Debates of August 20, 2007 (day 13)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am just curious to know when this intermediate construction will take place in Behchoko. The elders are waiting anxiously. There are places of residence that have mould and whatnot. So when is that going to occur? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Handley.

Further Return To Question 159-15(6): Jimmy Erasmus Seniors' Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that some of the work on the roof, first of all, is being done as we speak. I am not sure of the exact detail of where they are at with that. During the 2007-08 year, there will be a flooring repair or replacement. I understand that some of that work is currently underway, and then some work on crawlspace, some repairs to the sumps, some minor interior upgrades, and inspection upgrade of the heating and ventilation system as well as piping would all go on during the 2007-08 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to continue along my line of questioning I had earlier today about my constituents who are being pulled down into poverty because our government doesn’t seem to want to help them.

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious the Minister of Education wishes to protect the bureaucratic approach when there is a special circumstance here that is required. So I am going to hopefully look towards the Minister of Health to maybe see some sensitivity in addressing this serious issue. Mr. Speaker, extra home care will help this family get on their feet. Would the Minister of Health and Social Services help this family with more home care so that the other partner can get out and work so they don’t lose their home and family, because it is cheaper to keep them in their home together than it is to put this family in a hospital or break them up? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 160-15(6): Increase In Home Care Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has some flexibility. In fact, what we have found in a number of cases where we work on case management with either Education, Culture and Employment or the Housing Corporation is to look at the case and work together on trying to find solutions. It is not our practice to deal case by case in this scenario. But as the Member is aware, all departments have been very involved in this and looking forward to try to find some solutions that fit. That doesn’t mean, as was stated earlier, that we can go beyond what our programs are, but we have been working together to find a solution that would work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 160-15(6): Increase In Home Care Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will make it simple for the Minister because that sort of preamble didn’t work. Will he send a message to his department to increase the home care services provided to this family so we can allow them to go to work, save their home so they don’t lose their shirt and we end up having to take care of them through the income support process and this other person who is disabled in the hospital, so it is going to cost us a lot more? Will he increase the home care support? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 160-15(6): Increase In Home Care Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member raises some important issues around that, but I think, at the same time, he should be, as we respond to some of his inquiries here, we have worked on different cases and we have allowed flexibility. That is over and above what we have as our standard program. We will do that on a case-by-case scenario. The Member is aware of that. We are doing what we can, but there has to be some acceptance of the limits that we face as a government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 160-15(6): Increase In Home Care Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I have to admit that was a mirthless answer but yet I was intrigued because there sounded like something there. But, Mr. Speaker, the fact is this Minister could say today, yes, we will look into this and, yes, we will make something happen. That is all that we are asking for, because this family is about to lose everything. It is going to cost us a heck of a lot more if we mop up the mess later. So let’s do something today. Let’s be proactive and let’s not see this family destroyed. Yes. That is all the Minister has to say. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 160-15(6): Increase In Home Care Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, quite easily I could stand up and say, yes, we will look into it. But as the Member is well aware, we have looked into this situation. The fact is, as a government, as I stated earlier, we are not in the situation of dealing in this public forum on a case-by-case scenario. There are avenues for that. We have sat down as departments to work on a case management situation. We are trying to be as caring as possible, but there has to be some acceptance. There are limitations to what we can do as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Time for question period has expired. I will allow the Member a final supplementary. Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 160-15(6): Increase In Home Care Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister is correct; a number of people have talked about this situation, but nothing has been put forward to solve the problem. The problem is that this lady in the wheelchair cannot be left alone. Her doctor says she cannot be left alone. We can do all the fancy designs, schematics, and make some adjustments in their house, but it doesn’t change the fact that she requires full-time care. So does the Minister want to state today that we are going to give her 10 hours and that is it and we will let the family fall apart, or is he going to say today, Mr. Speaker, it is better to have this family broken up and put her in the hospital? Because he is also the Minister of Finance and he should be able to tell me which is cheaper. We should be able to do a better job by helping with better home care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 160-15(6): Increase In Home Care Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member continues to not have listened to what is being done and provided. I am sorry. I guess in this scenario, we are doing what we can. We are offering…and as I stated, we are going beyond some of our programs to try to be caring in this situation, but there are limitations. I am sorry; I can’t help the Member’s campaign strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, colleagues, and every Member of this Assembly. Indeed, anyone who ever chooses to run for public office knows how intensely personal that decision is. For me, the choice was a combination of almost 30 years of interest and involvement in all sorts of elections and public affairs at every level of our country’s government. It was my various work experience as reporter, tourism manager, a small business owner, a senior corporate director, all of it here in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, Mr. Speaker, that gave me the sense that, perhaps, I could make a contribution here in this Assembly.

