Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I hear the Premier’s issues in regard to the cost and whatnot, but I think there is a saving to this government if people are living healthy lives. If people are not living in the communities, they’re saving on energy costs; they’re saving on costs to the corporation. Also, they are basically independent. These programs are application-based, so you have to apply for this program; you don’t automatically get it.
I’ll use an example, since it was in my riding. The band corporation or the band itself applied for the program on behalf of its membership. They identified ten elders and they built ten — I wouldn’t say cabins — basically sheds in the bush for $50,000, at $5,000 a pop, which they did themselves. They had local people using a wood mizer. They went and got their own logs. They cut their own logs. They made the siding for those units. Yet it was $50,000 to help ten people. So for $5,000 per person, that’s living healthy — living independently, not using power, not using energy in a community, and basically hacking their own wood and hauling their own water. For me, that is a statement to how people should be showing this government how they can live healthy lives, how they can be independent and how they’re not using the social system — where basically they want to get out of the social housing situation we have in their communities.
One of the elders we have in our community is telling us that they want to get away from the community on a weekend because it’s too rowdy. It’s not healthy for them; they don’t feel safe. They want to go out to their camps on the weekend. For them it’s a matter of public safety. I think what we’re asking for here is not for the government to look at where they can find more money. We’re telling the government that we should strive for healthy, independent people. That’s one of the priorities of this Assembly, and that’s what this program does.
Mr. Menicoche touched on this. These people were landowners at one time. These people were proud, independent people. They had their own log homes in our communities. These people had their own land in their communities, and then government came along and basically, through housing programs in the North, established northern housing
in the Northwest Territories, through the
federal government.
My point is that we have a lot of housing projects that are going to be lapsed because we can’t find land. There’s money that’s going to be sitting there for those capital projects which basically are earmarked to be expended this year. But because we can’t have the land available or basically because of contracting situations, those capital dollars are still going to be there. I think it’s important to realize that this program, like I stated earlier, is healthy, and it’s also there to ensure that we have healthy elderly people.
I have an elderly lady — she’s 98 years old, and she still lives in the bush — Carolyn Kay of Fort McPherson. She’s 98 years old, and she’s out in the bush right now. We have elders in their 70s and 80s up at Eight Miles who basically were helped through this program. They’re living healthy lives. They set their nets in the summer and also in the fall. They catch fish to sustain their income. They can’t sustain themselves on their pension. So if the government wants to build one less house this year, take that money and put it into this program…. That means that of the 500-and-some units we’re building, we’ve still got 100-and-some to go. So where there’s a will, there’s a way.
On this one, Mr. Chair, I would ask for a recorded vote.