R.J. Simpson

Thank you. SergeantatArms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. The Minister will take his seat at the witness table. Minister, will you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. There is a motion to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debateable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

I will rise and report progress.

Thank you, Minister. I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, which is the committee that considered the bill, for opening comments. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, committee. Bill 26 is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 26?

As I stated, 18 people are homeless. I know for a fact one of those is an infant. There could be other children, as well. I can't go back to Hay River and tell them that there have been talks. I need to tell them that there's a plan to put them in a home, and to give them somewhere safe. What can the Minister tell me that's happening to put these people in actual homes? I need a plan. When is there going to be a place on the ground that they can go and live?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'm not going to get to ask the four separate Ministers all my questions. Questions and answers are going a little long today, so I will keep this brief. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation: what has been done to date to address the housing issues of the evacuees of the Hay River high-rise? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, we are joined today by the grade six class from Princess Alexander School. They managed to make their yearly trek up here despite some concerns that they wouldn't make it because the bus that was carrying them was coming out of high level. I would like to introduce half of them, and then my colleague from Hay River South will introduce the other half.

We have Mr. Jacob Alyward, Avaia Ashton -- and I'm sorry if I've mispronounced that; I was just introduced to her -- Joshua Barnes, Cameron Bateman, Julianne Groenewegen, Brayden...

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. There is a motion to report progress. All those in favour? All those opposed?

---Carried

I will rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister spoke of some of the challenges that they are facing, but does the department have a plan in place if this order is not complied with? Is there something concrete that he can share with us right now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

You can't get blood from a stone, so I am not sure that fining the owner or doing work and then billing it back is going to do anything here. I am not sure if there is money there to do any of this work. It certainly doesn't seem that way. What is the department willing to do on its own if the owner doesn't do any remediation work? At what point does this become a public health issue that the department has to deal with?