It was a combination of watching a lot of northern MLAs, town councillors and federal MPs over those years and seeing how their decisions, ideas and values affected me, my family and my community. Mr. Speaker, I came to see that most of them shared at least one thing in common. That was a belief that if our communities, regions and our nation are to be safe and prosperous places, good people need to get together and make the decisions that will help make this happen. That is why we have elections. That is what government is for. For the most part, Mr. Speaker, I found that these people did not carry some great manifest mantle of political destiny. If they did, it was usually quickly dispelled, sometimes brutally on election day. Neither did they aspire to be champions who are single-handedly going to turn the world upside down. For the most part, they were ordinary people who earnestly offered their time, skills and strength in the service of their community.

When I ran for my first term, Mr. Speaker, in the fall of 1999, that was a unique event that I wanted to be part of. I know a number of people here who ran in that election also wanted to be part of it. It was the creation of the new NWT as Nunavut had just been created months before, Mr. Speaker. Many new horizons were opening for us here at the turn of the century. I wanted to be part of it. This is what I wanted to bring to the table when I decided, now some 10 years ago, to run for office in this Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, that is the public side. The personal side for me was really not whether I could handle losing an election. I had enough experience of that in several of the campaigns that I had worked with previously.

---Laughter

I figured I could handle that, but, Mr. Speaker, how was I going to handle winning? More specifically, how was my family going to cope with the demands of having a son, a husband, a dad, a brother and an uncle out there in public display every day for the next four years? I know it was going to be okay when my wife, Valerie, said this to me. She said, "Bill, go ahead. I believe in you. If you don’t do it now, you will regret it. And so will I, because you will never stop complaining."

Mr. Speaker, when a candidate offers up their name on a ballot and a voter puts their “X” beside that name, it really is, in effect, a contract. If enough voters sign that contract, you have the job as their MLA. The deal is quite simple. It is to represent all constituents to the best of your ability. I hope I have done that for the constituents of Great Slave. I am grateful to the voters of my constituency and the chance to serve them for the past eight years and, through their support, to serve the people of the Northwest Territories.

I have tried to give my voice, Mr. Speaker, especially to those who don’t have a voice: the disabled and their families seeking equitable treatment and a chance to succeed on their terms; to those marginalized by illnesses, addictions and many other situations that our policies and budgets do not yet deal fairly with and compassionately with; to those who are captured in the cycle of poverty and hopelessness, all too often fostered in some part or to some degree, Mr. Speaker, by our own government’s lack of progressive thinking. Perhaps most significant for me, Mr. Speaker, is the plight of those injured workers who have fallen through the cracks in our WCB system and who, in the future, will have a WCB that is more responsive and accepting of their situation.

Mr. Speaker, I have also tried to shed light on the arts, festivals and events across the North that help to define us, give us our identity and make us who we are: northerners with many great talents and a multilingual, multicultural heritage that is as strong and vibrant as any in Canada.

Mr. Speaker, in our consensus system, it is expected that each MLA will become very well versed in every aspect of our government and be able to respond to any and all ideas and issues. I know that I have disappointed some of my constituents in these areas. But I also know that I have satisfied others. On balance, Mr. Speaker, I believe that I have satisfied my own desire to have been a part of this Assembly and to have helped make the decisions that will make the NWT a safe and prosperous place. Thank you, voters of Great Slave, for your trust and your confidence.

