Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will have opening comments to the Minister recognizing that this is an operational and maintenance budget. I’m hoping to put another plug in, I know it’s not time for infrastructure but I will still continue with my consistent plea for an RCMP presence more consistently and maybe permanently in the communities without a detachment. For example, Colville Lake. I know the department is working on that with the Fort Good Hope detachment and doing their best to make sure the presence is in Fort Good Hope. I’m going to just remind the Minister that I will continue until our...

That’s a lot of…(inaudible)… Can I ask for a breakdown in regards to what we’re paying for in the Sahtu communities and other communities, a breakdown of the utility costs? Also, the funding we give to the regional corporations, the regional offices, is this money we provide to them being expended through the year? In other words, is this what we’re doing for the communities in the Sahtu? The money is being expended and they are using the money for what it is intended for in the communities. Thank you.

Just listening to the responses and to the comments of the Members, I want to ask the Minister and staff that are compiling data, a very interesting note here I made, the NWT Housing Corporation is processing electricity bills, you said about 30,000. Are we going to get some of that data to know what we’re spending in the Sahtu as a result of the fuel, because that’s a big indicator of operation of the units and also for the electricity, water and the sewer. I guess I’m trying to get at a point where the philosophy of the Housing Corporation is going to state clearly that some of this...

Mr. Speaker, I have a document from the Fraser Institute dated December 2014, Managing the Risks of Hydraulic Fracking.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask my last question to Mr. Lafferty, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. We know that from the Sahtu needs assessment studies and indications from other reports that if you have Grade 12 or a post-secondary university or college degree, your chances of getting a job are a lot better than a dropout. We also know that people, like some of my friends, who have Grade 7 who have a successful business, so there’s a balance. There are Henry Fords and there are Thomas Edisons and Alexander Graham Bells in our small communities.

I want to ask the Minister...

I do wish the department all the success in their initiatives to raise the level of attendance of our children for them to go to school.

Is the Minister looking at some innovative ways that the school itself can do to get the children and parents saying it’s important that your child gets the proper amount of rest so they can come to school fresh and be ready to hit the school work? Is his department working with the educational boards to do a one-time initiative, as they did a long time ago, and get the teachers to go and visit the families at their homes, sit down with the parents, talk with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to speak about education in our small communities. In 2013 the Alberta Achievement Test results show that the Northwest Territories is not doing very well. Actually, this test is a measurement of our education system in the Northwest Territories, and when you look at it, the results are pretty glim and bleak in the small communities. We do have a commonality with the larger centres. When you look at the results from the small communities and larger centres like Yellowknife and Hay River and Inuvik and Smith, there’s a commonality that connects us, and that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the same note for the comments from… I’m not sure if this is the right area to look at, but looking at the contracts and work, I would really appreciate the staff and the Minister to hear the Northerners and local contractors are doing the work. They are working out of the regional office. We certainly like to see the economy in our communities have a little bit of a reprieve there for our people, so I appreciate whatever they are doing to make it happen. I fully support the Housing Corporation to see that that work gets there. I just wanted to give kudos to the staff...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can I ask the Minister for a breakdown of utilities? Is this the total cost that we give to the Housing Corporation or that’s what they collect? Is $26 million what you’ve been talking about?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I welcome the Minister and his staff. I wanted to make my general comments to the latest NWT Housing Community Survey and the summary of the housing results.

I see in the core need that in the Northwest Territories with market communities, the core need is at 13.1 percent and in the non-market communities the core need is at 32.3 percent. If you look at the definition of core needs, it has to do with suitability, adequacy and affordability of housing. Under those definitions, certainly the non-market communities are just about triple the number in the core need than the...