Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Local Authorities Elections Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Local Authorities Elections Act to implement reforms jointly developed by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and the Northwest Territories Association of Communities, and to make a number of minor changes to conform with prevailing drafting practices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members have pointed out the fact they’ve brought forward a few motions and I assure the Members that we take those motions very seriously. We are looking at the motions that they’ve brought forward and some of the recommendations we’ve made. We’ve heard a lot of comments this afternoon on trying to get people more independent and getting them out there. That’s our ultimate goal. I mean, we say the visions and goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly is to have healthy, vibrant, safe communities and have our people out there being independent. That’s one thing we try...

Mr. Speaker, there was a time when they had to put money aside to deal with unforeseen circumstances. You go to a private homeowner and right where the property ends, he is responsible from there into his house. If the sewer line goes or the water line goes, it is his responsibility. This is the same principle, just on a bigger scale. We do give money to all the municipal governments to deal, we give infrastructure money to deal with infrastructure issues within their community and I am sure Northland is being told that they are a privately held corporation, Mr. Speaker. We don’t have the...

Mr. Speaker, MACA doesn’t have the funding or the mandate to assist privately held lands to deal with infrastructure deficiencies. That would be a discussion that they would have to take up with the City. All I can tell the Member, as I’ve told a couple other Members that have asked previous to this, is that we are trying to assist their case, their application to try and access some federal money. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use this time to acknowledge Mr. Stephen Pretty, employee of the NWT Housing Corporation who is going to be leaving us soon and moving back to Newfoundland. Good luck to you, Stephen, and welcome.

Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 7, Community Planning and Development Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Northland is part of the city of Yellowknife. Any extraordinary funding would go to community governments to assist in dealing with some unforeseen events that take place in their communities. As much as we feel for the situation out at Northland, I point out again that it is a privately held corporation, privately held condominium and they usually put some money aside for events such as this. The only difference between this particular case and, say, an apartment building where they are selling condominiums, it is just on a bigger scale and laid out. It is unfortunate that some of the issues...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, Northland has the population of a medium-sized community but they are not a community. They’re a privately held corporation. As I’ve said a couple times prior, we’ve written a letter of support for the City’s application to try to access some federal money for some of the needed repairs at Northland. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Local Authorities Election Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. In my meeting when I was up in Paulatuk, I did hear some concerns about the LHO up there. We have some new folks in there that are actually following the policy as it’s laid out and now they’re starting to make some headway as far as trying to get rent arrears taken care of, but I understand the people’s concern up there and I did say that I’d be talking to the district office about it. But again, the folks in Paulatuk, and anyone else out there that are in arrears, have to realize that there is an opportunity for them to come back to the LHOs, get their reassessments done, confirm...