Wendy Bisaro

I appreciate the information from the Minister that the short-term plan is going ahead. I would like to confirm with the Minister that the short-term plan is basically referencing August and September of 2008. Could he confirm that for me?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions of the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

I spoke yesterday in my Member’s statement about the difficulties encountered by regional boards in providing housing for their teachers or ensuring that their teachers have adequate housing. They have sent a letter to the Minister. It describes the need for available, adequate and affordable housing, and it talks about housing shortages, substandard and unsafe living conditions in housing and exorbitant rents.

I’d like to know if the Minister has any plans to tackle the...

Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on June 19, 2008, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, October 1, 2008.

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to October 1, 2008, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for the information. I’m gratified to hear it, and I think it’s going to be a workable process. I guess I would like to ask the Minister: if there are communities that don’t feel they have the human resource capacity to develop their own community capital plan, will the department be able to help them to finish off these plans in a timely manner so they can get their priorities known to the department?

Thank you to the Minister for the clarification. I guess I need the clarification, then, on the money that is going to the communities.

The first priority is water treatment plants, and I have no problem with that. It then says the balance of the funding will be made available to communities to address their own priority projects. If I could get some clarification on how communities are able to use the $6.5 million they are going to get annually.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s good to hear, and I hope we can find a solution for housing in every community that currently has a problem. One of the options suggested by the boards in their letter was to allow regional boards to have the same authority as the local Yellowknife board and that they be given the authority to acquire and dispose of real property.

I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not this is something the department will or can consider and when we might expect to see a change in the legislation before this House.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister. It’s nice to hear that it’s important to the government. I guess my next question would be: if it is that important, if it’s going to be a priority, will the Minister be assigning more financial resources and human resources than we currently have to this problem?

I thank Mr. Roland for answering the question. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for homelessness: in recognizing that there is a continuum of housing needs — from people who have absolutely no home to people who are transitioning from no home to be able to go to work to people who need a place while they do work until they can afford enough money to rent their own home, and so on — whether or not that continuum of housing is part of the discussions that the social programs Ministers will be having.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues.

We’re not much closer to filling the need that exists.

In closing, I’d like to quote from the study.

“If the current GNWT policy on staff housing remains intact then there must be flexibility provided to Councils such as what is available to the Yellowknife District Education Authorities. If schools in the NWT are going to remain attractive to teachers seeking employment…then the need for housing must remain a high priority.”

Action needs to be taken and taken soon. I urge the Minister of Education to consider the recommendations of the study and...

I’m pleased to hear that they’re discussing a female facility. But I need to point out that homelessness…. I’m not speaking about homelessness just from a Yellowknife point of view but from a territorial point of view. It’s a problem in all of our communities. I’d like to ask whether or not the issue of homelessness and reducing the number of homeless people that we have in our communities is going to be a priority for these social program Ministers in our ’09–10 budget?