Kevin O'Reilly

I appreciate the response from the Premier, but my question was really not so much how we’re going to work with the federal and provincial governments but what are we going to do as a government. I’ll just give one example here. Can the Premier tell this House how GNWT will obtain free, prior, and informed consent from indigenous governments in developing and implementing new resource management legislation?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Look, I’m not suggesting that the money be centralized in Yellowknife but obviously if a small non-profit has to make a number of applications to different regions to support work and building capacity there that creates an administrative burden on a small NGO. Is this something that the department has considered and what sort of solutions might there be? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don’t want to prolong this. I appreciate the commitment from the Minister. Would the department be prepared to provide its communications plan on how it’s going to put together the Minerals Resources Act to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the commitment from the Minister. I’m just trying to figure out the timing of this. Is the Housing Corporation going to look at some way of sharing the cost savings with its tenants through energy conservation? Is that going to happen this year or next year or at some future point? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have to confess that before I was elected I really didn’t pay a lot of attention to the housing situation here in the Northwest Territories, but I was certainly shocked when I did look into the 2014 Housing Needs Survey. You know, the sort of statistics in here, non-market communities, 44.3 per cent of our housing has problems. Thirty-two-point-three per cent of non-market communities have housing in core need. That’s a third of the housing in non-market communities. People should let that sink in for a minute. Now, when we talk about housing, people need to understand, I...

I appreciate the response from the Minister, and I’ll keep pushing him to directly contact the federal Minister of Heritage, but the sad fact is, Mr. Speaker, that students are actually leaving Ecole Allain St-Cyr, and students are leaving, particularly in high school, to go to other schools, and that’s because we’ve been waiting years for equitable and adequate facilities, such as a gymnasium. News that planning is underway for a new gym and more classrooms, that a request for proposals will soon be led for the expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr would give these students some hope. Can the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I want to thank the Minister for her answer there. I think it would be really help if the Regular MLAs then actually saw this business case that was submitted. If that could be provided to committee I think that would help us understand. I applaud the efforts of the Housing Corp in putting that kind of work together to get the feds off the per capita housing formula that tends to be used for federal funding programs so that’s great. That’s part of the issue, but I think the motion that we were talking about earlier in the House is: what would it take to get our housing...

Merci, Mr. Speaker. Today I have some questions for the Minister of Education about his efforts to meet the need for adequate and equitable school facilities for the students of Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du NordOuest. First of all, can the Minister tell us what specific actions his department has taken to acquire federal funding for the expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr? What meetings, letters, phone calls, et cetera, have been made to Heritage Canada? Merci, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Still just a little bit confused here how this information is going to be rolled up to develop a plan that addresses core needs, but also can be used to prepare plans, proposals that can be submitted to the federal government, given that they seem to have more money for housing. There’s some kind of disconnect there. I don’t understand how this work is going to help the Housing Corp develop plans that cost out core need and that can be then submitted to the federal government for funding. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think I’m understanding this a little bit better, but the communities then themselves are not going to be asked about costs. The costs are going to be developed by the Housing Corp in terms of helping communities put together their plans and then rolling that up somehow? Thanks, Mr. Chair.