Can the Minister tell this House how the provisions of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement were taken into account and how the Inuvialuit were consulted about these changes?

Before this change came into effect, it went through committee consultation by the Cabinet. With any changes to legislation or regulations there is always consultation that takes place and also debate in this House. That certainly did occur. With that, the communities were also notified through our client service officers and the regional representatives. They do have that information, since September 1, 2007. It is out there. Maybe some individuals or committee

members are not fully aware of it. We can certainly relay that message out there again.

Can the Minister tell me what the rationale was for including beneficiary dividend payouts as unearned income?

The $1,200 exemption was based on the actual payouts that were happening in the region. Whether it be the IBA payouts or unearned income — that means besides working, earning income — there are other incomes that may come in. One of them is the Inuvialuit payout. That was considered as a factor to have an exemption of $1,200 to apply in that area.

Will the Minister commit to a review of these issues and report back to this House next week?

This process is also in line with the social assistance regulations that we have in place. We did make the changes, because there was an outcry in the North and also by the Members. We did listen to them. We made some changes. I believe they were positive changes. They were not there before. I can certainly commit to the Member that I can work with him and others so that if we need to enhance our program, which we’ve done already, those are the areas that we need to work on. It is a planning process, and I will continue to work with the Members.

Thank you, Mr.

Lafferty. Oral

questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to my Member’s statement and Site 467, the amount of gravel we’re talking about is some 20 million cubic yards of gravel. That’s a massive gravel source that this territory will need in the future and, more importantly, the residents of Aklavik. Also, the amount of money that’s been spent by this government on floods over the last number of years…. I would like to ask the Premier: when Cabinet came up with this list of Building Canada Fund projects, what consideration did they give to the payback of those projects in terms of economic development and improved conditions in small communities?

The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, we must recognize that the Building Canada Fund and projects are a seven-year plan, and we’re going through those final stages of getting a funding agreement in place with Canada.

At that point, we’ll be able to get some confirmation as to what projects will actually flow out of there. The federal government will still have a say in that.

The process used for identifying projects that will flow from there came from a number of sources of existing capital plans, the work that was done on cost-sharing arrangements — because that requires cost sharing — and that impact on the existing budget. So there were a number of factors that did play a role there. Transportation initiatives were on a 20-year needs assessment, or the joint plans that have been put out there, whether it was the Corridors for Canada 1 or 2 program and, as well, the joint initiative between the three territories.

Municipal and Community Affairs worked with the communities to come up with a list of projects, the ones that were most critical that we were unable to fund in the past. Those are the ones that started the process, but we still have a number of years to identify projects, and we’ll continue on that process.

The priorities of the Legislature are clear. We’re trying to improve communities by way of having stable communities, but also looking at economic development opportunities for isolated communities. I would like to ask the Premier if he would agree to revisit the Building Canada Fund listing and consider including the access road to the Aklavik source on that list.

As I said, it’s a seven-year process of funding that will come on an annual basis. So as we proceed, and as the Member had asked the Minister of Transportation questions, as well as myself, earlier during the session, the commitment’s there to sit down with the community to come up with a cost-sharing arrangement to get a program in place to look at what the actual cost would be of looking for an access to that site. We’re not looking at studying the gravel access itself. There are enough reports there, as the Member has pointed out. We’ve got seven years of opportunity to get this into the plan, and this would be the start of it, by working together with the community to come up with a joint initiative on a plan to move forward.

I’d like to ask the Premier for a commitment here, if he can commit to include the access road to Site 467 in the Infrastructure Acquisition Plan so that we can see it this fall.

I think we have, in a sense, made that commitment by committing to work with the committee on cost-sharing arrangements to come up with a plan that we can move forward on. Right now there are a couple of numbers out there, whether it’s a million dollars or $30 million. We need to work together with the community, come up with a plan, agree on a set of numbers, and then

decide how we can proceed there. So here’s the first step of that: we can work with the Member and the community to come up with an arrangement for a plan to move forward.

Thank you, Mr.

Roland. Final

supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker. This

government has to find a way that these types of small community projects, and initiatives too, are able to take advantage of the Building Canada Fund. I’d like to ask the Premier to do whatever he can do to ensure that communities are able to benefit from the Building Canada Fund, simply because of their geography or the size of that community. We have to find ways of using those federal funds to the advantage of our smaller communities also. So I’d just like to get a commitment from the Premier on that.

Mr. Speaker, as we’ve discussed in this Assembly and within our Strategic initiatives, we talk about building sustainable communities, so that is always a part of the equation when we look at how we expend the resources we have available. As well, we have conditions put on the Building Canada Fund, not by ourselves but by the federal government. We’re going to try to find a way to work within that, but we have other opportunities within what we have available, whether it is our own Infrastructure Acquisition Plan…. There are opportunities for some movement in that area, but as well, for example, some communities do get gas tax funding. We could also work with that with the community. So as I said to the Member, we’re going to work with the Member and the community, come up with a plan to proceed forward on this and see what initiative and in what area we can see this start to proceed.

Thank you, Mr.

Roland. Oral

questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need for a walk-in tub in Aven Manor. That would help facilitate at least 50 constituents of mine in that area, to help give them that quality of life they so rightly deserve. So for the record, is the Minister of the Housing Corp. still behind this project? I’d like to hear today what he is doing to work toward making sure that Aven will get that walk-in tub that they so rightly deserve.

Thank you, Mr.

Hawkins. The

honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you,

Mr. Speaker. We’re committed to a process that ensures that the residents and clients have access to all the amenities, including the ability to be able to bathe properly.

Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to hear that, and I’m sure my constituents at Aven are very pleased to hear that. As I understand it, this first was proposed through a partnership where NWT Housing Corp. would pay part of the expense and hopefully Health and Social Services would pay the other half of the expense. Is the Minister of the Housing Corp. willing to pick up the full tab if the Department of Health and Social Services refuses to pick up their share of the cost?

Mr. Speaker, as a government, we’ll collectively work together to make sure that the needs of seniors are met. We do that on an ongoing basis. We have some of the best seniors’ benefits in the country, and we’ll continue with that commitment, and we’ll continue to work through this particular issue.

Mr.

Speaker, I appreciate the

commitments from the Minister, but it didn’t actually say anything. So would the Minister tell me and this House today: is he committed to getting behind this project to make it happen as soon as possible?