Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are in follow up to my Member’s statement from earlier today where I talked about the plight of the 1,100 residents of the Northland Trailer Park located here in Yellowknife. They are prisoners in their own home. They can’t sell their homes. All they have to look forward to this winter is more line breaks, intermittent water service. The issue is not new. The wheels of government are slow. They do turn slowly. I understand that, but this file has been on the Minister’s desk in Ottawa for 15 months.
As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, a catastrophic line break is almost imminent. That infrastructure should have been replaced 15 years ago. I’d like to ask the Minister of MACA where exactly the file... Actually, the first question I have is: whose desk is that file on in Ottawa, so that we can hopefully start a letter writing campaign or whatever it takes to get them to do something about this, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The file in Ottawa is sitting on the Infrastructure Minister’s desk, who I think is Minister Lebel. He’s got the infrastructure file. At the same time, we supported the city’s application to try and access some of the green funding for the residents out at Northland Trailer Park. Thank you.
I appreciate the Minister’s response. I would like to ask the Minister when was the last time the department, MACA, government officials from the Government of the Northwest Territories sat down with municipal officials and the federal government to try to come up with a solution with what’s happening at Northland. Thank you.
I pointed out the other day, we had written a letter to the Infrastructure Minister, Minister McLeod had written a letter to the Government of Canada on July 18th requesting this particular type of meeting and getting more information on where the application is at. Thank you.
Obviously, we’ve got three days left in this sitting of the Legislature. We are going to go into election mode during the month of September. A new government won’t come in until October. Something has to happen. I want to get a commitment today from the Minister that he can get a thorough update on exactly where this situation is at, what needs to happen so that the residents in that trailer park can have some hope for the future. When can we get a thorough report from the government on where exactly things are at? Thank you.
We can provide a communication as to where we’re at in this whole application process and the support we’ve provided. At the end of the day I think the municipal government plays a large, if not the largest, role in this situation that is happening out at Northland because those folks out there are municipal taxpayers. So I think the municipal government has to take a lead role or a larger role in the situation out at Northland. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Minister; it is a municipal concern, but what I’m saying is the Government of the Northwest Territories has to pay attention. If there is a catastrophic sewer line break or a water line break, it is going to be our problem, Mr. Speaker, in a big way. We have to be out in front of this. We have to try to be coordinating efforts between the city and the federal government to come up with a solution. Again, I think if we don’t do that and we just try to let them sort it out... We need to be doing that.
I would like to ask the Minister for a commitment to get people to the table to, again, try to come up with a solution to the issue out at Northland. If there is a sewer line break there this winter, there will be 1,100 people, 600 kids, displaced from their homes that are going to be our problem, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
This government is not blind to the plight of the folks out at Northland and we have been doing what we can to support the city’s application and making our feelings known to Canada. I can assure the Member and all Members that we’ll continue to do that. We’ve been constantly trying to get a meeting with our Infrastructure Minister. Early indications are that a meeting may be able to happen as early as a couple of weeks.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
