Michael Nadli

Mr. Speaker, will the arrears be adjusted for previous public housing tenants as they will be for current tenants, so they have at least a starting chance to restore their credit ratings and eligibility for housing programs? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Just over the course of a few years, there has been a trend of people moving to the winter crossing. These are people that have gone through the housing programs, and most of the time they have been evicted or else they have arrears with the Housing Corporation. There have been noticeably several houses that have been sitting empty in Fort Providence that the Housing Corporation owns. How much longer will those empty houses sit there idle and empty? Mahsi.

Thank you. The point that I think that I wanted to inquire about is what level of discussions have been happening with the federal government to ensure that they’re part of these discussions. Because what could happen is that as you path out, at least to wrangle through the jurisdictional layers and to get to the ground level to ensure that the health centre is operable, perhaps you could be setting a template for perhaps other departments to work cooperatively and collaboratively with the reserve.

I’d like to thank the Minister for that response. It gives me a sense in terms of where the problem may lie. It is a fundamental issue in terms of the land and the jurisdiction.

I know there have been some discussions in trying to bring the service to the ground level. There have been some talks with the two health authorities, including the Deh Cho and the Hay River Health Authority. Where is that at and are we going to see an alignment of this initiative along with the move to try to sort out the land issue and to ultimately have the health centre operable? At what point can we expect or the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is, just recently we had the deregulations of the CRTC, kind of letting it loose in terms of how telecommunications companies perhaps might move up here in the Northwest Territories. And there have been recent issues, in terms of the media and times of profiling how consumers are being affected by just some of the practices that have been in place for some time. How is this government going to ensure that consumers are protected from being taken advantage of, in terms of the telecommunications technology that is being established up here in the...

As we might know, I think the Mackenzie Highway, at this point, ends at Wrigley. Right now we’re building the proposed Inuvik-Tuk highway. I just want to understand, perhaps for the benefit of this side of the House, too, in terms of how the fibre optic line will be proposed to be laid in the ground when, in fact, half of the Mackenzie Valley Highway is not complete.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the first time ever, residents of Fort Providence can call, text and browse the Internet from a hand-held device in the community.

NorthwesTel launched its 4G network in Fort Providence on Wednesday, February 20th. Cell phone service is a goal of my constituents and I’ve had a petition that’s spoken loudly about it for a long time. The 4G network will allow residents and visitors to use the latest wireless devices, tablets and smartphones in our community. The introduction of this technology will enhance the quality of life for both residents and travellers. Anyone...

Thank you. This is perhaps my final question. Can we expect the health centre to be open by the new fiscal year?

I just wanted to ask about the land tenure. Are those discussions primarily with Health and Social Services and the First Nations? Is the federal government involved with those discussions and at what point would there be an agreement?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Right now my mind is at the community level, at the ground level. On the reserve we have a building that was constructed that has been sitting empty for some time and it’s called a health centre. I wanted to ask some questions regarding this and to try to get a sense in terms of the timeline and the priorities that have been directed to ensure that at least this place can be operable.

So, at the community level on the reserve, normally what happens on the reserve – and this is perhaps looking at the view from the examples from down south – is that First Nations usually...