This is page numbers 4023 - 4060 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 4th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was school.

Topics

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated earlier, the committee was set up to do work across different departments to advance the objectives that were laid out by the 16th Assembly

when we first met. We have been working on investing. We have invested in improving infrastructures, winter roads, highway improvements, airports. We have invested in

energy initiatives, and the work of electricity review as well as hydro has come out of this committee. Those are some of the initiatives we worked on to reduce the cost of living in the North. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate those elements. They sort of speak to the overall bottom line of the cost of living. I certainly won’t ignore the fact that the Minister is correct that the budget does attempt to glaze over these issues. If anything, the reality is nothing really changes on the bottom line.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is, I think the Construction Association again is on the right issue. They believe addressing some of the cost of living factors are let’s tackle one of the pillars which is housing. So, Mr. Speaker, to the Minister, has the Cost of Living committee ever thought about addressing some of the costs to housing, such as land development, to help stimulate a bit of a housing boom here in the Northwest Territories that could help bring in new residents to our North? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, I am aware that MACA has been working on land development issues and some of the challenges faced with land over the years. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, I am aware that the NWT Construction Association sponsored this gathering last Friday. I could not attend because I went to a fundraiser for Haiti, sponsored by the Native Women’s Association. I am interested in hearing what this Construction Association has to say based on their gathering. I understand that they are seeking to speak to us. I am more than prepared to work with other colleagues on the Cabinet and Members from the other side to see what they have to say and how we could work together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, I would like to see if the Minister will commit to developing a policy that could help stimulate a housing boom here in the Northwest Territories that does not disrupt market costs or market value in the Northwest Territories but stimulates it through some kind of a bursary program that could work through our individual municipalities again to help them with the infrastructure costs and the land development costs. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to look at a policy of that nature to help kick off our economy after this recession? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, the Member is touching on a lot of major issues that are the responsibility of various departments of this government. Like I stated already, I am and we are interested in hearing what the Construction Association has to say based on the gatherings that they had. I believe they are in the process of putting information together. We could always look to see how we can work together, whether it is land issue or attracting people into the North or dealing with the housing issues across the communities. Of

course, we are interested in hearing that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, not focussed at the Minister directly, but I think Cabinet is part of the problem. I think each department provides its own bottleneck to the issue, whether it is to supply land, whether it is the transfer of the land, whether it is negotiations or whatnot. I think Cabinet could actually show some real leadership to address the cost of living by helping with supporting the costs of development of the land. Would the Minister be able to bring this to the Cabinet table to start addressing these initiatives? They could start at the Cabinet table to show leadership throughout the government. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, I don’t think this speaks to bottlenecks in any department or lack of anything in anywhere. I think this speaks to complexities involved in land issues in the North, because we have municipal land, Commissioners land and other land types. Not only that, we have market communities like the city of Yellowknife and the towns of Hay River, Fort Smith, but we also have non-market-based communities where housing issues are different. Like I said already, the Strategic Initiative Committee on Reducing the Cost of Living is interested in looking at policy changes or policy options to address broad issues of reducing the cost of living. I would like to work with the Member and the association to see what they have to say and how we could advance it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask several Ministers, but I think I am going to zero in on the Minister of ITI on this question here. Mr. Speaker, I think the ministerial statement here on diamonds and tourism in Canada’s Northern House statement, I want to ask the Minister in terms of the promotion of Canada’s North, the golden opportunity in the Olympics, if the Minister had any type of discussion in terms of promoting one of our best kept secrets being the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada in Deline. Even this House passed a motion. I really find it odd that this government here hasn’t been taking this up and score the goal for us in terms of the Olympics here. I want to ask the Minister is this something that he would look at or is it too late, game is over and we can’t throw this on the table in terms of promoting the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not too late to promote Deline as the birthplace of hockey because the Olympics haven’t started yet. Perhaps he can start tomorrow when he visits Canada’s Northern House and getting that message out. I think he would be impressed with Northern House and a message that we are delivering to the world. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

