Mr. Speaker, the process of eviction obviously is a painful one for many people who are in rental accommodations. Of course, the Government of the Northwest Territories provides social housing, which is sort of the backstop of where they would go. When you’re evicted, you really have no one to call after that, other than, of course, your MLA or, hopefully, ministerial intervention. But the long and short of it is, the appeals mechanism needs to ensure that there’s a healthy process for people to engage before they end up on the street. Will this issue be further updated to make sure that there are lots of chances for people to solve some of those arrear problems when they’re in rental housing and to make sure that they stay in public housing the last option for most of these people? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the eviction of tenants from public housing is a long process and it usually takes a year by the time you get to the actual eviction itself. You’re given termination notices and tenants have the opportunity to speak to the LHO. If that fails, they have the opportunity to speak to the board. I’ve known cases where they’ve spoken to the board two or three times, or were given an opportunity to. All they’re asked to do is come up with a payment plan, as small as it is, as long as they show that they’re making some progress towards writing off their arrears, and the LHOs are more than willing to work with them. But, Mr. Speaker, it takes buy-in from the tenants. The LHOs are more than willing to work with the tenants and not have to get to the point to where they’re evicting them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Premier questions regarding the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that some time ago the Government of the Northwest Territories put a proposal before the federal government regarding the Norman Wells oilfield proposal in terms of possibly looking at some funding options to see if this process could be looked at and see if the federal government could entertain this proposal to construct the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The opportunity that I took was with the Prime Minister, looking at the devolution and resource revenue sharing talks, where that was as the cap that was identified, and put it forward to the Prime Minister that we come up with an infrastructure deal that could see us in partnership building a project like the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Premier tell me in terms of how this proposal was discussed amongst his colleagues in terms of this proposal that’s continually worthwhile or another avenue that we could look at?
We have kept the discussion going at the political level with engagement from the Prime Minister’s office, a commitment to have further discussions around an infrastructure discussion. There has been no formal proposal put in place, but we continue to engage, for example, with the Minister of Transportation and other Ministers around this idea and looking at how we can work with the federal government through the different pots of funding to even come up with, for example, what they have announced up in the Inuvik-Tuk portion of highway work that can be done. Thank you.
Can the Premier tell me if there is going to be any types of formal discussions in terms of constructing the Mackenzie Valley Highway, similar to questions similar to what the MLA for Kam Lake has talked about? Can we see some solid commitments from the feds or can we see that there is a possibility of even looking at the beginning of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the construction part of it?
There has been quite a number of Assemblies that have shown their support for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, this Assembly being one of them. There have been a number of reports that include infrastructure, highways. I think there are a number of reports out there that have been put forward to the federal government around connections, highways, transportation, airports, ferries, that type of scenario. What we’ve been engaged in was to look at how we can keep a devolution/revenue sharing deal on the table tied to future investments in key infrastructure in the Northwest Territories like the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The departments have been continually engaged on trying to find any avenue they can to keep this project moving and back. I would say the Inuvik and Tuk portion that was announced by Minister Strahl, I believe, there has been additional work to look at the project development phase and we continue to pursue any avenue along those lines. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will continue to press the Premier and his Cabinet colleagues to make this a top priority, as I think they are well aware of, in terms of the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway and how many people down the Mackenzie Valley will be very appreciative of this support here. Can the Premier tell me, if we build a Mackenzie Valley Highway, what would the revenue be to be paid to open up the Mackenzie Valley for resource development exploration and extraction?
