Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My Member's statement spoke at length of our knowledge-keepers and the life they have lived in their communities while passing on their knowledge of the land to the next generation of their families. This Assembly recognizes the need to keep the knowledge-keepers to age in their communities and at the same time to keep their dignity as human beings.

Mr. Speaker, my community of Fort Providence currently has an abandoned former health centre building that would make an ideal long-term care facility for our elders. We can also make space for people with severe disabilities and...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I have been going on about our elders, our knowledge-keepers, to keep them in our communities, this is so that the children, their children and grandchildren, and other residents of the community can have direct access to them within the community without having to drive out-of-town or to another centre. If they go to another centre, you've got to understand from their point of view, the elders, the ones that are displaced into another centre, that they don't have family around. They're in a totally strange environment. They've never ever left the community that's the...

It seems that only the larger centres get all the services and buildings, including victims' shelters, family violence centres, sobering centres, homeless shelters, and the list goes on. Can the health Minister make a commitment to look at instituting a small-sized, long-term care centre in Fort Providence?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories has a growing demographic of people whose voices are often not heard nor adhered to. This demographic is the elders or knowledge-keepers.

Mr. Speaker, in my Dene culture, we say to the young to respect the elders as the young do not know what the knowledge-keepers have experienced in their lifetime. Many have experienced hardships in their lives in providing for their families but have prevailed in some way, and they have always had comforting words to soothe away any pains others may be going through. There is a term coined that best describes what...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has approximately 2,400 public rental units spread out over the NWT. Let's say, for brevity, the units each consume approximately 1,200 litres of diesel fuel per month. The total for the year for 2,400 public rental units is approximately 34.5 million litres of diesel fuel consumed every year. If you were to stick a dollar figure on that, we use an average of a dollar per litre. We are looking at $34.5 million per year from the use of diesel fuel. Mr. Speaker, I would like the Minister to commit to developing an energy action...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 3, An Act to Amend the Public Highways Act. Bill 3 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 13, 2020, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for review.

On October 14, 2020, the standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of Infrastructure on this bill. The committee is awaiting some information committed to by the Minister during this hearing. The committee thanks the Minister for her commitment to provide additional information and...

That is good news to hear. We are constantly reminded of the date 2038. Nobody knows in the communities, the Indigenous communities, what that date really means. Most people are in fear of that date, that they will have no more units available for rent, for housing of our people, because every year from now until that date the funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the CMHC, will deplete until there is no more funding available for operations and maintenance on that date. Will the Minister act now in developing an energy action plan to extend the public rental housing...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories has a living, breathing document titled 2030 Energy Strategy. The goal of this strategy is to guide the development of secure, affordable, and sustainable energy for transportation, heat and electricity, support energy efficiency and conservation, and promote renewable and alternative energy solutions for the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, it is quite exciting to see the Department of Infrastructure's energy division create such a document which shows promise of savings to cost-of-living items such as power costs and which could very well...

It's nice to hear that again. I look forward to the energy action plan that is innovative in the use of our natural resources and that creates employment for our communities. It is much-needed employment, and I really look forward to that report. Hopefully, it's not going to be too far into the future, that we will have something in front of us for review.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Colleagues, it is unfortunate that we are faced with unseating a young, educated, and talented woman from Cabinet. We are now 10 months into our term, and, of course, we gave the benefit of the doubt to all Members of the Cabinet team, as they had to come to understanding the machinations of their respective departments and, at the same time, charting a course in line with the identified priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly.

As a Regular MLA on this side of the floor, I can only imagine the complexities faced by the Ministers in guiding their departments, never mind...