Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, the Member is absolutely correct; it’s the time of year that you’re building that makes a big difference in the quality of the product and the prices that you get. That’s why we’d like to come forward in the fall time with our infrastructure budget, have that approved by this Assembly in the fall, then we could start putting out tenders for contracts so the material can be delivered early and the work can begin as soon as the weather warms up. As it stands right now, sometimes we have construction starting in July/August, when the material finally arrives. So we’re hoping to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this has been a concern raised by a number of communities because it does happen. I have instructed the department to possibly look at coming forward in the fall with our infrastructure requirements and have that as part of the infrastructure budget in the fall. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are policies set in place for certain reasons, and as much as we’d like to have people in units with the elders looking after them, there is opportunity for them to do that. What we don’t want to get into starting here, and there has been some discussion of this in the past where folks that are working will move in with seniors, realizing that the seniors pay no rent. So we need to get away from that. However, we would like to see the best conditions possible for seniors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the program intake starts in September and we do use that to try and get the applications approved as quickly as possible and have the materials either brought in by winter road or during the beginning of the barge season. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can inform the Member that we do have new management in the South Slave and they are in the process of targeting seniors based on visits to the community. They do want to have better communication and a lot of communication with seniors, and they’ll work with the seniors to assist them in processing their applications and provide translation as needed.

Mr. Speaker, there is the money that we do pass on to the communities through the gas tax and the community infrastructure money that they’d be able to use for developing trails, if that was one of their priorities. I think we’re starting to see the results of a lot of the money that has been expended towards recreational facilities towards the development of our athletes, and I think the fact that we had 27 communities represented in the Arctic Winter Games goes a long way in showing that the money is being invested and is being used wisely by the communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are very proud of the fact that during these past Arctic Winter Games, 27 of the 33 communities across the Northwest Territories were represented, and it’s our goal to get the other five communities in so when we go to Whitehorse in 2012 that we will have all 33 communities represented.

We have started the After School Program to try and encourage kids to get into the sport. Some of the money was able to be used for purchasing of equipment. As well, there was the federal money that we had allocated to some of the communities, the recreation infrastructure funding that...

Mr. Speaker, there are also some communities that have some trail programs and there are a lot of ski trails from the old TEST Program that they’re starting to groom again. But for the communities that have put together trail programs, I’d commit to the Member that I’ll follow up on some of his requests and get some information as to how they went about doing it and pass that on to the Member. I’ll also have a discussion with any other departments. We look for any opportunity we can to improve the infrastructure in the communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’d have to follow up on that. To my knowledge, I don’t know if the program exists anymore, but I will follow up and get that information and pass it on to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you. I know that the construction is ongoing and they’re very close to completing. I don’t have the exact date, but I’ll find the exact date and I’ll share it with the Member. Thank you.