I certainly look forward to the new numbers that the Minister indicated. That will be coming out sometime this year in terms of core needs that I am using the 2004 needs, so it might not be too fair to the Minister and his department, but I think those numbers pretty well reflect the needs in the community. It is not fair to the Minister to give a proper answer until he sees the new numbers that are coming out this year and I look forward to that.

Mr. Chairman, the seniors facilities, and I am going to make another pitch for the seniors facilities in our communities that meet the needs. With...

The strategies that are going to be coming forward certainly would possibly help the communities, I guess. Mr. Chair, I would like to ask in terms of the issues here we are just discussing. I am not quite fully briefed as to the issues in the community of Fort Good Hope because it wasn’t given to me over the phone. Basically the request was to look at land issues in Fort Good Hope with the Housing Corporation. I am hoping that this corporation here with the Minister is flexible enough to look at issues such as Fort Good Hope in terms of the issues that they need to resolve to build units in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister for his opening remarks. I do have a few comments to make. I would like to say that I certainly look forward to the $50 million that the federal government made available to the Northwest Territories to look at housing investments. It will be very interesting to see the game plan how we expend it, how we expend $50 million to put houses on the ground in our communities. Mr. Chair, I look forward and I am very anxious to see what type of plans will be coming forward from the department to let the people know what is possible out...

Mr. Speaker, I would again request to the Minister in terms of what in theory sounds good but in practical reality is not very good for our region or for the people in the Northwest Territories in terms of this initiative. When the Minister took the Agencies and Boards committee’s recommendations on the inventory, what process did he fail to allude to the Regular Members in the communities that we’re now looking at a Board Reform Initiative? There was a gap missing there. What steps has the Minister not taken?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister indicated that he has roughly about seven weeks before we decide as to go/no-go or to go forward in terms of this seven weeks to put some discussions on the table in the regions; 70 boards into seven. Can the Minister outline to me exactly the process that the people in the Sahtu region can satisfactorily say, yes, we had a meaningful consultation in terms of looking at this initiative here and we think that this is the way to go? Can the Minister safely say in seven weeks here, come back and say I had a meaningful consultation where people in my...

The people of Colville Lake have a dire need for basic services and programs in their community. This proposal, the majority of this Assembly says yes, we will look at a model, will the reform look at the community of Colville Lake to get basic care for dental, nursing, social workers, mental health workers as right now they’re fighting strongly for it. Will this do that for them? Because right now, the way it is, this structure here will certainly deter services farther from Colville Lake than ever. I have not yet seen any type of evidence in terms of how this proposal is going to help my...

Mr. Speaker, the community that I come from, Tulita, I asked the Tulita Housing Association if they understand the Board Reform Initiative and if they do, whether or not they agree with it. The members of the housing association said no, they don’t understand it, and no, they don’t agree with it. So I’m asking the Minister here, in terms of his consultation policy, what it will take for him -- and he’s giving some indications by April -- as to how to go forward in terms of this reform initiative. This consultation process between now and April, just one community of Tulita -- I represent five...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was listening to the issues of board reform and the information that’s been provided to me about board reform I was thinking about a time when in the Sahtu region we had something like a board reform. Finally, after many years of good politicking and the leaders in the House Assembly, this Assembly here, we finally have an educational divisional board. Several years ago we had a health board. Now we have a district office of the housing authority in the Sahtu region and we are just getting used to having this kind of authority in our region. Now this government is...

Thank you. I have three questions for the Minister. The first question to the Minister is, he was responding to a Member here in terms of the core need, and he is correct on the 76 percent of core need in Colville Lake. He is very correct on that. The information I have is from the 2004 percentage. Deline is 41.7 percent, Fort Good Hope is 46.9 percent, Norman Wells is 8.5 percent, Tulita 35.7 percent. This is the information I received for 2004. With the funding that the Minister will be receiving on behalf of the territorial government to look at our housing across the Northwest Territories...

Mr. Chairman, under the corporate summary, in terms of municipalities and bands, the Minister had mentioned in terms of the unique challenges in some of our smaller bands and some of our charter communities or some of the hamlets or municipalities for the land. Has the Crown corporation designed a protocol with working with lands, band issues or municipalities? This came up in a discussion with the Fort Good Hope Charter Community that wanted to have some discussions with the corporation in terms of lands that are available and being worked on in the communities. I will ask the question in...