Daniel McNeely

Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, my statement is related to the Housing Minister here, in regards to the housing situation we have in the Sahtu region. It faces many challenges here aside from the current needs, like many other small remote communities across our Northwest Territories, but I'll be having some questions to the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation later on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I should have used the word property taxes.

Yes, I'll speak to the motion there, Mr. Chair. Forging forward, moving forward here, on the ownership of this property, could you explain a little bit on the current cost of carrying the titleship, or are there any leases that have to be incurring annual lease payments?

My next question is the second and last one. I would like to ask the Premier if I can propose and identify the positions that are governing the Sahtu region elsewhere, would the Premier move those, and when, back to the Sahtu?

Today I want to discuss the decentralization of the Sahtu region. As said, the Sahtu region is not a region by itself even though you refer to it as the “Sahtu region,” but it is very much similar to many other areas of our great northern Canadian country. The Sahtu region, also, is currently experiencing limited amount of authority underneath the regime set by others or whenever the case was. My predecessor, Norman Yakeleya, keeps bringing it up in the past and we had some chats, and I look forward to moving his word forward as we progress. Later on today, I will have some questions for the...

No thanks, Mr. Chair.

The supplementary to that is: Are there any payments to the Yukon Government for leases, titleship, or the federal government?

My next question is: after submission of this decentralization restructuring proposal, is the Premier willing to have a meeting with the Sahtu leadership?

Earlier, I was referring to the issue on the Sahtu region decentralization. Recognizing our physical situation for this territorial government, the current decision, as it stands now, is being made elsewhere to govern certain different departments in the Sahtu. As I mentioned earlier, I have two questions, so I'll just make it two long ones. The best approach here to make it short is: I am asking the Premier on the view of restructuring the current model. I'm not taking him to account and requesting additional funding and so on, but the restructuring approach on making decisions more...

Yes, I’m speaking in favour of this motion, and I encourage others as well. There is an aging population in our remote communities that in dire need of an action plan, and the action plan is only better if it's implemented. There's an increasing number of clients getting to the age to replace the ones that are already there in unfortunate circumstances. Greater yet, most smaller communities we do not have as much of the available services as more so in some of the luckier urban centres in this part of the country that we have. Thank you, Mr. Chair.