Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister when will his department work with the board that’s responsible for the Aven Manor Centre to look at the change of policies where the communities now can bring in traditional caribou food and moose, traditional meat into that centre. I have five elders or so that are just dying to eat their traditional foods. The policy right now says no, you can’t. I know they’re willing to help. When can we get that done so I can tell people you can send fish to this long-term care facility? Our people want to eat it right now. They are just dying to eat...

I spoke to some elders in Tulita, Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake. The elders are afraid. They are afraid of the government’s policies because it violates their requirement or criteria to receive help from their family members. They are living alone. Some of them are old, they’re ill, they’re in their 70s and 80s. They’re saying if they have a family member live with them, they’re going to get punished because they’re not going to be eligible for some programs. That is so wrong. That is so against our culture, and our beliefs and upbringing. That’s what I’m asking the Minister.

Would he meet...

I’ll continue on with the motion.

AND FURTHER, that this House shall welcome the representatives of the Aboriginal governments in the Northwest Territories to enter the Chamber at the appropriate time to bear witness to the address from His Excellency the Governor General.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has talked about the arrears with our public housing tenants. A lot of our people in those units also are Aboriginal people with Aboriginal languages being their first form of communication. Can the Minister, through the Housing Corporation, talk about how to translate these kind of issues and do they have some form of plan to educate people in their own language? Other than having a non-Aboriginal person come to the community to talk about it, can we have some provisions there where people in the community could be looked at in that process to help educate...

I take this announcement as a golden opportunity to educate people in public housing units with arrears, to look at the responsible side of paying your bills and look at some of the consequences of not paying them. Some of the tenants that we have are fairly young. They think that whatever you damage or break in these units, windows and that, that the government will be there automatically to fix these places. What about the people – I just want to confirm – who are not being responsible for their units, through partying or damages? Will they be part of the evictions as the Minister has stated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was very pleased to hear the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation announce a freeze on the evictions for public housing tenants who have arrears. I wanted to ask the Minister when will this policy come into effect and what steps will the people who have arrears have to take to address them between now and April 2012.

I want to thank the Minister and this government for a good Christmas present for the people in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This afternoon I was going to do a Member’s statement on the school in Colville Lake and the health centre with their honey bucket system that they have there – it doesn’t smell too good – but I want to change that to what I just heard from the Minister of the Housing Corporation talk about: the moratorium on the arrears with the people in the Northwest Territories.

I think the Minister made a good statement. It’s Christmas and maybe that’s a gift to the people in the public housing units, that they have a huge present from the Government of the Northwest Territories for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister has presented us, I guess, an eye opener in terms of what our needs are in the Northwest Territories and what type of funding we are going to look at for the next year. We understand that our needs are higher than the revenue that’s coming into the Northwest Territories. We are very happy that the federal government is contributing to the Mackenzie Valley Highway, through their recent announcement of working on a portion north of Inuvik and they already started the Tuk to Inuvik road. We, as government, are supporting this process through allocating $1...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS Their Excellencies the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, and Mrs. Sharon Johnston, as part of their first trip to the Northwest Territories, will be visiting the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, December 8, 2011, and have expressed an interest in addressing the Assembly;

AND WHEREAS the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories has the authority to waive any of its rules, procedures, customs or precedents;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that notwithstanding any rules or usual practice of...