Statements in Debates
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to go to one of my favourite topics, and that is the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation web page. I will give them credit for improving the look of it. There seems to be more information available here, but I think that there is still quite a bit of work to be done. I will just give a couple of examples. The co-investment fund page, when you go there, the links are broken to get more information about new construction stream, repair and renewal stream. There are a few application forms found in some of the different web pages, but is it still the intention of...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Is there any way we can get this money back from the federal government? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the Minister for that. She has probably opened the door for the towns of Fort Smith and Inuvik to come and knock on her door for some funding to help with their own work, but I think it is a great idea. In both the government's response to the Aurora College Foundational Review and the city's report and presentation to the standing committee, the need for a vision for post-secondary education was loud and clear. Can the Minister tell us how the visioning for post-secondary education renewal is being pursued, including a mandate for the new associate deputy minister, and how the...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is great. Why are we spending the money to do land use planning? Why is this not the federal government? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment regarding the next steps in the development of an NWT polytechnic university. Any future development of the university must be carried out in close cooperation with stakeholders, particularly municipal governments. Can the Minister tell us what formal and informal mechanisms the department has established on this specific file to ensure close collaboration with municipal governments? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I don't think I was on your list.
Yes, thanks, Mr. Chair. I will just read a quick quote from the review board. The board found that the so-called whole-of-government approach, and this is the quote, "has limited the ability of evidence and expertise from GNWT departments about the potential impacts, concerns, and mitigations on issues within their respective mandates and jurisdictions." That, to me, is pretty damning. That is not coming from me. That is coming from the review board, so I want to encourage the Minister, and I think he is made a commitment before that he is going to review how this policy has been working. I...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The Minister is starting to make my case for why I think ISSS is a bad move in the first place. Here's a department that is creating a new position so that they can get timely access to the kind of services that ISSS is supposed to be delivering. That sort of goes counter to the whole reason why this thing was being set up in the first place. I don't agree with it, and I think the people who were being moved out of Lands into the Department of Finance should stay with Lands. This just, I guess, confirms my belief that this is a bad thing to do, this ISSS, when we have a...
Thanks. That is great. I appreciate that sentiment from the Minister. I did want to reply to one of Mr. Hagen's comments. It's not me saying that the GNWT did not participate well in the Tlicho All-Season Road. That comes from the review board itself, in the developer's assessment report. The review board was highly critical of our government on the Tlicho All-Season Road. TerraX is not proceeding with its exploration this winter. This project assessment policy does not seem to be working very well. The Minister talked about how there is going to be a "lessons learned" coming out of the Tlicho...
Bingo. I think I've got it now. Why is the department hiring a geomatics analyst -- as I understand, these are computer people who do computerized mapping and all that kind of thing -- when it seems like all of those functions have been removed from the department and are now parked in Finance? Can someone explain to me why this person or why this position is being added to the Lands budget? Thanks, Mr. Chair.