Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of rental controls in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 884 signatures of Inuvik residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories enact and enforce rental controls in the NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if I can commit to having the consultant work on the request the Member is asking us to look at with the farmers; however, I will consider looking at it as a separate issue. I believe the consultants that have been brought online have already done a lot of work in one area and most of the report is concluded. So it would have to be a separate issue, but we certainly will look at it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are not backing away from the commitment of doing a review of PATA. We are intending to do it in the future. At this point, we have focussed on a couple of issues. We are still doing some research. We have hired a consultant to do some work on assessing some works and mobile equipment policies that need to be dealt with in that area. Again, at this point, we haven’t made that commitment. We would like to see that done. There has been a request from a number of organizations and communities. So we realize it’s a priority. However, we have still some discussion to do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Later today, at the appropriate time, I will be tabling, on behalf of the residents of Inuvik, a petition related to the need for improved rent control legislation to protect the residents of the Northwest Territories from unreasonable rental increases. Our economy is booming, particularly in Inuvik and Yellowknife. With the boom, the price of rental accommodation is rising on an annual basis. Some of these increases are for legitimate things like power and electricity costs, but some increases, Mr. Speaker, seem to be only to take advantage of an over-stimulated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish I could have some good news. Unfortunately, the budget is before us and we have yet to approve it before we will really know how much we have to put towards infrastructure. There have been a number of announcements over the last while, including the Finance Minister’s announcement yesterday, to put more money towards capital projects in the communities, both in non-tax-based and tax-based. However, that has yet to be approved. Although the federal Minister has announced how the money will be allocated by jurisdictions across Canada for the gas tax...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has asked if I would work hard. I think we work hard every day.

Mr. Speaker, we are currently, and will be over the next while, having discussions with the communities as to their needs. We want them to be able to bring those forward. We want to be able to have a good discussion around that. We still have a commitment that I have made and our department has been honouring; to deal with the NWT Association of Communities, to deal with LGANT, the Local Governors Association of the Northwest Territories, and consider their input. We recognize there is a need in the small communities for recreation infrastructure. There is recreation infrastructure in larger...

Mr. Speaker, it has always been in our plans to have consultation with all communities to see what their needs are. Our process allows for that. We want to be able to hear from all of the communities before I commit to taking one program, one project in our 20-year needs and moving it forward. We would like to review all the projects that are out there and then make a decision based on fairness and need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree that our youth today will be adults of tomorrow. I will look at our process, our standards and criteria that we use as a guideline, and we will be moving forward with a plan to address infrastructure in the smaller communities and put more emphasis on the recreation. We are hearing it from the Members on the other side and we certainly take it as direction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we certainly will consider that. We are considering it. We are not lumping in Nahanni Butte with bigger centres. Kakisa, in fact, is smaller than Nahanni Butte, and they don’t have a gym. So we have to consider that and it’s not as if we are totally ignoring the communities. Most of the communities…Every community, in fact, has a multi-purpose hall that can be substituted for a gymnasium. It’s not the requirements to meet standards of a gym, but we also have been investing in new centres in communities, so a gymnasium is something that has been put...