Norman Yakeleya

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, November 6, 2013, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that the Government of the Northwest Territories conduct a planning study in the 2014-2015 fiscal year for a Sahtu regional institute of technology.

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this motion within 120 days. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m glad the Minister was able to indicate the amount of dollars that went into infrastructure for the Sahtu people. Even though those numbers are high, we still have a case in Colville Lake where there is a TB case. Why is that? What causes TB? You know, there are a number of factors in the case of TB or the homeless in Fort Good Hope or the couch surfing in Tulita. You know, there are issues in the Sahtu where these situations are still being dealt with today.

I want to ask the Minister, these types of situations in the Sahtu that we have, hopefully, with the new type of infrastructure, how...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about the NWT housing survey, and I want to ask the Minister will there be another survey coming out, since 2009 was the last one?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just on the point of the TB case I made reference to is because I looked at the factors. One of the factors is the condition or suitability of the house and the high number in Colville Lake, where the percentage is 97 percent with housing problems. That could be a leading factor to the TB case that we had in Colville Lake.

Are there any types of initiatives where the people could challenge the people in the Sahtu, in the Northwest Territories, to look at how we can put more houses in the communities such as something that is a very well program run? They have a program...

I certainly look forward to the next survey. That leads me to my second question. With the 2014 survey, hopefully that will give us some measurements to let us know how we’re doing in regard to bringing down some of these numbers from 2009.

I want to ask the Minister, in his tenure as the Minister, has he been, I guess, getting a sneak peak of the housing issues in the Northwest Territories. Has he seen numbers coming down from the 2009 survey?

Mr. Speaker, fair enough. I am asking if the Minister can work with staff in regional offices. Can he then direct them to look at the public housing units, give a clean bill of health to the public housing units, and say yes, we checked all 53 houses in Fort Good Hope? We did it, there are no signs of mold, there is no dispute, then we can have, once and for all, this issue dealt with for all, not only in the Sahtu but other communities also in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask questions to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. In my research on the housing in the Sahtu region, it shows a high percentage of households that reported at least one problem in their houses. In Fort Good Hope it was 68 percent; in Deline it was 72 percent; Norman Wells, 25 percent; and Tulita, 69 percent. I wanted to ask the Minister of Housing, with all the initiatives that I understand are going to be happening, do some of the reported incidents have to deal with water damage or molds in the public housing that we have in the Sahtu region?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was thinking last night about today’s significant celebration. Hearing some of the Members this morning, I’m not going to do a song this morning. There are some songs I’d like to do. For example, If These Walls Could Talk, or Mansion on the Hill. There are lots of songs. Anyway, I’m going to skip over that.

I want to say, in all seriousness, I want to give recognition to all who made it possible so that we are standing here today, when we look at the significant changes that we made as a government or as a people of the Northwest Territories from living in the bush on...

Certainly I did hear the Minister. Maybe I’ll be more direct in asking the Minister if he would he commit to a time frame that these condition ratings can be done within the next three months, for example. Molds can be found anywhere. There are a lot of damages in the public housing units that mold can become a health hazard for the family. Between now and, say, New Years, can the Minister look at these condition ratings of these units and direct the staff members to take action within this time frame? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, certainly I am with the Minister to bring the issue of mold down to zero in our public housing units. Is it possible for the Minister to direct the staff in Housing to look at the units in the Sahtu to look and see if there is a mold issue? I have been getting some calls that there are being some mold issues in the Sahtu. Look at all the public housing units: in Fort Good Hope, 53 units; Norman Wells, 36 units; in Deline there are 88; in Tulita there 69 units in that community. Again, do a sweep and say there is water damage, possibly there is some mold in this area, then that can...