Robert Villeneuve

That’s all. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess the government lost the court settlement. I just wanted more clarification of why we are writing off $100,000 for a company that seems to me is still in operation here in the NWT. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can the Minister just tell me, is it just due to the lack of resources that we don’t continue to pursue...Some of these debts are pretty big. Is it just because of human resources reasons that we don’t do that? Is it the workload? What are the reasons that we don’t continue to collect? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.

Under the sale of the public housing initiative, how many units have been sold to public housing clients over the past three years?

Under the sale of public housing initiative, how many units which have been sold have been repossessed or have outstanding arrears owed to the government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s good. That’s good news, I think. At least they are reviewing this policy, which has been under a lot of scrutiny for a number of years. I just don’t think that it has worked and it’s definitely not working today, especially in the small communities where public housing accommodates a large majority of the communities. I just want to ask the Minister, when can we expect perhaps a draft of the changes or some recommendations, or how far are we along with seeing some substantive change? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would just like to talk about the community co-management agreement that the government, Municipal and Community Affairs, signed with the Deninu Kue Community Council two years ago. Mr. Speaker, this agreement has definitely lead to better financial management and better financial stability of the municipality as a whole. I commend the government on that, which was the true intention of the agreement in the first place, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, what has been overlooked, I feel, is the human resource aspect of this agreement. What I would like to see...