Mr. Chairman, I am here to present Bill 19, Cost of Credit Disclosure Act. This act fulfills a commitment made by the Premier of the Northwest Territories, who was a signatory of the Agreement on Internal Trade (1994).

That agreement was signed by Canada`s First Ministers in July 1994, to reduce barriers to the movement of persons, goods, services, and investments within Canada. The objectives of the reforms in the agreement are to harmonize laws and develop simplified, uniform cost of credit disclosure requirements to reduce compliance costs and provide uniform consumer protection across...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We try very hard to distribute the resources for housing fairly across the Northwest Territories. I think if we add up the numbers, we’ll find the smaller communities get a higher average of money than some of the larger communities. I know in the Member’s community alone, Paulatuk, the one he referenced, this year there was a $2 million investment in the community. That’s with the homeownership, the MNI work that’s being done. We recognize some of the units need some work, and we’ve been fortunate the last few years that we’ve been able to allocate a lot of funds to...

The department has no more community planners within the regional offices. Most of the community planning is done within the communities themselves, and if they do have someone that they bring from outside the community, I’m sure the community will school them quite quickly on the land claims. Because it’s our intent, and I think it’s been proven in the past, that all departments take the land claims quite seriously and there’s a consultation process that needs to take place in any decisions that may have an effect on the land claims. But again I point out the fact that the land claims are...

That is one of our goals: to work with the tenants in public housing and make the transition into homeownership as seamless as possible. We are hoping with all the new information... We are just completing the evaluation of the Housing Choices Program, which some recommendations again will be made early in the life of the 17th Assembly. I think, all in all, Mr. Speaker, a lot of good work has been done that has been addressing a lot of concerns that were raised in this House with motions passed. We’ve heard in every community that we’ve travelled to about some of their concerns. I think the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did take a look at the proposed motion by the Member back in May and then we have gotten legal advice, and our position is it’s basically telling us we have to obey the law.

My understanding of Aboriginal or treaty rights is they cannot be extinguished or abrogated by a legislative act. I think we all know there are only two ways to extinguish or abrogate Aboriginal or treaty rights, and one is with the consent of the Aboriginal party in the form of a modern day treaty, and the other one is an amendment to the Constitution. So we believe that the Aboriginal land claims...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, there’s been a lot of work done on the Shelter Policy Review in the last little bit. Part of that review was looking at the rent scale. I have met with committee. I’ve given a bit of an update on some of the work that’s been done. I can inform this House that the rent scale review, for the most part, has been completed. We are hoping to use a lot of the data and some recommendations in there in the transition document to the 17th Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my pleasure today to provide Members of the Legislative Assembly with an update on the Northwest Territories Team that attended the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games that were hosted by the City of Kamloops, British Columbia, from August 5th to August 14th.

The Western Canada Summer Games were created in 1975 to provide western and northern athletes an opportunity to compete at a higher performance level and learn more about this great country.

Nearly 2,300 athletes representing the four western provinces and three territories took part in the Kamloops Games. Team...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission 2010 Annual Report.

Mr. Speaker, I will commit to the Member and all Members that I will communicate very quickly here by way of written form to the federal Minister advising him of our concerns. Thank you.