Robert C. McLeod

As part of our Shelter Policy review that we briefed committee on the other day, we had made a commitment to engage all the communities. I actually just had a meeting this morning with staff members and it is their intent to have regional meetings and meet with as many of the leadership in the communities as possible to get their input as to the best way to deliver housing in their communities and what improvements we can make.

We take our work very seriously and we want to make sure that we give everybody an opportunity across the NWT to engage with us so we’re not faced with situations like...

I’ve been up to Paulatuk, I’ve heard their concerns. The concerns I heard there weren’t so much tied to arrears as to the operation of the LHO. I can tell the Member and I think he realizes, that one of our senior management from headquarters has committed to going to Paulatuk and working with the folks up in the Member’s riding.

Again, I say, Mr. Speaker, the eviction process, when we get to the eviction process, that’s basically the last straw. They’ve been given every opportunity for time to enter into repayment plans and when we get to this stage that we’re at now it’s because they haven’t...

That is a program that is no longer available. This was before the communities had the responsibility of making their own decisions. I’m sure if the community has some concerns, then they will initiate discussions with Easy Street and see if it’s something that’s feasible for them to apply to their roads. At the end of the day, I’d like to point out that the ultimate responsibility and the decision lies with the community.

With the responsibility that we’ve given the community, we like to believe that we’ve given them a significant amount of money to help them with that. It’s a benefit to the community in a number of ways.

In all our dealings with the NWT Association of Communities, meeting with the mayors and councils and that, we’ve really had no concerns, and we continue to work with them and making sure that they have the capacity, that they’re trained to take on the responsibility. My understanding is the Minister of infrastructure, Mr. McLeod, will at his first opportunity be raising with the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to welcome to the gallery a good constituent of mine, Mr. Amir Suliman. I would also like to welcome all the participants of the youth centre’s conference that’s going on here in Yellowknife. I’m sure their MLAs will stand up and recognize them, but we have I think four or five of them up there that are not from the Northwest Territories and I’ll use this as an opportunity to recognize them: Josy Labbe from Youth Centres Canada, Dale Pearson from Youth Centres Canada, Kevin Morris from Youth Centres Canada, Benjamin Leikin from the City of...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Local Authorities Elections Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I think in the communities that have put up a youth centre like Fort Resolution, I don’t think those infrastructure projects will go to waste. I think the communities themselves have the ability, through their O and M budgeting process, to allocate funds as they see fit, and most of the communities would have recreation workers.

As a department, as a government, we also provide $825,000 to all the communities across the Northwest Territories for recreation purposes. That’s on top of the O and M monies that we give the communities. So the community itself would have the ability to...

Thank you. I do agree that a solid investment in the youth will alleviate a lot of the issues that the Member has raised. Again, I think I pointed out before, it’s one of the reasons, as Members of this 16th Assembly, we’ve determined that the youth are a very important investment, and I think we’ve proven that with the amount of money that we’ve put into youth in the last four years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories recognizes that shelter is fundamental to the overall long-term well-being of the Northwest Territories residents and is a major factor in creating sustainable, vibrant, safe communities, one of the priorities of the Legislative Assembly.

The GNWT continues to focus on ensuring, where appropriate and necessary, that there is sufficient supply of affordable, adequate and suitable housing to meet the housing needs of NWT residents. To guide housing activities that support this mandate, the GNWT has undertaken a Shelter Policy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 19, Cost of Credit Disclosure Act, be read for the first time.