Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to continue my questions with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on this issue of the housing rental assessments. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister wanting to sit down with me within this short time frame of our term as a Member. I would like to ask the Minister, this is one example in my questioning the housing assessments. There is a high core need in my community and other communities in the North. There are a lot of people that are crammed into these little houses. The assessments are done on household income, not...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to commend the Minister in terms of some of the hard work that his department, plus Members from this side, worked on the review of the Income Support Program review. The question I have for the Minister is in terms of supporting the goal of this government to provide meaningful tools to have our people be self-reliant. Is there sufficient flexibility within his department to have eventual assessments to look at the rent assessments to phase-in approach to people who are using...
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a few things that will really catch my heart. This SCAN legislation is one of them. It is very close to me. I can really understand where the Minister is coming from. When he first introduced this bill in the House here and he brought it to committee and we took it to the road, we heard the people in the communities speak from their heart and from their personal experience. I can empathize, sympathize and can also relate with them. People that were talking, some of them are here today...
…and to look and say that we could pay our own way, we could do it. You know, it’s very disheartening, Mr. Speaker, when our needs are so high and our cash is so low. Earlier today I heard Mr. Braden talk about 66 days, you know, in terms of the funding that we could get for $50 million for some projects. That’s possible. That’s a strong mission that I’d like to continue working, you know, in my short term in the next couple days before we leave and we become Joe Citizen.
Mr. Speaker, the North has many treasures right down from the border right up to the Arctic Ocean. We’ve seen them in...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s willingness to go to bat for the Sahtu people and other people around this issue here to talk to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, it is a good program that the department has put out; however, it needs some tweaking. It needs to continue to be improved. This is one issue here. Would the Minister, through his discussions with the Housing Minister, look at this situation where the phase-in approach could be done immediately in terms of supporting people who are now in this situation? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It should change, but it’s not. So I want to ask the Minister, if a constituent of mine working a secure job wants to contribute to society and to family, the rent is $1,100 from nothing from last month. The rent is maximum right now $1,100. How can this program here help this constituent of mine in terms of being self-reliant, because nothing has changed? So again, is there some flexibility in looking at a phase-in approach to assessing the rent to allow them to come to a point where they feel that they could, with confidence, paying with confidence their rent at...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I listened, with interest, to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment talk about helping northerners achieve self-reliance. That is the point I want to talk about this afternoon.
Mr. Speaker, there are families in my communities in the Sahtu that are starting out to be self-reliant. They have jobs. There is a lot of activity going on there. As soon as they either enter the social housing or have a job and enter into a social housing unit, their rates of rent increase from nothing to $1,100 for one month. It leaves them very little in terms of...
We want to know when that bridge is going over the Bear River. So can the Minister, again, look at plans to start phasing in parts of the work of the Bear River Bridge? I appreciate the Minister and Mr. Roland coming into my region and looking and we had to go across by boat because we had no bridge across. So I wanted to ask the Minister, can he look at his department to phase in parts of this and that we see a bridge in a couple of years? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I get some different stories here, but, Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister, because of the financial constraints, why did this government not come to the Sahtu and say we have an issue here, we’re short $15 million, let’s look at a solution to build this bridge? Why hasn’t this government come to the Sahtu to say can you help us? We’re willing to help. Why haven’t they come? When will they come to the Sahtu and demand that this bridge here…We’ll demand this bridge here gets built. Where is the money?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transportation. Can the Minister tell me in the House to the people in the Sahtu when will the Great Bear River Bridge be built?