Mr. Speaker, it would be presumptuous of me to tell the next Legislative Assembly what it should or should not do. I have chosen to give that job to the next MLA for Great Slave and I wish him or her all the best. But I do have a message to leave, Mr. Speaker, for the voters and all the candidates in the election coming on October 1st. Mr. Speaker, a consensus government is under threat. It suffers from complacency within the Legislative assembly here and lack of openness and transparency to the voters and from a federal government that has no real tangible agenda for the social and political role the North should play in the Canadian federation.

Being an MLA in this system is hard work. It demands unity to make our system work, yet it has virtually no discipline or authority to compel Members to do so. MLAs it seems are simply expected to work with each other. I believe that our committees and our Cabinet in this 15th Assembly have failed on many occasions to work together. The decision to relocate the Territorial Treatment Centre from Yellowknife, the toothless socio-economic agreement on the pipeline and the so-called letter of comfort to the pipeline proponents are all examples, Mr. Speaker, of where Cabinet and committee could have done a better job of working together for the people of the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, I have been a strong proponent of a more open and public system of consensus government, especially at the committee level. In this area, I believe we are actually one of Canada’s most secretive assemblies. That could be remedied, in part, by having more public committee sessions so the public can see and hear our discussions and deliberations. Consensus, ironically, Mr. Speaker, actually allows too much information to be cloaked behind closed doors. Our successor assemblies, I believe, can fix that. One of the things that is in the works here that I am very excited about is a new co-operative and television channel and broadcast network with our colleagues in Nunavut that can open up tremendous avenues for communication and information sharing and inclusion with the public of what we do in this Assembly. Please do not take for granted that consensus can continue. It’s going to take constant care, hard work and forthright honest and open communication.

Mr. Speaker, the federal government, of course, holds the purse strings in the NWT but it also holds the increasingly complex controls of land claims, self-government and regulatory processes here in the NWT. Its lack of coordination and disjointed strategies have created enormous divisions across our political, social and economic agendas here in the NWT as Canada, the aboriginal claimant groups and the GNWT spar at each other at the expense of the whole.

I believe these rifts are at the heart of why we cannot achieve a collective devolution and resource revenue sharing agreement, Mr. Speaker. Canada has to declare whether it’s ready to let the NWT truly come into its own. We must not stop in pursuit of that goal, Mr. Speaker, because when it happens we will be more than just an energy and resource bank for all of Canada. We will truly be a land of hope and prosperity that we all want and deserve for our children.

Mr. Speaker, I have many people to thank for the opportunity and the support I have received as the MLA for Great Slave. Let me start here with the people who are under your direction. Mr. Speaker, the staff of the Legislative Assembly and my first term led by the legendary David Hamilton, the Clerk from my first term; and a legend in his own time now, I believe, Mr. Tim Mercer, our present Clerk.

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Their teams of support staff including administrative, legislative and legal help have been outstanding. I would like to say a special thank you, Mr. Speaker, to the research staff; Robert Collinson, Regina Pfeifer, Susan Martin, and led by Colette Langlois for their tremendous backing.

---Applause

Loretta Sabirsh and Vera Raschke have provided constant support and attention to me and I know for many, many other Members, in library services. I also want to recognize very specially Verna Currimbhoy, Members’ secretary, who toils selflessly on our behalf upstairs in our offices. Thank you very much.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, no one gets elected by themselves. I have had the great good fortune to have a very experienced and a very conscientious campaign manager in Ms. Hilary Jones for both of my election campaigns and I had a schoolmate, Abe Theil, as my official agent, in both election campaigns. I want to thank them both very, very sincerely for their time, commitment and the belief they put in me.

Mr. Speaker, no one can do this job by themselves. Our constituency assistants, CAs as we call them, are people who do much of the legwork when constituents call. I have been especially fortunate to have one man, John Argue, as my CA for all eight years here. I think that’s a record that few of us can say.

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His intimate knowledge of the NWT, of government and of this city is unique. Above all, Mr. Speaker, his loyalty and wise counsel make me very grateful to have had him by my side working for me and the constituents of Great Slave.

I said earlier that this job is a very personal commitment and that could never have happened without my family at my side. Mr. Speaker, my older brother, George, former MLA in this Assembly and the first elected leader to the Executive Council in 1979, is a special inspiration and an ongoing support to me; my mother, Esther, my daughters Rae and Carmen who have joined us in the Assembly, Mr. Speaker; my sister, Sandy, and brothers Pat and Max and their families. You never let me down.

