Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Foster parents are a very important part of our child and family system in the Northwest Territories. I greatly appreciate the selfless work that they do to help our children as they grow and develop during difficult times. Mr. Speaker, I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister tell us how many foster parents we have in the Nahendeh region, including those families who make their homes available for emergencies? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I totally agree with the Minister on that. I greatly appreciate that answer. This is just more of a commentary, and I am going to try to be real quick. I know, in the Deh Cho proper, they are doing some pretty amazing things. They have a new system. They are looking at it because of the challenges that we are facing. Our EDI scores are not as great as they should be. We had junior kindergarten in our region prior. We used that as a pilot project.

I have to give credit to the education system, the divisional board. They are trying to find new ways of doing it, trying to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My next question is: when we have junior kindergarten and kindergarten, are they part of the funding formally that we have presently? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for allowing us this exchange here today, and I appreciate the information he's providing here. Again, I'm not talking about a new equity lease. I'm talking about an existing equity lease that the person purchased, because right now, as soon as they purchase a lot and it turns over to a lease, there's a whole bunch more rules to it, which puts up blocks for businesses and opportunity for people to build homes, because then there's a clause there that they have to actually pay money to look after it, to remediate it back to its original state...

Can the Minister advise us in what circumstances can a partial refund of equity lease payments be made under the equity lease process?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answers that the Minister has provided us here today. Mr. Speaker, one of my concerns I hear is sometimes we don't have enough foster homes. We can't get children into emergency homes. What happens if we, as the department, do not have places for them to go? Where do we place these individuals? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We are not talking about a new equity lease; we are talking about an existing one. That is a concern. When somebody purchases a lot, there is equity into this lot. Can the Minister advise us what happens to the equity leases, and why does the equity that they have into it not return back to the original owner?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently I've been advised by a few people in the Nahendeh riding that they have purchased lots that were equity leases, but once they purchased them, they became regular lease lots. This doesn't seem fair, especially since the department is now working forward on equity lease lots in the Northwest Territories. My questions are for the Minister of Lands: can the Minister explain why the department doesn't honour the original equity lease agreements until this issue is being resolved? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for the answers up to this point. My problem is that, when we have an equity lease and the person purchases it, the equity lease now gets turned into a regular lease again. Now the person doesn't own it; he is given a lease. Will the Minister look at those files that had equity leases, then they were turned back to leases, and will they turn them back to equity leases until all equity lease files are dealt with so that the individual can purchase it, whether it is for a home or a business? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I was asking the questions: when the person has an equity lease and sells it to somebody else, what happens there? Why aren't we just turning it over to an equity lease? My next question here is: with leases that are being switched to Commissioner's or NWT lands, what happens to the equity that the previous landowners had on these leases?