Wendy Bisaro

That is what I’m asking. I’m asking for an opportunity for Members who want to hear from you as Minister and from staff, what we are putting forward in this joint group that is developing a response, a federal response. We get briefings all the time, and what I’m asking is for a briefing on what the GNWT is saying at the table where this federal response is being developed.

Will the Minister commit to a briefing to myself, in particular, but to any other Members who wish to attend to know what we are saying at the table with the feds?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I would like to ask the Minister some questions as a bit of a follow-up to the motion that this House passed the other day with regard to the Giant Mine Remediation Project. I think the Minister is well aware that Members on this side of the House, particularly Yellowknife Members, are very interested in the recommendations from that report and are very interested in knowing what the GNWT is going to say about that report.

So my first question to the Minister is to know from him how...

Okay, I didn’t really hear from the Minister when or if – I hope it’s when – there will be an increase to this infrastructure budget for communities. Is that in the future anywhere? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a few comments and questions and I’d like to reiterate Mr. Dolynny’s comments about the work that the department has been doing. I should say the corporation. The corporation has been doing a very good job of staying ahead of many of the problems that have existed for quite some time and they’re working very hard at trying to solve them. So it’s nice to see. Of course, I do have some concerns.

Mr. Dolynny mentioned the 168-people-long waiting list. My concern, and I’ve expressed it to the Minister many times before, is with transition housing, particularly in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to move that the committee defer consideration of the department summary for the Department of Transportation at this time.

No, that’s good. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. To Mr. Miltenberger’s comments about this adding funding to the budget, I thought I clearly heard Mr. Bromley say that money could be reallocated from a project that takes up an extremely large chunk of the Transportation budget, take $1 million and put it into this particular Detah road that he’s asking for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The committee reviewed dozens of police reports from every community in the region. These monthly summaries from the RCMP are further testament to the carnage wrought by alcohol abuse, the suffering endured in every community, and the burden on police and other government services.

In a year, calls for service to RCMP in the Sahtu are approximately equal to the population of the region: 2,750 calls in 2012. Alcohol is a factor in most crimes and complaints.

Far more alarming is the number of assaults. In 2012, RCMP recorded 255 assaults in Sahtu communities. This is...

Thanks to the Minister. Good on you for not agreeing to something you haven’t read. I am right there with you on that one.

One of the things I highlighted in my statement was rent controls and limits on rental increases. Rent controls are highly debatable. There will be probably as many people on the no side as there are on the yes side on rent controls. I highlighted that there is no option for tenants if there is what they consider to be an unfair increase in their rent.

I would like to know whether or not the Justice department, in looking at this Residential Tenancies Act and their paper...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome the group from the Status of Women Council here to the House. Can’t see you guys up there behind me, but I know you’re there. Mr. Wasylciw, as well. He’s not a constituent, but we talk often enough he probably could be.

I would particularly like to welcome back some people who used to reside in Yellowknife. I want to call them old residents, but that’s not all that good. Sitting here we have Dr. Anne Davies. Her claim to fame, one of many, is that she was the first full-time president of the NWT Teachers’ Association in 1979. Ms. Davies is...