My wife and I will be married 30 years in October, Mr. Speaker. Now it is time to return to do some of the other things we want to do.

---Applause

Val and I will be relocating temporarily to Vancouver where I plan to go to school for a year and where she will have a chance to spend some real time with her family who reside in that part of Canada. We will return to the North.

The NWT is a great land with many great people, Mr. Speaker. I am proud to be part of it. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Standing Committee on Social Programs undertook extensive consultations on Bill 7, the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act, also known as SCAN, in all regions of the Northwest Territories, and heard from 42 different persons and organizations.

Despite the initial excitement at the community level on the department’s first round of consultations in November and December 2006, it became obvious to committee members as we proceeded that residents had serious reservations with the final version of the legislation.

The concerns raised by residents of the Northwest Territories centred on the social implications of enacting the SCAN; the rights of an individual to face their accuser and appeal orders made under the act, and the extent of the powers that would be given to officers appointed under the act.

Hearings were held in Yellowknife on April 19th and 20th and on August 14, 2007; in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk on April 23, 2007; in Ulukhaktok on April 24, 2007; in Colville Lake on April 25, 2007; in Behchoko on April 26, 2007, and, finally, in Fort Smith on May 30, 2007.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many people who came before the committee had concerns with the legal process under the SCAN legislation. One concern raised by a number of presenters was the fact that the legislation does not have any provisions for the service of respondents prior to the SCAN officer attending court and obtaining a community safety order. It is possible that the first time a respondent would learn of a SCAN investigation is when they are served with a community safety order. The committee understands the Minister may propose such an amendment to address this concern, and Members may have the chance to review and debate this amendment.

Another concern with the legal process is that, although the act provides for the respondent to apply for a variation of a community safety order, section 10 restricts this application to the portion of the community safety order requiring the property to be closed. The committee feels that in order for a variation clause to be effective, it should permit a respondent to apply to vary all aspects of the order, including orders under section 8(3)(a) ordering individuals to vacate the property.

The committee also heard a number of concerns with respect to the appeal process. Under SCAN, an appeal of a community safety order may be made to the Court of Appeal on a question of law with leave of the court.

Alana Mero of Inuvik stated her concerns with the appeal process in the following manner: “So I can’t prove I didn’t do it; I have to prove you made a legal mistake. It’s impossible for me to prove I didn’t do something. So I can’t tell you that, no, I didn’t deal drugs because I don’t know even who made the complaint. I don’t even know what you have against me. I don’t know if it is my sister-in-law who’s mad at me for breaking up with her brother or whatever things may be happening. All of a sudden, I am in a courtroom hoping your lawyer didn’t put an “i” in the right spot and made a mistake so that I don’t lose my home.”

A further concern with the appeal process is that an application for leave must be filed within 14 days after the day the order of the court is pronounced or within such further time as a judge of the Court of Appeal may allow. In most communities, it would not be possible to find a lawyer to file such a notice within this time. The same concerns were raised with respect to the variation process. By the time a respondent retained counsel and had the matter heard before the court, the order could be expired.

The Minister has noted in correspondence to the committee that experiences in other jurisdictions point to limited usage of the court processes in obtaining community safety orders. The concern of the committee is that legislation be properly crafted so that irrespective of the frequency of use, all northerners are treated fairly under law.

Our people have to live under laws that we, as legislators, enact. It is our duty to ensure that the laws we make are as good as they can be at the time of passage in this Assembly. If there are known defects, they must be fixed before a bill becomes law. This is not happening with the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would like to ask Mr. McLeod to continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The powers of the investigators were seen as excessive by many of the presenters.  One Member cited the provisions empowering SCAN investigators to obtain government records without a warrant and to share their information with the RCMP.  The question then becomes whether the investigators could become nothing more than a tool for the RCMP to circumvent the existing justice system.

Another area of concern for some presenters and Members is the capacity of our government to manage and administer what is essentially its own armed and uniformed investigative force.

