Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Minister. The people in Colville Lake will appreciate hearing that, no matter what, the doctor will be coming into Colville Lake to see them. Could the Minister give the House an update on the medical services that will hopefully be improved for Colville Lake, in terms of the medical equipment and supplies that they are lacking for services that they could be receiving? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe a lot of people in the small communities want to become homeowners and they want to be the owner of a house that they can pass on to their children. Mr. Speaker, it has been a long trend that the small communities have gone through. Moving from social housing and becoming a homeowner is sometimes a new idea. Even though we have this plan of action, it’s going to be rough for awhile. So I am asking the Minister to consider this in terms of the numbers he proposed to the House and to Members to maybe have a rethinking of it in terms of having a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my question is in line with the housing theme and is directed to the Minister of Housing, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I listened to my honourable colleague, Mr. Menicoche, when he questioned the Minister on the rent scale in the Northwest Territories. I have some concerns, Mr. Speaker. I met with some of the elders in Tulita on the 27th of January. They are concerned about the rent scales and the effect it will have on them. They asked me to question the Minister in terms of the rent scale. Would the Minister consider having a change of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a good friend of mine, Ms. Bobbi Hamilton and Ms. Johns from Hay River.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am really encouraged by the Minister’s response. I am hoping I am hearing some flexibility in terms of the transition phase of phasing in the rent scales. Again, Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask the Minister, would he consider seriously and strongly the success of this program? Would he give it some thought in terms of after maybe six months do we need to scale back the rent increase to meet his target? He might have to do it an extra year or an extra couple of years. I would ask for that consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for letting this House know the seniors will not be affected by the rent scale. However, when the seniors were talking about the rent scale, they were looking at family members and they were speaking on their behalf. Some people are quite afraid that the rent scale would have some effect on them. However, hearing from the Minister, I am glad to hear that. Would the Minister have his department consider or reconsider a transition phase that would be acceptable for this rate increase in the North? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my statement today will be on the budget address by the honourable Member for Inuvik, Mr. Roland. On the mortgaging of the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, I quote from the Finance Minister in his budget address today, from page 5 under Fiscal Strategy, “However, just like a family is prepared to borrow to buy a house if they can afford the monthly mortgage payment, we are prepared to borrow to make necessary capital investments."

Mr. Speaker, this is a powerful quote from the budget, especially in times like this in the Northwest Territories. We have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the ongoing exploration and the pipeline preparation work, we are seeing more and more joint ventures between northern and southern businesses. Many people in my region are concerned that our people are not receiving meaningful participation benefits in these joint ventures. Because of this concern, there is no regional strategy in place to look at the type of guidelines these joint ventures are all about and sometimes we don’t know what a genuine Sahtu business is and sometimes we’re even competing against ourselves. So my question today is for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I feel like I’m the rooster now.

---Laughter

We did have a call into the Minister of RWED and he, along with Joint Cabinet/AOC Planning Committee, came to the Sahtu. It was a wakeup call. Last week, Mr. Speaker, many people braved the minus 40 temperatures to come to a meeting of the Joint Cabinet/AOC Pipeline Committee meeting in Norman Wells. It was very appropriate that the committee met in the oil capital of the Northwest Territories, one of the communities that the pipeline will go right through their backyard. There were many good questions and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Minister, for the reminder. I want to ask the Minister of RWED, in light of the support you have given our region in terms of allocating your resources in the region of RWED to assist with this planning, I know the dates have been moved around. I want to ask if the Minister would commit to his department sitting down with our planners and look at some dates that we could actually have a conference. Thank you.