Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Housing advised the Members that he is undertaking a review of the maximum rent charged to tenants in public housing across the Northwest Territories. I think that it is a good start, but I urge the Minister to be careful about the purpose of the review and to get it done quickly. I also think that the Members should be given an opportunity to provide their views and concerns well before a report is prepared.

Personally, I don’t think the maximum rent charged to a public housing tenant has to be full cost recovery amount. I think when the local housing authorities had to charge full cost recovery, the rents become too high for the community people and they quickly fall behind and get discouraged with large arrears.

We all have heard that these high rents discourage people from becoming employed. The Minister told us yesterday that only 19 people across the Northwest Territories pays a maximum rent. That should be telling the Minister loud and clear that these high rents have made working employment very unattractive to the public housing tenants.

I am advised that the rent review is being undertaken as part of the Cost of Living Strategic Initiative. I hope that the Housing Corporation remembers that most Northerners would think that the high cost of living initiative means that the cost for ordinary people would be reduced. I don’t want to see the cost of living initiative that results in increased costs to the Sahtu tenants. I hope that their purpose is to determine a fair rent for public housing units, not to figure out how to become a private sector landlord who has no understanding of the tenant situations and circumstances.

I don’t know if this is an internal study by the corporation or if they are seeking consultants to prepare the review. I hope that someone will remember to include the views of the LHOs and the tenants, community meaningful consultation process. I think you need to allow for gradual transition and slow adjustments to employment income for your working tenants.

I certainly look forward to additional discussions. I urge the government to complete this work much sooner than March 2011. By March 2011, government will be or may be reluctant to make very many big decisions until after the next election. Sahtu residents want these decisions to be made sooner. Mr. Speaker, I ask the Minister of Housing, unlock the doors of maximum rent charges and set my people free, free to live without being evicted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to speak again today about the Deh Cho Bridge Project. We’re at a stage in this project where every decision we make has the possibility of costing this government more money. If we can turn a corner and start making some right decisions perhaps we might even be able to save some money on this project.

The bridge will get built across the Mackenzie River. That will happen and I agree that it should happen. However, I will continue to question decisions made on the management of this project because of the impact they have on the public purse here in the Northwest Territories.

I’m not sure who gave the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and the Minister of Transportation the right to simply give out contracts on this project. As I’ve said before, as a public government we have a duty and an obligation to get the best price possible for the remaining work on this bridge. The Deh Cho Bridge Corporation has ordered the steel for the superstructure which could be utilized by company A, B or C. It wouldn’t matter as long as the contractor of record took on those orders. So again,

why no public tender on the remaining work? What exactly is being negotiated and by whom?

The Minister was quoted recently as saying the Department of Transportation is now calling the shots on the project. So if they’re calling the shots, they should be ready to answer questions about the project. Now that the former project management team has been replaced, who exactly is representing the interests of the Government of the Northwest Territories and taxpayers here in the Northwest Territories?

The bottom line is other companies have been shut out of a competitive bidding process for the remaining work on the Deh Cho Bridge Project and this is just not acceptable. The government has no right to simply hand out contracts to whomever they want, especially when it could potentially cost us money.

I’ve heard that the former contractor, ATCON, who had a fixed price contract of $165 million, was not bonded to perform that work in the Northwest Territories, which makes me wonder whether this new contractor the government is intent on getting into bed with can be bonded for the remaining work to be done. On a project like the Deh Cho Bridge, any other government would require bonding.

It is not my intent to get in the way of this bridge being built. It is my job to hold those making decisions accountable and responsible for those decisions. Given the current disposition of this project, the Minister of Transportation and Cabinet can count on me asking many more questions every step of the way.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize members from the NWTTA: President Dave Reid and also Gayla Meredith, coordinator of member services.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Welcome to everyone in the gallery today. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about concerns and possibilities with the ATCO proposal as well as the future of power in the Northwest Territories. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, could he give this House an update to the status of the ATCO proposal and what is the mandate of that proposal. Is it to sell it to ATCO or is it to work in partnership?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier is out of the House for a few minutes and I will take that question as notice.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and direct my questions to the Minister of ITI. I noticed that the 2009 edition of the NWT Economic Review contains a lot of statistics about our major resource sectors but there’s no information on agriculture, forestry, or cultural industries outside of our arts and crafts. As I said the other day, our statistics people tell us that if we don’t measure it, we don’t care about it. That may be extreme, but struggling local mushroom harvesters are working hard to get that industry going and we need to take their needs into account. What will this Minister do to ensure that ENR does the necessary authority and management work to allow them to develop the business side and what will the Minister do on the business side?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whoever in statistics the Member is referring to, we would never say that those sectors were too unimportant to be counted because we feel that agriculture is an important part of our economy. Certainly in the past we introduced the harvesting of morel mushrooms into the Northwest Territories, so we will continue to work with my colleague to see that sector developed.

I’m not sure how we could have done that if we don’t have authority for working with those resources. Perhaps the Minister could explain

that to me and what he’s doing on the licensing side and training side for this industry.

We all know that when there are forest fires, usually a year later there’s a growth of morel mushrooms. In the past, as a government, we made this information available and provided some equipment. I believe we even had some training sessions. As far as licensing and certification, that would be something that if we wanted to do that we would have to check the legal requirements to do so. But it was mainly like picking berries. You don’t need to be licensed to pick berries.

As I outlined in my Member’s statement, this is quite a valuable industry that’s out there waiting for some support. There is a small core of harvesters that I’m sure poked the government to get something going earlier but they are still awaiting support. I will ask this Minister again if he will commit to working with them to develop those necessary licences and whatever regulatory supports are needed to ensure that the industry benefits our residents rather than walk straight across the border as has happened again this past summer. Thank you.

We certainly believe that this harvesting of mushrooms is a valuable sector and we will work with the Department of ENR to look at what’s required to develop legislation and how we could make sure that the benefits attribute to the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister raised the issue of agricultural support so I’d like to ask, will the Minister ensure that the development of land use plans and agriculture plans take into account the opportunities for a mushroom harvesting industry. Thank you.

As part of our Managing This Land Strategic Initiative we are developing a land use framework for the Government of the Northwest Territories which will look at all of the different interests in Northwest Territories lands. As part of that we will ensure that morel mushrooms harvesting is included. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance. I spoke in my Member’s statement about the possibility of establishing an NWT green fund and referenced the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund. That fund has

proved extremely successful for communities across Canada. It’s been used for sustainable community activities and, as I mentioned in my statement, some of those are sustainable community plans, feasibility studies, field tests and implementing capital projects. I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not we have legal or procedural roadblocks that exist for this government to inhibit the establishment of an NWT green fund. Thank you.