Robert C. McLeod

Before all these rents went into place, there was a lot of discussion between the LHO tenant relations officer and the clients to explain the situation. We can have staff go in there again. I have tried a couple of times to travel with the Member into the Sahtu, and I would be willing to go possibly again into the Sahtu after Christmas or after the New Year. But my preference would be to have staff, who know a lot more about how rent is being calculated, explain to the residents of Deline and the Sahtu, and I would be present, too, if things work out the way they should. Thank you, Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the consultations across the Northwest Territories on the rent policy review, one of the things that we heard from people was they wanted a system that was fair, more predictable and simple. That’s why we had gone from 421 different rental assessments down to 22. We responded to those concerns. Some of the items that the Member mentioned, the EI payments especially, well, EI payments are usually to provide for the basic necessities of life; food and shelter being two of them, and clothing.

Mr. Speaker, today is National Be a Fan Day, and you will note many of the Members wearing red laces in support of Special Olympics NWT.

I can assure Members of this House that we try having a little bit of flexibility in some of these cases. We do, obviously, I mean we all know that we need some rules, otherwise we’d have just anybody in those units and we may set up a lot of people for failure, which has happened in the past.

As far as the vacant units go, Members of the 16th Assembly will recall that we had 137 vacant units across the Northwest Territories. We had a number in Fort Resolution, we had a number in Gameti. We’ve had a fairly aggressive program in trying to fill them.

We’ve updated Members at the end of the 16th...

Mr. Speaker, first of all, my counterparts in the Yukon and Nunavut felt very strongly about the sports that were excluded. They wanted to make sure that their voices were heard. We thought the best option would be a face to face. The Lieutenant Governor of Alaska was also at the meeting. We relayed our concerns to the Arctic Winter Games International Committee about a whole cycle of athletes that may be lost because of the decision they made.

We don’t want to take that Arctic Winter Games experience away from a lot of these athletes because – Members said before, and I totally agree with them...

Mr. Speaker, the decision was made a number of years ago that all six permanent partners would have an equal opportunity to host the Arctic Winter Games on a rotational basis. That was a decision that was made. The decision to exclude some of the sports – and the Member mentioned it before in her statement – that, for obvious reasons, there are some sports that will be eliminated during particular games. We can’t have downhill skiing where there are no hills to ski on. But six sports affecting over 400 athletes and coaches to the circumpolar world is quite a drastic cut. That decision was made...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use this opportunity to recognize outgoing Mayor Denny Rodgers and incoming Mayor Floyd Roland. I’d also like to recognize the mayor of Tuktoyaktuk. I look forward to working with Mayor Roland in his new role.

Mr. Speaker, we don’t agree with the decision that was made. We had a meeting with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee. We spoke about the fact that we don’t want to be seen as politically interfering, but at the same time, you have to respond to the concerns of the sporting community throughout all the regions that were affected. This was the message that we relayed to them, is that we are concerned with the decision that they made.

As far as what power or influence, we would have to have discussions with our representatives and try to get them to relay some of our concerns to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Arctic Winter Games International Committee is the government body for the Arctic Winter Games. There are six permanent partners of which the GNWT is one. All six permanent partners have two members on the board. The political leaders usually are responsible for providing policy direction during our meetings with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee during the games or any other special meetings that may be called. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide an update on the implementation of the new public housing rent scale. Implementation of the new rent scale started on July 1, 2012, and to date, response has been very positive.

We have heard reports from communities where they have had trouble in the past finding casual employees because of the disincentive to work caused by our rent scale. We are now seeing large numbers of people applying for casual positions.

In reporting these overall impacts, we can’t lose sight of the positive impact on families. For example, a tenant from Behchoko earning $51,000 a...