Tom Beaulieu

One of the items I spoke on during my Member's statement was a program rolled out by the Housing Corporation called aging in place, which is a good program. There are a lot of seniors taking advantage of it. It addresses a lot of the annual maintenance items, and some emergency items. There is enough money to do that, but there is not enough money in that specific program to really allow seniors to age in place. By that, I mean it's not really enough money to make a unit barrier-free or make a unit senior-friendly, and so on. I would like to ask the Minister if they would take a second look at...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I talked today in my Member's statement about maybe direct funding, direct funding from the Housing Corporation. I have some questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. On Friday, the Minister responsible made a Minister's statement on housing in the Tlicho region. Part of that was striking a working group to begin working on some of the critical housing issues, as he referred to it. I would like to ask the Minister if he is prepared to work with other working groups, like perhaps a working group that covers the communities in my...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I will talk about the possibilities of direct funding by the NWT Housing Corporation to some of Indigenous communities that may be in a position to receive direct funding for the various home ownership programs delivered by the Housing Corporation.

Mr. Speaker, over the past few years there have been various strategies, initiatives, plans, and so on, all aimed at reducing core need for housing across the NWT. One of these strategies was announced last year by the federal government. They are calling it a Northern Housing Strategy, which provides $300...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with some parts of what the Minister is saying. Some of the employees like to go to other projects in other communities, but many of them cannot.

I would like to ask the Minister: I know that they use several factors to determine, I think, five or six different factors to be weighed up against other factors to determine which capital item or infrastructure item will be placed first on the infrastructure list for each year that we review in the House. I would like to ask the Minister, if there is a possibility that, it's sort of like a social factor I guess, of...

I was going to ask the Minister to lay out the process, which he has already done. I guess what appears to be missing from the process is the weight, and I am not talking about W-A-I-T but the weight of each of the projects as they are brought forward by the various Deputy Ministers through the capital planning process.

I don't know which process has priority, and I guess coming down to the question would be: how does the GNWT prioritize the actual projects once they have gone through each project that comes up through the capital planning process?

We all know where employment is needed most and the projects such as a health centre in Lutselk'e would create work for a few years. Furthermore, the Lutselk'e Health Centre is almost 35 years old and will be almost 40 by the time it is replaced. The standards have improved, Mr. Speaker. Our infrastructure must improve with it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Assuming that everything remains and there are no emergencies, I would like to ask the Minister if factors such as employment play into the capital planning process. I know it is an important aspect of this Assembly to ensure that we have employment. As many have said, including the Minister of Finance, "employment is the best social program that we can have."

I would like to know if there is a community that has an employment of 40 per cent versus a community that has an employment rate of 70 per cent, is that a factor when we're allocating capital projects? Right now, what is happening in my...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I talked about capital in the riding of Tu NedheWiilideh. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance some questions on the capital planning process.

I would like to ask the Minister: in this House, who is responsible for the capital plan? Who has final responsibility? Thank you.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, I highlighted some new infrastructure projects that have recently been built within the riding of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. On the same token, I would like to share with you today some future infrastructure the riding will need in the years to come.

Mr. Speaker, the community of Detah has never had a new school building before. In 1969, the government placed a few portable classrooms together and called it a school. Then, 20 years later, they added a few more portables, along with some renovations along the way. It's a school for Detah students. If you ask me, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress. Thank you, Mr. Chair.