Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just with respect to the caribou conference that is coming up early this winter, can the Minister provide a brief outline of who is going to be included in this workshop? We just can’t have a caribou management workshop to address these caribou management issues that is solely going to include just the NWT. It has to be even more circumpolar almost to come up with a good plan to address the declining caribou, because caribou don’t recognize any borders. Can the Minister commit to the House and to the people that he will include everybody in the circumpolar regions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think there has to be some sense of urgency with the government on moving on some action to kind of mitigate the real impact that the dwindling numbers of caribou are going to have on people that rely heavily on caribou as their main meat source. Is there going to be any interim changes happening; maybe an increase in income support or what avenues do we have? I know that the advice from the Wek'eezhii Renewable Resources Board was made to the government in how they are going to address this issue. What are we going to do about it in the short term over the course...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I’d just like to talk about this government’s Barren Ground Caribou Management Strategy for the Northwest Territories rolled out earlier this year. The five key components of this strategy focus on, one, engaging partners; two, ensuring appropriate information is available for management decisions; three, managing impacts of human activities; four, informing the public about their role in this management scheme; and five, addressing hardships. Of course the success of this strategy rests on everyone’s participation and input.

Mr. Speaker, the one strategy...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I will just start off by thanking the members of the commission for coming out with this report. I think it opens a lot of ideas in this House to how we can treat voter representation on a fair and even ground. I just want to say that the rebalancing of the Inuvik, Hay River and Yellowknife constituencies definitely will bring everybody under the 25 percent deviation, plus or minus, that we want. I don’t believe that a bigger government is a better government. I have to agree with that on a lot of what all Members here were saying about some guidelines that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I get some commitment from the Minister that he will instruct the Department of ECE that provides income support that, perhaps, they should start broadening the eligibility requirements to specific cases of why people need income support; i.e. gas money, food, money to buy shells, hunting materials and stuff like that? Can that be included in income support in the short term, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister responsible for the Environment and Natural Resources just with what I was talking about earlier in my statement on addressing the hardships that people are going to start feeling here. The winter is coming and cost of living is going up. Rent is going up. Arrears are going up. Their main meat source is getting scarce. I am wondering if there have been any recommendations brought forward or any plans on how this government and how much it is going to cost this government to start addressing some of these hardships that local...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think just the fact that they worded the exemption, $300 plus a further $100 and $80 per child is kind of misleading. Basically that was the maximum. I am just not sure how this can be explained better. Was the maximum just $300 plus the $80 or $100 for every extra adult or what was it? Is that the maximum that was set before the $300 and now we are moving to 30 percent, or is there another percentage that we were looking for? The word exemption is in there, so what does that exempt, the garnishee, the debt or what? Just explain it to me a little clearer.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know where to really go with this anymore because basically my point is to the Minister, okay, a one, two, three, four-bedroom unit, I can understand the differences and the need. The point I’m trying to make is you’re making a four-bedroom out of the same two-bedroom size of a dwelling. Basically you’re just making every room small and it becomes less functional and becomes hard for people to actually live in. All I’m saying is when they are considering a four-bedroom house, make it a functional four-bedroom house. People are going to use them for two...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let’s just move away from the land issue now. I know that’s a vital component of this whole initiative. I want to just talk about the housing packages themselves. How much northern input did we actually have into the functionality, the quality of materials that are required and the floor plans? Are these just old housing blueprints that we’re pulling out and throwing on the table and saying that we need supply of this many units of this type of house? Because as far as I know, the only housing units that have been built in the past, you know, they’re just shoddy...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I just want to express my sincere condolences for the family and relatives and all the friends of the late Lorna Norn who perished in a house fire in Fort Smith earlier this week.

Lorna leaves behind three small children ranging from ages two to 10. Lorna is the daughter of Leona Poitras from Deninu Kue and was raised by Bill and Terra Norn of Deninu Kue.

Mr. Speaker, our prayers go out to these family members who all came together to raise an outgoing, very vibrant and well liked, and a very family oriented northern mother who was keen on providing the...