Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, as part of devolution, the Government of the Northwest Territories took over responsibility for the management of environmental liabilities and securities for resource development projects in our territory.

The regulatory system in the Northwest Territories provides for environmental protection, including terms and conditions within various authorizations. Security provides additional protection to ensure that there are funds to address environmental liabilities if proponents fail to take remedial action.

Several departments are responsible for managing financial securities under...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We were pleased with the results that we had in Regina and I think that’s a good indication of investment that this Legislative Assembly has made to giving our youth in all the communities an opportunity to be active. I think we’re seeing a direct result of that now. I have not received a final report yet. I’m looking forward to that to see if there’s any recommendations on how we can improve our gold medal haul for the next one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, with our move toward more multi-unit type configurations, they have a lot of single units that we are not too interested in; however, we would support eligible clients if they were to want to purchase one of those units using one of our homeownership programs, the PATH program for example. If they qualified and the unit was up to standards, then we would support them in their pursuit of trying to buy some of these former federal units. But we will continue to have those discussions and see if there are ways for opportunities for us to inherit those or get those into our inventory...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The initial discussions on devolution, the transfer of the federal houses over to the GNWT was not included in those initial discussions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “2014 NWT Community Survey – Summary of Housing Results.” Thank you.

I can’t speak for what the federal government does. That’s their decision to make. However, we are now responsible for decision-making in the Northwest Territories and, of course, we want to protect the environment. That goes without saying. I mean, anybody in here can realize that. But what we want to do is, we want to have some sustainable economic development so our people can actually go work, get a job. But I can assure the Member, and again, it goes without saying, that of course we want to protect the environment and we do what we have to, to do that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A security bond is an instrument that is typically issued by an insurance company to pay one party a specified amount if another party fails to meet their obligations. So under the Waters Act, that is a sufficient instrument to use.

We had developed this as a pilot project with the hope that, well, with the four pilot projects, that the communities would put in the applications right away to take advantage of this. We were a little disappointed that we only had three come forward right away, and we do have, I think, a fourth one that we’re working on right now. We want to see how this works, and if this works well, this is a great opportunity for community organizations, too, because we will provide them with some funding to look after these homeless shelters on our behalf.

So, we’ll evaluate the results of this and then...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The homelessness coordinator has been on board now for about a year and a half and has been visiting a lot of the agencies and gathering as much information as she can to assist her in her job. As far as the standards go, as the Housing Corporation, if we provide the infrastructure, we would ensure that infrastructure meets all the building standards. As far as the programming in there, I would have to have a discussion with my colleague, the Minister of Health and Social Services, because my understanding is that whoever the funding agency is to operate that shelter...

Thank you. As part of the plan they submit to the Sport and Rec Council in their funding, they identify some of the clinics that they want to put on in the communities. I know for a fact that through the Aboriginal Sport Circle, the Parks and Recreation Association and Sport North run a number of camps in the communities to get the youth there not only competing but just to be active, and it’s through some of the programs that we partner with our colleagues, departments, the Active After School Program, the whole idea is to get our children active and we’re seeing a result of some of this as...