Tom Beaulieu

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to move item 11 up the orders of the day to now or number 4. Thank you.

Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in June, in response to the government's previous budget, I had stressed that we had to change the way we do business. I said that we needed to find ways to meet the priorities of this Assembly, which we have presented to the public in a mandate for this government. I said that there are things that we need to do. We need to create more jobs, economic opportunities, lower the costs of living, especially in small communities.

For the benefit of the public and to remind Cabinet, the MLAs on this side of the House represent all the small communities in the NWT...

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to do a tribute to the late Shawn Edward Godard of Ndilo. Mr. Godard was born December 19, 1982 and, sadly, passed away on October 23, 2016 at the age of 33.

Mr. Speaker, Shawn was born in Yellowknife and came from a large family in Ndilo, the Goulet family and also family in British Columbia who all loved being around him. Shawn always had a smile and a contagious laughter. He was well known for his generosity, kindness, and hard work. He worked on the ice road in the winter and was a firefighter with ENR in the summer. He was a great...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at one point the NWT Housing Corporation did a comprehensive survey across the Northwest Territories in 1992, where they surveyed every household in the Northwest Territories. We're not asking for that. The Housing Corporation has been doing surveys for a long time, using statistical analysis on doing several households, but they do actually go to the households.

So, I would like to ask the Minister she had mentioned a few times that the cost was huge  if the Minister could provide that cost of doing, not a complete comprehensive survey, but something that...

A thousand surveys out of 2,800 is pretty good, but a thousand surveys out of 14,000 may not be as good. So, we're talking about, we're surveying, individuals that live in private homes, as well, and people that rent off other companies, and I wasn't  I didn't know that this survey was restricted to public housing and market housing people only.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [translation] today the little girl, Doris and Daniel McQueen's little girl, Doris' granddaughter, Ava Lizotte, was remembered in a tribute December 9, 2016. It was just a few months ago that she was playing soccer [translation ends], running dogs with her dad, teasing her brother, kissing her mom goodbye before she went on a trip. Then she was gone.

The death of one so young, bright, and talented as Ava placed a heavy cloak of sadness on the families of Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories. Her full name was Ava Margaret Doris Lizotte. Her parents...

I guess the idea of the survey, to review the policy, to improve policy, do some program planning, there must be some policies now that the Minister has really seen as outdated policies or this whole review and surveys wouldn't be occurring, so are there any policies which we would consider to be lowhanging-fruit policies that the Minister can look at immediately and make changes to show this House that she's serious about making changes to the policies?

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation some questions that kind of came to mind when Mr. Blake was asking questions about the survey. I would like to ask the Minister if they had considered going door-to-door if the survey online is not proving to bring some results. I was wondering if the Minister would consider doing a survey, maybe not to every household in the NWT but to maybe small communities and so on? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I want to remember what happened there and commend the residents' story into a permanent record of the House. Marci cho, Mr. Speaker.