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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve all heard the concerns raised in media reports this week about cancelled school nutrition programs. On Wednesday I tabled messages from Kaw Tay Whee School students describing how much they need and enjoy the meals and snacks provided at schools. Comments such as “having enough food makes my brain smart so I can learn” state the benefits of this program poignantly and eloquently. When a child says, “I like to eat breakfast,” what do you think that says about whether a child usually gets breakfast?

In every session I’ve spoken on the vital need to concentrate our greatest efforts on early childhood development. Studies, results and our own experience prove that failure to give a child adequate nutrition can cripple intellectual and physical development, lifelong health, educational and occupational achievement and the prospects for a productive life.

As even our meagre statistics on the extent of poverty show, too many people in this Territory are simply unable to provide their children with a healthy diet. Many are too poor to buy food. The damage to parenting skills at residential school experience, family and personal problems...the reasons for misfortune are many. No matter what the reasons, the reality is many children simply don’t get enough to eat.

Our responses to business plans, motions in this House, requests for a milk subsidy and for funding reallocations have repeatedly called on this government to make adequate food for young children a first priority. What do we get? Cancelled programs by ECE and empty words from the Health Minister on Nutrition Month. Yes, parents must be responsible, but for those who can’t be, must we insist that our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, our children, pay the lifelong price?

School nutrition programs use existing institutions, our daycares and schools, to cost effectively deliver a service exactly where it can have the most long-term benefit. We talk about efficiency and effectiveness of delivery. What could be simpler?

This year we spent close to a million dollars on the Premier’s questionable consultation process Creating Our Future Together. The predictably ambiguous results were hardly food for thought. The Premier likes consultation, so his Cabinet colleagues agreed to the money. Then let them all

go back and read what comes from the mouths of babes, Mr. Speaker. They are doing nothing to put food into those mouths. Happy Nutrition Month. Mahsi.

Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use the opportunity to recognize a couple of Pages that were delayed coming down because of a storm in Inuvik, but they did make it down. We have Alison McDonald here from Inuvik Twin Lakes. We also have Rachel Watters, who is here from Inuvik Twin Lakes, along with their chaperone and my constituency assistant, Leah Ipana. Welcome to the Assembly, and good job. Thank you.

The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize the Pages from the Deninu School in Fort Resolution: Kathleen Fordy and Breanna Mandeville, and their chaperone Ramona Fordy. I don’t think she’s in the House. Thank you.

The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It makes me very proud to use the opportunity to recognize two of our youngest guests we have in the gallery today, my sons, McKinley Hawkins and his younger brother, Hudson Hawkins. Thank you.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned at the end of my statement, my questions are directed to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.

During the review of the budget of the NWT Housing Corporation, the president of the Corporation, Mr. Polakoff, made a couple of statements. He said, in terms of transition housing, the Housing Corporation has provided significant funding to a number of facilities in the past. Further on he said there’s an opportunity for transitional housing through the overall housing continuum. I’d like to ask the Minister for Housing, the transitional housing is typically operated outside of the GNWT,

so I’d like to ask him what types of support exist within the Housing Corporation to provide support to the operators of transitional housing. Thank you.

The Minister of Housing, Robert C. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have that particular information right now but I’d be happy to get it and relay it on to the Member. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I look forward to that. Further on in his remarks, Mr. Polakoff mentioned that NGOs can provide a good source of support in terms of administering things like transitional housing. I’d like to ask the Minister, and hopefully he has at least some of this information, but under what program could the Housing Corporation provide operational funds to NGOs who provide transitional housing, new programs, existing programs, programs from another department? Any information would be helpful. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are some programs that we administer, on behalf of CMHC, that assist some of the folks that provide some of the houses with maintenance and upkeep on the units. Thank you.

I guess I’ll have to ask the Minister if he can commit to provide me with that information since he hasn’t mentioned what that is. One of the things that happened during the building of Bailey House was that the units were designed to a certain size and the Housing Corporation came along and said that they needed to be larger. By making those units larger, that increased the cost of running that facility. It led them to the situation where they are right now, where their revenues don’t meet their expenses. The tenants at Bailey House can’t afford any more than the $800 or $900 that they’re being charged at the moment. I’d like to know, in terms of that situation, where the Housing Corporation requires units to be larger and, therefore, more expensive than what the building is originally designed for, what will the Housing Corporation do to help the people operating the transitional housing to have their revenue meet their expenses. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Member has provided me with a lot of detail and she’s looking for some answers on some of the detail. If I had an opportunity to meet with the Member and listen to some of her concerns I’d be in a better position to supply the detail that’s she looking for, but I can assure the Member that we do what we can to assist those folks that are operating units. We have money that we sometimes do allocate to them, on behalf of CMHC, for some of the repairs on their unit. I would imagine if the Housing Corporation said the unit had to be larger,

then we would have to look at maybe how we would be able to support that. Thank you.

Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister, I think. As Mrs. Groenewegen has said once or twice, it would be nice if you just sort of said, yeah, that’s a good idea, we’ll look into it. I heard the Minister say that he’d like to sit down and talk. Absolutely. I’m going to ask him if he would commit to meet with me to talk about this idea so that we can try and find some sort of a solution. I would also like to ask the Minister if he would commit to work with other departments within the government to find the right funding for NGOs so that the people within transitional housing don’t have to go on to income support.

Mr. Speaker, the fact that there are some good ideas over there, we don’t have to say it. Obviously, the fact that we’re willing to sit and meet with Members and try and address some of the concerns shows them that there are some good ideas and we’re willing to listen. I will commit to the Member that we’re willing to listen to any ideas, any suggestions. It helps us do our job, it obviously helps the Members do their jobs, and most importantly, it helps the folks out there that we’re representing. I will commit to the Member that I’d be more than happy to sit down and meet with her. I will meet with whoever I need to, to try and find a good resolution to some of the issues that they’re facing. Thank you.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the Business Incentive Policy as it’s applied in the local preference adjustment. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI questions on this.

Will the Minister go back to the department to see if the current BIP is working in the small communities in the sense that the small communities are getting the majority of the contracts within the small communities? Thank you.

Thank you. The Minister responsible for ITI, Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We see a priority for this government to try to get as much of our expenditures into the smaller communities. We have a number of tools that we use to try to do that. Obviously, we use the Business Incentive Policy. Of course, we have a Negotiated Contract Policy to allow us to do that, but I would be very pleased to go back to the department and find out whether contracts are

making it to local businesses in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister look at the total impacts of changing the Business Incentive Policy from what it is currently to my recommendation? Just a paper exercise. I am looking for my recommendations of applying a flat 15 percent across the board for local adjustments only. Thank you.