A case could be made for arming investigators in southern Canada, given the propensity for some gangs to use violence, however, it is not clear there is a demonstrable need for armed officers in the NWT.  Some Members believe that if there is potential for violence, the RCMP should be called in.

Communities and Members also had concerns with the powers available to the SCAN office and their ability to determine the level of “punishment” each person determined to be in contravention of the SCAN legislation would receive. 

Mrs. Eileen Beaver of Fort Smith offered the following observation on SCAN. “It reminds me of the Indian Act. A long time ago, if your dad signed out of treaty to drink, so was your wife and all of your kids, and this is the same type of act you are bringing forth.”

A written submission from the NWT Human Rights Commission also expressed concerns with the broad powers that the director will have, without any corresponding accountabilities. This was mentioned as one of the many reasons that the NWT Human Rights Commission recommended that the Assembly not pass the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act.

Members are not willing to support the discretionary powers available to SCAN officers without an extensive rewrite curtailing these powers or some other mechanism that clearly establishes a progressive disciplinary regime for SCAN offenders.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to pass it over to my colleague from Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Most of the presenters expressed a view that while they would like to see the government introduce better means to address illegal and illicit activities in their communities, evicting people from their homes may, in fact, cause more social problems in communities.  There is also a question about how effectively SCAN legislation would address the issue it is designed to address.

In Yellowknife, Ben McDonald stated that “It seems like the act is designed as good politics but I don’t think it’s necessarily designed as good social policy or as good social development policy…”

We heard repeatedly questions like: What happens to a person when they are evicted in a community without market housing?  Who do they stay with?  What are the consequences for families that rely on the person evicted under SCAN as the primary breadwinner?  To where do these families move?

Even in the larger communities, questions were raised about whether the SCAN legislation is the most cost effective or efficient tool to address the issues we are all concerned about.

Lydia Bardak of Yellowknife, representing the John Howard Society, pointed out “Every bootlegger and every drug dealer that you remove will be replaced by someone else. So if this is an attempt to try and reduce substance abuse, it is not going to cut it. Restrictions don’t work; prohibition doesn’t work. The reasons persons turn to illegal substances or substance abuse are very strong and very compelling. Not addressing those reasons is irresponsible.”

A common perspective is that there are severe housing shortage issues in all communities in the Northwest Territories, and Bill 7 would only compound this problem in the absence of a plan by government to address it in implementing the SCAN legislation.

Chief Leon Lafferty of Behchoko pointed out that if you want to clean up the communities, make sure that you do not hurt the people by making the social problems worse.

It should be made clear that the people do not object to holding the perpetrators under the SCAN legislation accountable.  What they are saying is that in small communities, once these people are evicted under SCAN, not all of them are going to move out of town, which means that most of them will become homeless and ineligible for public housing.  They will then rely on their families and friends to provide housing, and this would exacerbate overcrowding in situations where there are already housing shortages.

This was made abundantly clear in comments made by Veryl Gruben of Tuktoyaktuk in speaking of the impacts on a small community, who stated “If someone gets evicted immediately for something, some illegal activity, whether it be alcohol, drugs or gambling, they’re only going to go to someone else’s house and create more problems.”

Saeed Shesheghar, a social worker in Tuktoyaktuk, said, “I have a concern about what would happen to people thrown out of their homes.” He went on to say, “A lot of these people are going to end up at social services and trying to ask for help because they are homeless.”

As well, there are questions about whether more than a million dollars that would be allocated for this program could not be better used by employing more police drug dogs or more RCMP officers in communities. Addressing the lack of treatment programs and services for those affected by substance abuse is another issue that people feel should be weighed against the priority of investing in SCAN.

Saeed Shesheghar of Tuktoyaktuk was quite eloquent in stating, “People are suffering here in this community. Bootlegging and other gambling problems are actually bleeding the whole community. If we haven’t answered that question yet, trying to come up with an act like this is a band-aid solution.”

The committee appreciates that justice, health and social services and housing issues are separate and fall under different departmental mandates. 

However, our people do not understand why one part of the government would, in pursuing its mandate, create a whole set of new problems for other parts of the government that are working together to address the existing issues. 

