Sandy Lee

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will not be supporting this motion for three reasons. One is that, as I stated, this bill has nothing to do with the Civil Marriage Act in Ottawa. This is creating equal status between unmarried couples and other unmarried couples. It has nothing to do with marriage.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for the benefit of the record, could I just get the Minister to state what this motion is to do? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted its public review of Bill 17, Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act, in Yellowknife on December 9, 2004, and February 16, 2005.

The committee would like to thank Egale Canada and Out North for their submissions and the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill. Bill 17 is intended primarily to remove discriminatory treatment of same-sex and heterosexual common-law couples from a number of NWT acts. The bill is similar to what has been done by other Canadian jurisdictions in response to a decision...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister of Justice and it’s in regard to collection of judgment once someone wins a judgment from court. Mr. Speaker, the law we have with respect to collecting judgment in the North is very outdated, probably because it’s not something that’s on everybody’s mind all the time. The laws we have are that if you win a judgment and you want to collect against somebody and you have to file what’s called a garnishee, that only lasts only 10 days now. Which means everybody has to go to court and file it again, pay $5, then there are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, later this month, March 25th to 27th, Yellowknife will be celebrating its 50th annual Caribou Carnival. Mr. Speaker, every year since 1955, Yellowknife residents have celebrated the coming of spring with this annual carnival. Incidentally, the Caribou Carnival is as old as the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, which we are celebrating. I wonder if there are any connections.

Caribou Carnival, Mr. Speaker, began in the 1950s as a competitive event. Hunters and trappers from far and wide emerged from the bush to compete for the title of Bush King...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps he could tell us more about that tomorrow if there is any news to report.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, I don’t know if I can ask it in any other way. Is the Minister of Health and Social Services aware, and the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation and the Minister of income support, that there are dozens and dozens of families in Yellowknife who are homeless because they can’t get into public housing? They can only get $32 even if they find other housing. There is no way you can find lodging for that money. The Centre for Northern Families is really for certain women. I don’t think you can have kids there. The YWCA has a huge line-up. The Salvation...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have questions about absolute homelessness. Could I ask the Minister if this absolute homelessness covers situations like the ones that Centre for Northern Families are experiencing or situations that the centre has been advocating about, which is that the families on low-cost housing or in public housing could get evicted for whatever reason and then they have debt or outstanding balance or something and then they can’t…so they get evicted out of public housing and then they’re not funded for any more than $32 to get into the private market, which effectively makes...

Excuse me, I get to speak, I believe. Anyway, they are not related. So in my view, they are not related. I am not saying that other people have no right to their views.

The second thing is I think to say that if the parliamentary session prorogues, I’m not sure if we had and precedence in setting our rules that way. We don’t know when that is, and when is the last time we really tied our legislation with what was happening there anyway. So I think we can do our own work. I don’t think this is related and for that reason I’m not going to support this motion. Thank you.

That is fine, Mr. Chair. Thank you.