Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister is in the same boat as I am. It's a review that was done four months ago; he hasn't seen it and neither have I. The leaders haven't been consulted; it hasn't been shared with the community yet. Can I just get some kind of a commitment, a statement from the Minister from his department to say that, yes, we are going to move forward on this and we are actually going to go in the community sometime hopefully soon and bring in a public document in the community and hear everybody's concerns on what some of those recommendations could be? Could we get some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess back in October during the session the Minister said that he would commit to the Member that this review would be done in the first week of January. I'm hoping that it probably was done in January sometime, and that was four months ago. The community consultation; is there any specific dates that the Minister can tell me and my constituents when they're going to be in the communities to do this consultation, because it's already four months past when the review was supposed to be completed. When do we start the consultation process, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Again, I would just like to raise some housing policies and practices that continue to concern me and my constituents. Since very little has changed in the Housing Corporation’s policies and practices since raising these issues in this House on numerous occasions over the past two years and also bringing them to the attention of the Minister in charge of housing who, I might add, Mr. Speaker, spent four years on this side of the House adamantly demanding the same changes to the housing policies and practices, I feel it is important to raise the red flag once again.

First, Mr...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I’ll just be brief on this because everybody is beating everybody else on what their concerns are that we expressed yesterday. I just want to let it be known that I won’t be supporting this motion, not because of what everybody was saying, you know, the government’s lack of foresight and lack of planning escalated by all the changes in the political landscape of the day that kind of added to and made this whole lack of planning look even worse. But I know the Minister stated ECE would be left out in the cold along with all these NGOs. I know that the NGOs that are there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The most important people you want to consult with in these communities seem to be the ones they haven't touched base with yet. I'm sure that the Minister has probably met with the Yellowknife Health Authority and gone over some of the recommendations of the review. Maybe just for the public record and for my constituents' peace of mind, what were the views of the Yellowknife Health Authority so far as the overall recommendations that the review recommended? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I haven’t been a resident of Fort Simpson for quite a number of years myself. I know basically the Deh Cho Hall inside out. I know it’s an old building. Half of it is storage space. I don’t think the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the education council, Justice and community wellness are all departments that take up…Some of the offices in there are 20 by 40 feet offices in that building. That’s way overkill. I think that the government could use something that is probably half the size and just as functional for the same cost. Just a question to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won’t speak too much about this anymore until we find out what happened and what kind of a strategy rolls out of this. Maybe I just want to ask the Minister when is this strategy going to come to some fruition, I guess, and when is the summit going to happen? You know, another caribou summit, aboriginal summit, housing summit; you know, every time there’s a crisis situation, let’s have a summit. So anyway, what’s the deadline for this strategy anyway? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the $222,000 be deleted from the Department of Transportation airports activity in Supplementary Appropriation, No. 1, 2006-2007. Mahsi, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I can understand that, but didn’t we save any money on the winter ice road maintenance because of the short winter ice road season? Isn’t there some kind of a balance? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I’m sure a lot of the other Members here would agree, I couldn’t stress the importance more of having an independent, objective review committee in place to do this whole human resource amalgamation review, to do a review of the Employment Equity Program, to do a review of the Affirmative Action Program. I think that would be something that this government has got to prioritize and ensure northerners that the review committee is going to be at arm's length from this government to ensure there is objectivity, and I don’t think northerners are going to accept...