Mr. Speaker, I would like to turn the continuation of the report over to the Member for Monfwi. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Many of the presenters were either concerned about or have themselves been subjected to elder abuse.  In small communities, they could not see how the SCAN legislation would help an elder being taken advantage of by a relative or being kept awake and harassed by neighbours partying and drinking all night, without there being repercussions for the elder who reported the activity.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were also the previously mentioned concerns with having all investigators located in Yellowknife. People who came to talk to us would like to see personnel in their communities. At minimum, a regional presence is required. This is not what is being proposed. From what we have been able to learn as to how this bill would be implemented, the committee is unable to see how it could work without substantially more resources and effectively setting up a second tier of policing services in the NWT. If the end result of this legislation is the setting up of almost a parallel policing service, there is a need for a public policy discussion on the merit of such a policing structure in the Northwest Territories. This would, in turn, require an in-depth cost-benefit analysis of whether this is how and where we need to invest as opposed to enhancing our existing policing and justice services.

In a presentation to the standing committee in the community of Fort Smith, Ms. Mary Pat Short, who is the chair of the NWT Human Rights Commission but was speaking as a private citizen, offered the following observation: “Manitoba has a population of one million people. They introduced SCAN in 2002. Initially, they had two investigators and four employees. Now they have expanded to seven. They have investigated 13,068 complaints, and this has resulted in 198 evictions over four years. Now, if we put these figures in terms of the Northwest Territories, the Northwest Territories has one twenty-fifth of Manitoba’s population, which would be eight evictions over four years, if it was the same pattern. So we spend $1.0 million a year for two evictions. Obviously, I don’t know if that is actually what would happen here, but that would certainly not be a good use of public money.”

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The committee agrees that there is a need for legislation and policy to deal with substance abuse, trafficking and bootlegging of illegal substances and other undesirable and illegal activities the SCAN legislation attempts to address. 

However, the committee believes that Bill 7, in its current form, has too many deficiencies to be successfully amended and passed during the short time available to the Members of the 15th Assembly prior to dissolution.

Other northerners also thought that the process was too rushed, like Ms. Debbie Raddi of Tuktoyaktuk who said, “I myself feel it is too rushed. In order for something to work properly, it has to be properly looked into.”

Ms. Raddi’s comments are particularly relevant given the weight and depth of the concerns raised and the need to have the concerns addressed in a coordinated multi-departmental approach. The committee also believes that further work is required in program design to address the realities of life in the NWT, particularly in the smaller communities, and that further thought has to be given to the diversity and transportation challenges our vast territory presents for running a successful government program of this nature.

As Members, we cannot dismiss any of the concerns that are brought to our attention through the committee process without full deliberation and consideration.  Nor should we, as legislators, characterize these concerns as representative of a vocal minority in order to justify the approval and passage of legislation like this. The committee believes that the questions and issues that were brought forward by the public warrant thoughtful and meaningful response.

We are disappointed that this government has chosen to ignore the committee process and the views of the many northerners who took the time to appear before committee and has decided to proceed without the concurrence of the standing committee simply because they have the numbers.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Committee Report 4-15(6) will be received and moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 93(4) and have Committee Report 4-15(6) moved into Committee of the Whole for tomorrow.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to have Committee Report 4-15(6) moved into Committee of the Whole for tomorrow. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Committee Report 4-15(6) will be moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration tomorrow.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled School of Community Government Annual Report 2006-2007. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two documents for tabling. They are proposed amendments to the Maintenance Orders Enforcement Act, August 2007 and proposed amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, August 2007. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a number of documents to table today. Application for federal Crown land dated July 6, 1970; a letter to Mr. Bill Malloch, February 12, 2000; a letter to the lands department of MACA, May 15, 2003; a letter to Randy Look from the Department of MACA dated June 10, 2003; a letter from the Member for Great Slave to Vince Steen dated July 17, 2003; a letter to Mr. Andy Tereposkey dated October 23, 2006; an application for Commissioner’s land made out July 11, 2007; a letter to Andy Tereposkey dated July 11, 2007; a letter to the Morin family from MACA dated February 5, 2001 -- almost done, Mr. Speaker -- a letter to…