The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to recognize some of the people who are in the gallery who are inducted into the Hall of Fame and also people who are accepting on behalf of posthumous inductees, as well, and their supporters: Sylvia Boyer, Brent Kaulback, Irma Miron, Miki O’Kane, Chuck Tolley, and also Audrey Enge, who’s here with us, and Marc Miltenberger, Debbie Reid, Vicky Ruben, Ashley Ruben, Fred Carmichael, of course, and Marilyn Kaulback and Jeri Miltenberger. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to recognize Marilyn Carroll in the visitor’s gallery. She’s here today to receive a reward on behalf of her late husband, John Carroll. Mr. Speaker, Ms. Carroll is also a very noted educator in Hay River in her own right, as well. I’d like to recognize her today. Also, I’d like to recognize Shirley Hancock, who was kind enough today to travel with our inductees and come over from Hay River with them. I’d like to recognize Shirley. I’d also like to recognize another constituent, Marc Miltenberger. I might be beating his brother to the punch here, but Marc is here today receiving the recognition for his father, John Miltenberger, a man who I never had the privilege of meeting but I know from the way his sons speak of him he must have been a very, very fine person and a fine educator. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, as well, would like to take this opportunity to first recognize and thank all the inductees for all the work they’ve done, those that are with us and those that are not, and all the people that are here with them. But specifically, I’d like to acknowledge and recognize my wife, Jeri; Vicky Ruben, the wife of Jerry Ruben who was just inducted into the Hall of Fame today; his lovely daughter Ashley Ruben; my baby brother Jean-Marc; and Brent Kaulback and his wife, Marilyn, from Fort Smith. Thank you for coming.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Miki O’Kane and also congratulate her. I agree with Mr. Robert C. McLeod that we should keep her with Aurora College. I want to congratulate her on being an inductee, and also Mr. Fred Carmichael for his endless…(inaudible)…of working with the Gwich’in people. I also want to recognize an inductee, in memory of Mr. Cliff King, one of my best high school teachers. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there are lots of people in the gallery but I’d just like to make a special mention of the Enge family, Audrey Enge, Arnie Enge and Charlie White, who are here to receive an award on behalf of Anne Enge who left us recently. I think everyone here knows not only Anne Enge, the first aboriginal woman to receive Grade 12, but she was also the first aboriginal woman to receive a four-year degree, and she did that as an adult student taking all of her children to Calgary and putting herself through school. And all of her children are university educated so she lived the importance of education. I would like to recognize the family and Anne Enge. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am happy to recognize my wife, Jenny, my daughter Chelsey, my daughters Kirstin and Mikayla and my son Matthew. I am really happy to have you here this week. I also would like to congratulate Ms. Miki O’Kane and Mr. Fred Carmichael who used to work up in Tuk when I was just a young guy, probably about 14 years old pumping floats off his float planes all the time and getting free rides from him. I want to congratulate everybody and welcome to the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Fred Carmichael, a Canada recipient and, more importantly, the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. Our presidents, they don’t fade away, we just keep making them work a little harder; that’s all after they leave office. And also Miki O’Kane, I would like to congratulate you also for the hard work you do in the Inuvik region and, more importantly, for the people in the Mackenzie Delta/Beaufort Sea. Also Margo McLeod in regards to the recommendation in regards to being inducted into the Education Hall of Fame. Mahsi and thank you for everything.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few people that I would like to recognize. The first would be Chuck and Muriel Tolley. Mr. Tolley is being recognized for his accomplishments in education today. I should say, as well, that the Tolley name is a strong spirit in the North so if you mention the Tolley name to anyone here, the first thing they will think is volunteering in community spirit. That speaks well of their family. As well at this time I would like to continue to recognize Anne Enge and her family being here for this special day. Her accomplishments were spoken of very well by Ms. Lee. Mr. Speaker, finally, I would like to recognize Doug McKeon. He is visiting Yellowknife from Oshawa, Ontario. He is here to see his daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law which is our very own Andrew Livingstone in the reporters’ group today. He just ducked out. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. If we have missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the gallery. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It is always nice to have an audience in here.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the issue of oil tanks and the way that we should come up with a rebate program to help people with that expensive cost to replace them and certainly making sure that a good upkeep is kept on those tanks before an environmental problem comes. As I said in my Member’s statement today, an environmental problem with a leaky oil tank could lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr. Speaker, my first question to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources is: does the Minister agree that helping people make responsible choices should be an attitude, an action that this government should take? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree that personal responsibility is a critical issue and that the government has a role to support people, where possible, in providing the training, the skills and education to eventually make the right choices. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in the last few months even my colleague Mr. Abernethy has raised the issue of public awareness about tank safety. I give him credit for that, Mr. Speaker. Well, it is time for this government to take words a little further and let’s start putting them to action. Would the Minister be interested in the idea or concept of developing a rebate program that could meet this need to help protect our citizens, protect our environment and show them that we care as a government and we do play a role in their lives? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have committed, as a government, $60 million to look at alternative energy. We have worked with communities. We have worked with individuals to put out notices to make sure people check their tanks, make sure they check the fittings so they are not leaking, check the age, and make sure they are located properly. We are focusing all of our attention on moving to alternate energy. This type of rebate program could possibly be considered, but it wouldn’t strike me as an alternative energy initiative. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as the Minister said, this government has a role in helping people. Would the government consider analyzing this situation to see if we could view it from what it could cost to help people change their tanks again to protect the environment and to save the bottom line where it is a very expensive process when they have to replace a tank after an oil spill? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to point out that the Housing Corporation as well assists with low income families that are in public housing. I will commit to look at the issue. This is an issue that clearly would be an income tested kind of arrangement where depending on how much you make and could afford to pay would depend, if possible, if there was a program where we do what you may be eligible for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no guarantee that new tanks have a full life. What I am hearing in the public from people as well as industry folks who change these tanks is that the new tanks don’t seem to last very long, as I said earlier, due to low sulphur and quality of steel as being problems. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit today to this House that he will engage this issue immediately and see if he can have something we can bring back and discuss and review maybe by this fall? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I will discuss this issue with the departmental officials and we will be able to have a position paper on what we think is possible, if anything, and the issue of options if there is a plan to proceed. But I will commit by this fall that we will have something on this item. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about return of the public housing rental subsidy to the local housing organizations. I would like to ask the Minister of Housing about the implementation date. I think there was June 1st. Is the target on track and will they be able to meet that implementation date? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can assure the Member and all Members of this House that the implementation date is June 1st. We are on target to meet that. All LHOs have received the training that they need to implement the PHRS, so it is on track for June 1st. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, does the department anticipate any challenges for the tenants as the transfer back to the local housing organization? I know it took several months when we went to ECE. What kind of strategy or communications plan do they have to ensure that all the tenants do not fall off track and make the transition as seamless as possible? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have communicated our plan to the LHOs and to the tenants. There is also a public campaign that is going to be starting, advising them that as of June 1st they will be able to get their rental assessments done by the local housing authorities. We don’t anticipate much of a transition challenge right now because, as we all know, they were doing it quite seamlessly before and I think with the additional training that they have received, it should be a seamless transition. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think that when the program went to ECE there were additional resources given to ECE. Is there some similar plan to return extra resources to the Housing Corporation as to uptake the program once again? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, we are in discussions with ECE on that particular part of it. Those discussions are all ongoing. We are hoping to come up with a resolution quite soon. We didn’t want that to delay our implementation of the June 1st start-up date so we are continuing with that and we continue to have discussions with ECE on the rest of it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the maximum rents be looked at at this time during the transition phase? Will there be any adjustments made to the amount that’s being charged as rent? Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. As of the implementation date, we are using the existing rent scales. However, it is our plan to review the whole rent scale and when the whole transfer is complete April 1st of next year, then we’re looking at having some changes that may be needed to the rent scale. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement was regarding the Mackenzie Valley Highway in between Tuk and Inuvik and right down to Wrigley. Mr. Speaker, due to the pipeline being delayed, I think this is a good go for it to keep our people busy in the region and up and down the Valley. So will the government lobby the federal government to show the serious commitment by elevating options such as the P3 leaseback arrangement, not just internally but to local government leadership, aboriginal groups and corporate leaders? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation is always looking for unique ways to move forward on large infrastructure projects. This Mackenzie Valley Highway is no different and we’d certainly commit to moving forward with all the people involved and interested in seeing this as a project that would provide economic benefit to people in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you. Will the government devote lobbying resources and attention to the mega project of this size that it deserves, and will the government involve MLAs up and down the delta or in the valley, community leaders and corporate leaders to push forward the true form of an inclusive campaign group to head to Ottawa? Thank you.
We have put a lot of effort in moving this project forward. We’ve had many meetings with our federal counterparts regarding federal infrastructure, investment in our road. We all acknowledge that that’s a requirement and I will continue to work with all stakeholders and all partners in efforts to fund the construction of a project such as this. Thank you.
Thank you. Will the government commit to pushing the all-season road from Inuvik to Tuk with funding sources such as with the federal government? Thank you.
Thank you. That has been our challenge for many years to move forward on infrastructure in all the parts of the Territories. The road from Inuvik to Tuk has been pretty progressive, very progressive in terms of having the project description report done and submitted, and I certainly will commit to doing the same for this section as we plan to involve all parcels and all projects for the whole Mackenzie Valley road forward. Thank you.