I certainly look forward to the invitation from the Minister to go down to the Olympics. I will certainly do the invitation with the Minister in terms of promoting the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada at the Olympics. I want to note the Minister then would work with me in terms of when we have this promotion in Vancouver to display one of the most hidden secrets of the Northwest Territories or in Canada in terms of promoting hockey in the North. Would the Minister then work with me in terms of how we coordinate an event that would showcase the world that the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada is in Deline in the Sahtu region?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, we have been using Canada’s Northern House as the opportunity to publicize the North as a great place to live, work and invest in. Certainly promoting the spectacular Northwest Territories and all the different opportunities, and if there is some way we can promote the birthplace of hockey as a way to entice people to come and visit the Northwest Territories, we are quite interested in that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Mr. Speaker, the Minister is correct that the Olympics are going to start soon. I was very surprised that this… I am very happy that we could have this opportunity to promote the birthplace of ice hockey in Deline down at the Olympics. I want to again ask the Minister in terms of putting some small display in terms of shirts and maybe even, I don’t know if it is too late to invite some of the original hockey players, if that is possible. Invite some of the descendents of the hockey players from Deline in terms of promoting this historical event that happened in Canada. Would the Minister have some type of special concentrated specific time that we could promote the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We are intending to keep Canada’s Northern House open until early April and so when we go to Vancouver on Thursday, we can talk to some of our creative design team to see if we can develop something that can be exhibited at Canada’s Northern House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister then look at the possibility of working with the community of Deline in terms of possibly looking at something that could be, they can add into the design or to the celebration at the place in Vancouver in terms of celebrating the birthplace of ice hockey in that community so the community can also celebrate with this government here?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

As the Member knows, there are several communities in Canada that are claiming to be the birthplace of ice hockey as well as some places in England. I think the biggest help would be in being able to validate the fact that Deline is the birthplace of hockey. Certainly we can talk about that with our creative design team. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Last week I spoke in this House about the lapse of aboriginal funding for ‘07-08 and ‘08-09 to the tune of hundreds and thousands of dollars. And, at the same time, this year I supported a proposal by the Deh Cho Friendship Centre for, I believe, it was a $40,000 proposal to create an aboriginal South Slavey CD-Rom to help the community and help the region to work on our language. That proposal was refused, Mr. Speaker, saying the money was spent. I find it hard to believe that lapsing almost $1.4 million the last two years and now we are saying we don’t have money to fund unique aboriginal language proposal. I would like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment will he seriously consider this proposal and why is he saying there is no money for aboriginal language, given their past record? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do take all applications seriously as they go before us. We do provide funding to all the education councils where they distribute to all the schools. The aboriginal funding we get from the federal government, we offset the costs from our perspective, as well, through the GNWT expenditures. The funding has been allocated to the schools and we usually tell the folks, if they ask for funding for specialized projects, they should approach the local language groups first. Language centres, we provide funding to them, and those are special projects, so the money has been identified for them to expend into the region. So we will continue to work with them, Mr. Speaker. The

language groups have expertise around the table from the community perspective and they give us advice on where the money should be expended. Mahsi.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

It’s curious to note that the letter was signed by the Minister saying there is no money in his department for aboriginal language proposals such as this unique one from Fort Simpson. So who is lapsing the money then, Mr. Speaker? Is it the Department of Education, Culture and Employment? Is it our divisional council? Who is lapsing the money? Thank you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

It consists of Education, Culture and Employment, the education council, the teaching and learning centres, the aboriginal groups we sponsor. The funding that has been allocated to them, yes, there may be some lapse due to the deadline constraints and projects may not be completed. So it does vary, Mr. Speaker, on a case-by-case basis. Clearly, those are areas that I instructed my department to review the overall funding allocations for aboriginal language from a cultural perspective, because we need to maximize the funding we produce to the Northwest Territories to the best of their ability on special projects such as what the Member is alluding to. Mahsi.