Richard Edjericon

Thank you. And first of all on housing, I just want to just briefly talk about housing.

I just want to mention that I'm also a carpenter by trade. I've worked all over the North, worked for some big companies, worked as an independent consultant, been to many meetings in the North in regards to the Dene Nation, Akaitcho, etcetera, and front and center is housing. And from the people I've been talking to up and down the Valley and also in our constituents, they say housing is broken, the policies don't work anymore for our people.

And so when I look at your plan here, and I really like looking...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister share with the House their plans as to how they're going to deal with the all units in the Northwest Territories, as to how they're going to deal with it, whether they're going to devolve it to the communities or is there O and M costs that's going to go with it, or like, I know they want to work with aboriginal governments but, Mr. Speaker, there's still a lot of big issues with trust working with the Housing Corporation because of for years, their policies don't fit the aboriginal government needs in our communities, and we still have huge...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And it's good to hear what they're the Minister's reply on that, is that when we say we talk about working with aboriginal governments and that kind of thing, we still need to work and build that confidence and trust with the aboriginal governments. For too long, you know, the we've been trying to fix the problems in our communities on home repair programs. I got like, I have a constituent in my community, they have sewer backup drain in the bathtub and they're making too much money; they can't qualify. And if so there's just so much barriers in place trying to deal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was reviewing the fouryear capital plan, sorry, MLA plans for the Northwest Territories, and it talks about increased number of affordable housing and reduced cost housing needs. Also yesterday the Minister of Housing talked about a new vision statement for the Northwest Territories for housing. And the biggest thing I'm thinking about, we already talked about the last few days, was that housing is a big issue here in the Northwest Territories. I know Mr. Johnson, my colleague here, talked about $20 million for housing. But that's one part of it.

The other part it as...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I think this is a be a discussion on this one here. I just wanted to let you know that I was also involved at the Mackenzie Valley Impact Review Board as a chairman for six years and we also were really concerned about the water and transboundary. So we also made arrangements to work with the Alberta government on the transboundary agreement to share information. And that information, to me, was really important because we kind of the mandate, the review board at the time was making sure that we protect the wildlife, the air, and the fish.

And I guess the other...

Just one more I think. I'm just thinking about the on the Giant Mine public hearing, we had many intervenors or proponents etcetera, like DFO, department of the environment, and all the aboriginal groups, etcetera. So if you were to find in your reports and fish studies etcetera, or water quality, you have an opportunity to probably work with the Alberta government and try to I guess address those issues. But also my question would be is that during the water licence process, are we involved in that process too as well through your department and Alberta? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Can the Minister also explain as the grants contribution comes in and it's broken down, normally you would have to do a reporting on those grants or contributions back to the Government of Canada. When that happens and we go ahead and spend the monies here in the Northwest Territories, we also put policies in place when we try and help our people in our communities. So if you could help me understand and explain how you report this back to Canada, and when you get this money from Canada is there policies attached to it when it comes to the Legislative Assembly? Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess during your investigation and trying to determine the type or magnitude of reclamation you guys are looking at, I guess I'm wondering once you guys determine, say at Ptarmigan Mine, if that used to be a gold mine, and I'm assuming that there's probably tailings et cetera and similar to the Giant Mine. I just want at what point do we say that this one here needs to go to an environmental assessment, because to me, when you start reclamation it is a big project, and I just want to put that out there. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you for that. Now that you told me those numbers on that, has your department or to the Minister, has your department gone out to figure out the actual cost to remediate these mine sites in broad numbers so we I don't see any numbers here but I'm asking that question to you. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I just had a question for the Minister.

Since devolution, it's my understanding that the contaminant sites, does the GNWT take responsibility of the contaminated sites, or is it my understanding it's still the responsibility of the Government of Canada?