Robert C. McLeod

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. Today I would like to speak about the value of strong community governments in the Northwest Territories.

Responsive community governments are critical to support healthy, safe, and vibrant communities. To assist the community governments in their efforts, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs works closely with the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT to provide training, resources, and opportunities for community governments to work with and learn from each other.

The NWT Association of Communities and the Local...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me today Mr. Mike Aumond to my left, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; Mr. David Kravitz is manager of community governance; Mr. Mark Aitken is director of legislation for Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am here to present Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Local Authorities Elections Act.

The amendments included in Bill 8 are intended to update and modernize the legislation to keep pace with the needs of local authorities in the Northwest Territories, and reflect the input of our partners, the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT. I would like to extend my thanks to these organizations for their advice and assistance, and to the participants on the peer review group who contributed a significant amount of time and...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, May 16, 2011, I will move that Bill 19, Cost of Credit Disclosure Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I would, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

In the past we had community liaison officers in some of the communities, but the funding for that was deleted in anticipation of the government service officers coming on board. I believe we have eight communities now that are piloting this particular program. The NWT Housing Corporation was working closely with the Executive as to what we see these folks doing on our behalf in the communities. I believe in one of the Member’s communities there is a government services officer. So this is a pilot project right now. Once we’re able to see the results of this, it may be something that is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money that we’d allocated last year for home repair, if you recall, our last year’s budget was $75 million and that was the final year of the federal investment. This year our overall budget is $27 million and a good portion of that is going towards repairs. If you base it on a percentage-wise, I think we’re doing more towards repair this year. We’ve had some units that were proposed to go up, HELP units. We’ve taken those. I think we have four that are proposed to go up this year. We’re taking the money from that and putting it into more home repair, because we do...