Norman Yakeleya

The issue here that’s before us and we have dealt with this in a number of areas, I wanted to ask about the Bathurst caribou regarding initiatives in terms of monitoring this herd in this specific area and the ban of this herd in this area. I wanted to ask the Minister about the monitoring efforts. I heard on the radio that there are wildlife officers out there, community members are out there working for ENR. I guess myself in looking at this issue, the question is how is it that we had over 100,000 caribou and then four years later we have only tens of thousands of caribou? Is there any idea...

Just on the increase of active positions from 187 to 194. Could the Minister elaborate a little bit on the increase?

The other question I have, Mr. Chair, is on the contribution. We have actuals of $46,000, but we haven’t budgeted anything this year. Are we expecting some dollars on that or what is this contribution various to support natural resources and the environmental issues?

Thank you for the clarification of the fiscal years. In saying that, that is quite a length of time between now and the years that the Minister quoted. I guess this is an issue that will be out there a bit. How do we deal with this issue? Because I think this issue is pressing. How do we look at issues that we can support families today who want to be productive people in their communities, yet at the same time this issue here of assessing the maximum rent when they’re still over their heads for them being contributors to the people in their communities?

Mr. Chair, I wanted to ask the Minister regarding the fire damage compensation. Have we lapsed funding on this policy? Have we compensated fairly the people who either lost their ability to trap in a certain area or around their cabins or have we used all this money up? Are there any leftovers?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Over the last number of months and years, actually years, I received a number of complaints and inquiries from constituents who have secured employment recently and already live in social housing units, or from constituents who have jobs and only recently managed to get a social housing unit. Many are single people just starting out, single parents or families with young children. The problem is that as soon as they get a job or those who have jobs move into social housing, they are assessed the maximum rent...

Mr. Chairman, dare I say that this policy here will be coming shortly for the community in terms of the value at risk preparing for the upcoming season here in terms of having a look at this. Mr. Chairman, one time in my life I did fight fires for four seasons with the old federal government program and, when the GNWT took over for them, I was still a firefighter. I know that when there were fires that were initiated by either lightning or man-made, we were out there to put it out right away. Slowly we moved away from that. I am happy to hear that the Minister is looking at this important...

Mr. Speaker, with the existing stock on the ground and because of the existing stock on the ground, it means that we have some real major problems in terms of major repairs. In the report it says out of 33 communities, 25 communities need major repairs. The Housing Minister has indicated that now with the investment now coming into the Housing Corporation, hopefully in five years, that we’ll see a decrease in these numbers here. However, Mr. Speaker, in the last three or four years we did receive some major dollars in terms of federal government and now we’re going to be running out of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in terms of the process between now and the next application cycle, in terms of going to the district, is it also possible that the applicants could go to the local housing authority boards in terms of working out some type of an appeal process? I know that’s something that could be considered rather than to the district office. Would the Minister look at something in the interim?

I appreciate the gesture from the Minister in terms of this specific person. Now I want to ask, in terms of the administration and the flexibility of this program, he’s supposed to be simplifying these programs, the government and the Housing Corporation administration. Does the Corporation have an appeal process in place where if there’s an application that does get rejected, that there can be an appeal process to a body rather than just to the Housing Corporation?