Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize a good friend of mine, Minister Lorne Kusugak from Nunavut, who I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the last number of years and I’ve always been very impressed with his commitment to the people of Nunavut. Welcome to the Assembly, Quasa.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We will work closely with the communities. We have our regional folks out there that will work closely with the communities. We do know that there could be a potential impact on the community of Norman Wells. They’re funded based on what they have right now. In the future when the community expands – and I still think it will – then we would have to review the whole funding as far as Norman Wells goes. If their population goes up, then adjustments will have to be made as to some of their funding. As far as the impact on some of their infrastructure, I mean, that’s a...

As I said before, part of the discussion we have is with LGANT. I mean, they represent – or NWT Association of Communities – all 33 communities. All 33 communities will normally meet in a room and they’re just one big organization. Their big concern was the O and M funding, not so much that we have to be fair and go to a base-plus.

One of the arguments I continue to have with Canada when we meet with them is as the Northwest Territories, if you fund us on a per capita basis, being such a small jurisdiction we’re immediately behind the eight ball. We try to treat all our communities the same by...

As I said before, our goal is to have the Joe Greenland Centre open as soon as possible. If we can get the contract awarded, ideally we’d like to have them in there by the spring. As far as a full-time home care worker, that is out of my jurisdiction and that’s a discussion that the Member will have to take up with the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was our intent to start the renovations to the Joe Greenland Centre on the former side that Health and Social Services used to manage, and we still intend to proceed with those renovations.

Thank you. We have committed, or we will commit to going into the community. As a matter of fact, we will go into the community of Nahanni Butte on Monday and we’ll have some senior officials from the different departments that have infrastructure there. We’ll also be joined by our colleague. The honourable Deputy Premier has agreed to accompany them and we’d like to invite the Member and the chief of the community along also. This will give us an initial idea of some of the damage that’s done. As I said before, we’ll be able to go in afterwards and do a follow-up and do a more detailed...

Mr. Speaker, I rise to update Members on the status of the recent flooding in Nahanni Butte and the incredible efforts of many individuals and organizations who are working together to help ensure the safety of residents.

As is the nature of most emergencies, this event caught us by surprise. Water in the Liard River basin reached heights not seen in many years, and in fact, it may turn out to be a record year.

Despite the fast moving nature of floods, residents were not caught off guard. Officials from Nahanni Butte worked together with a number of organizations to ensure residents were...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to written question asked by Mr. Alfred Moses on May 24, 2012, regarding the shelter policy review – proposed seniors rent scale.

Would the Minister please provide a list of the communities that were consulted in the shelter policy review?

The engagement process during the shelter policy review was quite extensive and included a number of approaches. One component of the engagement was workshops with community and Aboriginal government representatives.

In Inuvik on June 2-3, 2011, we met with representatives from Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Deline, Ulukhaktok...

This is one that I can commit the Member will have a look at. I think there have been some programs like this tried in the past, with different degrees of success. I know there were a couple of them that were actually not turned back into public housing but were renovated and turned back into the group that built these units. There have been some attempts out there to try this; however, it’s something that we have to look at because we do have a wide need across the Northwest Territories as far as affordable housing goes. I will commit to the Member that as part of the overall picture and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have looked at the report. We have looked at many of the recommendations that have been made, as we listen to all the recommendations that are made from people in and from the Northwest Territories. We’ve had an opportunity to look at it.