Mr. Speaker, the economic analysis of a Mackenzie Valley Highway is something that the Department of Transportation has undertaken and I believe they are prepared to set some time aside with Members to go over that work. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are with regard to the outstanding trappers we have in the Sahtu and ITI’s program. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Robert Kochon of Colville Lake had the highest sales in trapping and also the highest pelts in trapping. What is this Minister of ITI doing in terms of supporting our way of life in the Sahtu, especially with trappers like Mr. Kochon? What are the programs he has to support this way of life?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of ITI has a long history of programs to support harvesters and trappers so that they can have a choice when it comes to maintaining a way of life. Certainly we have a number of programs, totaling in the neighbourhood of $2 million, that would help support the traditional economy and, certainly, as anybody involved in sports knows, the future depends on getting youth involved and we’ve invested a lot, along with our many, many partners such as Education, Culture and Employment, MACA, industry and so on, into our Take a Kid Trapping program to introduce a significant amount of children into the outdoors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister McLeod alluded to the Youth Trapping Program. I wanted to ask the Minister in terms of strengthening the Youth Trapping Program, is that part of the educational curriculum for young trappers in the Northwest Territories? Speaking to young trappers in Colville Lake, Mr. Samuel Oudzi, who was the youth trapper in that community in the Sahtu region, would he be able to continue to have that type of opportunity to put trapping as part of his educational curriculum?
We’ve had a long partnership with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and working with the schools and curriculum so that we could introduce school children to trapping, because it’s been not only my view but the view of a lot of people in the education system that this lifestyle and ability to go out and earn a living off the land is something that fosters a lot of qualities that help children become successful in later life. Attributes like decision-making, leadership qualities and high levels of self-esteem have been associated with Take a Kid Trapping. Certainly if you look at Colville Lake where they have a school function to travel abroad, they had very limited opportunities for fundraising. So the school children, along with their principal, took it upon themselves to raise money by trapping and they were very successful in being able to raise funds that would go towards their trip.
Also, I think every school program in every community has a program to introduce school children to on-the-land activities. We have been working very closely with the teachers, and not only the Department of ITI, but wildlife officers from ENR have worked very closely with the teachers and certainly even the education system, the DEAs and so on, have teachers or educators that are dedicated to this kind of activity. So we recognize it’s a very important role for us to play and we work very closely with the education system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Gabe Kochon was chosen as senior trapper in the Sahtu region. Gabe Kochon is one solid trapper. I want to ask the Minister, with regard to trapping for seniors, are there some programs dedicated to seniors like Gabe Kochon to continue that way of life?
As I said, we have a significant number of programs. One of the most successful ones we had was the Western Harvesters Assistance Program where we partnered with all the aboriginal governments so that trappers could make some capital investments such as buying equipment and so forth. I think there is only one or two communities left that still haven’t accessed that program.
With regard to seniors, certainly we talk quite a bit about our SEED program, our Strategic Environmental Economic Development program. We have programs in there under small business and micro business where people are making a living on the land or can access these programs, so they can get access to small amounts of money that would allow them to continue their activities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member to ask a final, short supplementary question.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, trapping is a strong life, it’s a good life. It’s a life that people certainly enjoy. I would ask if the Minister would work with his Cabinet colleagues to see how we can look at trapping in terms of how to get food into our communities and our local stores and start opening a discussion on how to support trappers in a lifelong passion to practice their way of life.
This is something that we are committed to and I think the whole Cabinet is committed to, so we will continue to work with all regions and all communities so that people will continue to be able to make a choice so they can practice a way of life and continue to do so for some time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of privatization or merger of the NWT Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 988 signatures of Northwest Territories residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petition requests that the Members of the Legislative Assembly vote against any proposal that contains privatization or merger of public utilities or services, closure of any public utility facilities or reduction in any service levels of any kind to NWT residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Communities and Diamonds 2008 Annual Report of the Government of the Northwest Territories under the BHP Billiton, Diavik and De Beers Socio-economic Agreements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two documents I would like to table. The first is a postcard entitled Stop Privatization, and it says: “Dear Premier Roland, we, the citizens of the Northwest Territories, have entrusted our public utilities and services to your care. Do not break that trust by selling, leasing or in any other way privatizing the NWT Housing Corporation.” It has a signature block for residents. Document number one.
Document number two is a letter from the UNW to the Honourable Floyd Roland outlining that 644 of these previously tabled documents have been sent, signed copies have been sent to Premier Roland. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 29, 2009, I will move that Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, October 29, 2009, I will move that Bill 2, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2009-2010, be read for the first time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, October 29, 2009, I will move that Bill 3, Medical Profession Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to proceed with first reading of Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
