Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a lot of things that I wanted to say on this particular motion, but listening to all the Members talk, I think most of the things that I wanted to say are pretty well covered.

I had heard some comments about survival of our people and destroying a way of life, and talk about a traditional way of life, which is all true. I talked with some of the old-timers and they say we know nothing about the traditional way of life and how they had to go and harvest and how they had to go to look after the caribou. I always remember, in 1998, I was driving the Dempster Highway...

We’re always developing plans on how we’re going to deliver houses into the community. I think part of that plan is the process that we’re going through right now with the budget process. The Housing Corporation’s infrastructure is still a part of this particular budget, so once we review that, we’ll be able to see some of the investments that we’re making into the communities and which communities they are going into. As well, we have a table of all the money that we have through federal money that is going to the communities through major MNIs and improving the public housing stock. We have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re always looking for ways to improve the delivery of houses and especially in the communities, because that is where the greatest demand is that we’ve seen from the needs survey that was just completed on some of the demands in some of the communities. We’re always working to meet the need there. We also have concerns, as the Member has pointed out, with the number of units that are built and left vacant. We’re taking steps to address that. We are working with the communities, who are coming up with some good solutions as to how best we can use those units. We’re...

Mr. Speaker, first of all, the folks of Alberta and B.C. are covered under CMHC. The number of people that they capture is in the hundreds of thousands and we are a very small jurisdiction. It would be quite an expensive process to enact legislation to bring it forward. Do we have the resources to do that right now? There is obviously a demand for the resources, so we would have to seriously consider that before we proceed to go ahead for such a small jurisdiction. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 6 on the Order Paper. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to proceed with second reading of Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize Mr. Charlie Furlong up in the audience. Charlie has been doing some treatments for cancer and we’re happy to report that things are going really well and he’s cancer free. So we’re glad to hear that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we left the Chamber, I felt that I made no threatening gestures. There was a heated exchange as we all have exchanges here in the Chamber, some a little more animated than others. If the Member feels that he was threatened, it was not my intent. I apologize for it. But we have to understand that the work that we do, sometimes there are things that we disagree on. There are things that happen in this Chamber. I showed poor judgment. I should have just took it for what it was and walked away from it, but we do have a lot of exchanges here in the Chamber. We have...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on February 4, 2010, I will move that Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.