? You have ECE standards versus the substandard. That is my point. That is not a recognized school by that community. The government promised to replace that school. They never did. When are they going to do that? Thank you.