Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been fortunate to have good working relationships with our neighbours in the Yukon and in Nunavut, and considering, as I mentioned earlier, the Northwest Territories is the only jurisdiction in the country that doesn’t have a Conservative Member of Parliament representing it, I’m wondering if there’s going to be any effort by the Government of the Northwest Territories to ramp up our pan-territorial initiatives and work even closer with both our neighbours in the Yukon and in Nunavut? Thank you.

The Premier has made a great effort to nurture that relationship. He’s put out common documents, pan-territorial documents. We’ve dealt with issues, health issues, on a pan-territorial basis. In fact, as we stand here today, the three territorial leaders, along with the Minister Aglukkaq, representing the Canadian government, is in Nuuk, Greenland, to talk about issues of great importance in the circumpolar world. So it’s a relationship that there is common, there’s strength in common effort that we are small in population, large in geography, but we have huge political ties and a vested interest in working

together. I believe that the Premier and this government are committed to that and I’m sure the 17th Assembly will carry that on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for asking that question, because this has been in the works for some time now.

The alternative school programming consists of Hay River, as well, and there have been several meetings between the school boards and my department. I did make a commitment to visit the schools as well, which I did when I was in Hay River for the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. I went to see the students there. But what it came down to is as of March we decided to look at the tentative school programming and let’s hire a consultant to have a thorough analysis of the programming in the community, which we did. So the recommendations that came out of that were regarding the funding that would allow for adequate funding for a successful program, which the Member has alluded to. It has been very successful, and the recommendations were considered, and a method of funding has been established, and we are working closely with the superintendants of DECs and DEAs to establish those working relations and the changes to the funding will be highlighted. Mahsi.

Thank you. So the changing to the funding, I’m going to assume, was increased funding so that the allocation that the DEA and DEC put towards the alternative schooling will continue. I’d just like to ask the Minister just for clarification then, has the issue essentially been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction and we can look forward to, in the fall, this service continuing in Hay River? Thank you.

Mahsi. First of all, I’d just like to commend the DEA and DECs, and also the Members, for voicing their concerns about this particular programming. Yes, the program changes, there will be an increase in funding that’s satisfactory to DEAs, DECs and our department. So that is in the works and it will be announced and the funding will be flowed through as of July 1st on the

school year. So it’s good news for the communities that we represent on the alternative school programming. Mahsi.

Thank you. I’d like to thank the Minister for his attention to this very important matter and for the resolution that’s been brought to it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I didn’t hear a question there. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. During my Member’s statement I spoke about housing and I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation questions. Last year the Housing Corporation had $8.5 million allocated in the area of house repairs. In the 2011-12 main estimates, the amount is reduced to $5.6 million. I would like to ask the Minister if he could return the funding from $5.6 million to $8.5 million in this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money that we’d allocated last year for home repair, if you recall, our last year’s budget was $75 million and that was the final year of the federal investment. This year our overall budget is $27 million and a good portion of that is going towards repairs. If you base it on a percentage-wise, I think we’re doing more towards repair this year. We’ve had some units that were proposed to go up, HELP units. We’ve taken those. I think we have four that are proposed to go up this year. We’re taking the money from that and putting it into more home repair, because we do recognize that a significant investment has to continue to be made in home repair.

From the information in the 2009 Housing Corporation Needs Survey, about 80, maybe a little higher, around 80 percent of the communities have adequacy issues as a main core need problem. This is the reason I’m asking for at least this amount to be returned, in spite of the fact that we have less money overall. Will the Minister direct his senior staff to address the needs in accordance with the NWT Housing Corporation 2009 Needs Survey?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We continue to have discussions as senior management on how we can allocate more funding into the home repair. There are opportunities to move some money around and put it into home repairs, and we’re always open to that because we do recognize, as the Member does, that we do need to have a fairly good investment into the home repair, so that would deal with a lot of the adequacy issues we face in some of the small communities.

It’s my belief that part of the issues with the delivery of home repairs is communication. I feel that best communication is to the Housing Corporation to deliver programs through a decentralized model. Will the Minister examine the possibility of creating a decentralized model and put program officers and project officers in the communities where they’re delivering programs?

In the past we had community liaison officers in some of the communities, but the funding for that was deleted in anticipation of the government service officers coming on board. I believe we have eight communities now that are piloting this particular program. The NWT Housing Corporation was working closely with the Executive as to what we see these folks doing on our behalf in the communities. I believe in one of the Member’s communities there is a government services officer. So this is a pilot project right now. Once we’re able to see the results of this, it may be something that is expanded in the future.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree that is a positive step, and a step in the right direction with the individuals working in the communities for the GNWT. However, the people in the communities are seeing the program officers and project officers as the key to delivering. No matter how well the corporation advertises, I still walk into elders’ homes and they’re still waiting for somebody to come visit them. I’m wondering if the Minister can direct the staff to ensure that the delivery staff and program officers are going door to door. If there’s an individual there to work with the clients or the community officers in the communities

from the Executive and work with them to go door to door to visit the elders when they’re delivering housing programs.

I have made commitments in this House in the past that we would try and get to as many folks in the communities, especially seniors, that would like to put in applications. I’ve made commitments to also have someone come along and interpret some of the programs so they’re more understanding of the programs that we offer and they’re able to fill out the applications a lot more accurately with the help of an interpreter. I have made those commitments.

As far as going door to door, that would require a great deal of time and resources. We prefer that those who feel that they need some work done or would like to fill out an application, contact us and then we will go to their units again, along with an interpreter if the need is there.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Deputy Premier. With regard to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, apparently there’s been a list of prescribed amendments that the federal government would like to meet which has been shared with this government. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier what the government’s position is when it comes to the amendments, the possibility of having a centralized board and having regional boards which presently are part of the land claims agreements. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier what position this government is taking when it talks about restructuring the boards in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Deputy Premier, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a very fundamental political issue. The reality is that Northerners should be making those decisions, that if we had the authority over land, water, and resource development, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

This is a federal initiative and it’s one where what has been portrayed is that there is a need to reform the processes in the Northwest Territories.

It’s our opinion that the system we have is fundamentally sound, that the gaps and delays that happen occur when decisions have been made in the North and go to Ottawa. We do not even have, at this late date of our political evolution, the

authority to appoint our own board members. That’s why we signed the agreement-in-principle and are moving on devolution. We fundamentally believe that the system is sound, that our position has been clear since 2009. It’s on our website that the system that’s here should be properly funded, that the structure that’s there should be maintained. That they should look at doing things to clarify, where there are policy issues that are grey, sort those out, properly fund the boards, and delegate simple authorities like making our own board appointments.