Thank you, Mr.

Jacobson. The

honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Mr.

Speaker, this

government spends approximately $5 million in the area of sport and recreation. That’s including the support we provide to our five non-governmental organizations that work with the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation partners, and they allocate the funding. It is part of their mandate to coordinate a system that recognizes their priorities and to provide direction. We also expect them to provide the resources fairly. On top of the support that’s provided by Sport and Rec, we as government also work with the Aboriginal Sport Circle to provide funding to go to the North American Indigenous Games, this time in B.C.

With all the great programs and events, the Aboriginal Sport Circle has demonstrated it can deliver much-needed programming to territorial youth. Will the Minister commit to recognizing the increase of core funding to the Aboriginal Sport Circle?

I thought I was pretty clear that the core funding does not come directly from us. It does come from the NWT Council of Sport and Recreation partners.

With the North American Indigenous Games held every two years and, more importantly, with programs and events happening every day in our communities, will the Minister

commit to work with the sport circle staff to start increasing core funding as soon as possible?

Mr. Speaker, we’ve had a very good relationship with all the sport organizations, including the Aboriginal Sport Circle. We meet with them on a very regular basis. They have some new staff. They’ve taken a new approach and set some new directions that we’re quite excited and pleased to see. We meet with them. I met with them, in fact, yesterday. They’re doing a very good job on the North American Indigenous Games. They have relayed to us their concerns as to core funding, and we will continue to support them.

We have, in the last while, lobbied the federal government to provide increased funding to the Aboriginal Sport Circle on a national basis. We were also successful this year in lobbying the federal government to provide travel dollars to the North American Indigenous Games. The Northwest Territories is getting $144,000 of that money. I think it’s a challenge that we’re all continuing to work towards, but we’re finding small pots of money, and we’ll continue to work with this council.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. Oral

questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I referenced in my Member’s statement a report on homelessness. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the homeless what programs and services exist to assist homeless people to find appropriate housing with the support services they need.

Thank you, Ms.

Bisaro. The

honourable Minister responsible for the homeless, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We do have coordination between the departments of Health and Social Services, NWT Housing Corporation and ourselves, and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We do have programs with the Small Communities Homelessness Fund towards homelessness and also homelessness support projects, so there are plenty available for these individuals at the community level. Also, when they’re outside their community, there’s assistance for them to go back to their own communities.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that information. I recognize that those programs do perform some service, but individuals who are

homeless and need some place to turn.... Can the Minister advise where a particular individual or a family might go when they are desperately in need of housing?

Mr.

Speaker, the

homeless in the communities can turn to various avenues, whether it’s the social workers who work seven days a week, 24 hours a day, on call. We do have some facilities in communities — in Yellowknife the new Bailey House is going up, the Sally Ann, the SideDoor — and there are homelessness shelters here as well. These are the avenues that individuals can turn to. There are income support areas, but more so, it’s the social service workers that are on call. Those are the avenues they can turn to as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that we do have some avenues that people can take advantage of when they are desperate.

You referenced a number of facilities and a number of options, but in particular women do not have a facility, especially here in Yellowknife. I’d like to know if the Minister can advise what plans exist to expand the funding that’s available to communities to provide for homeless people.

Mr.

Speaker, we will

continue to provide the services and programs that I highlighted. We are in the process of meeting, as the social envelope Ministers — myself as Education, Culture and Employment Minister, Minister Lee and also Minister Miltenberger — on this particular subject that the Member is referring to: homelessness and the programs and services that we provide, how we can enhance those areas, where can we make changes, and how can we improve certain programs. We will be discussing those key areas once we meet. We were talking about possibly sitting down and dealing with those issues in, I believe, the next couple of weeks. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr.

Lafferty. Final

supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

I thank the Minister for that information. It’s gratifying to hear that the social programs Ministers are working together, and they are looking to expand the services or programs that would be available to homeless people.

He suggested they’re going to meet within the next couple of weeks. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could advise the time frame for when he can report back to this Assembly.

Mr.

Speaker, once we

meet as a social envelope committee, I can certainly share that information with the Member and also the Members of the Social Programs

Committee. Certainly, after we meet, we can do up a summary report of what has taken place.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During my Member’s statement I talked about home rule as an initiative that could be launched by this territory to demonstrate that our rightful place deserves to be taken within Canada.

My questions go to the Premier of this House. Would the Premier move forward on an initiative that demonstrates that the territorial government is in charge of its own affairs by moving forward on home rule legislation?

Thank you, Mr.

Hawkins. The

Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not familiar with this home rule concept the Member has raised. In our jurisdiction, as we’ve been working through the process with the federal government and with aboriginal governments and organizations trying to bring more authority here, what we have started doing in this Assembly is, in fact, occupying some of the areas that some would say have legislated authority within the federal government. We believe we have the moral authority to govern in certain areas, and that’s why, for example, the Managing This Land Strategic Initiative will play a very important role as we progress down this path of devolution resource-revenue sharing.

Moral authority doesn’t bring home the money, I’m sorry to say. The fact is that we need to go beyond moral authority to be in charge of our land, our water and our regulatory system. That’s what I’m talking about.

Would the Premier consider looking at a home rule act that prescribes that the territorial government is in charge of these lands with a relationship built with aboriginal governments? We could use that to build a case with the Prime Minister and the other provinces that we deserve the same rights as the provinces have in Canada. Would he do that?

This causes me to think of the movie Braveheart. Maybe we have a new Member with a nickname here.

The fact is that we have engaged with the federal government and aboriginal governments and organizations to go down the path of devolution resource-revenue sharing. We continue to do that.

We continue to work with the federal government to secure the resources, to keep them in the North, and we will look at other alternatives if that process doesn’t work. The new relationship we’re starting to establish — or enhancing the relationships — with aboriginal governments is that we are meeting with them four times a year and bilaterally once a year with each of their groups of leaders within their regions. We’re enhancing that process to try and strengthen our position to come with a position from the North and have the federal government engage.

We know the federal government is prepared to move on this. It’s a matter of what’s the best solution. The fact is that we also know that the federal government is not prepared to treat us differently than other jurisdictions, that being provinces. What we’re starting to work on is coming up with the fact that there needs to be recognition of some differences within the Northwest Territories and territories overall.

We don’t need to recognize any differences, because this territory should have equal standing with every other province, and anyone who’s negotiating down from that would be selling us out. The fact is that the best solution would be an act to describe our position in Canada which is full partnership. When John A. Macdonald went out with his crew to negotiate with Britain about Canada having its own autonomy, it didn’t take 30 or 40 years like this devolution agreement. Even those folks who signed the Constitution and were branded as traitors in the United States were later regaled as heroes. It’s time we carve our place in history.

Would this Premier carve our place in history by launching an act that demonstrates that our ability and our position in Canada needs to be a partnership by legislation that demonstrates home rule can be achieved?