Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a plan for the Northwest

Territories. It has been articulated since we have picked the Cabinet and since we set our priorities. One of the major objectives in this Assembly, given the fiscal circumstances that we are in, what happened in the last Assembly as we put all of our pre-capital to take advantage of the stimulus money from the federal government and put out a $1.1 billion capital program over three years is to look at our borrowing limit. Our borrowing limit talks are productive. They are going to result in an increased borrowing limit. The reason that we are going for the borrowing limit is to be able to, in due time in the life of this Assembly, make strategic investments in the areas that we don’t now have the resources to do that. The issue of Highway No. 7 is on that. There is a list. It is going to be called a red flag list. Next in line, should there be funds available, the borrowing limit gets done, we free up some of our savings from within government, then we will be working collectively to address some of those outstanding infrastructure issues like Highway No. 7. Thank you.

I find it incomprehensible that this government does not know about the needs of Highway No. 7. I have been up here for nine years. In the 2012-13 infrastructure budget there is zero dollars allocated to Highway No. 7 and it collapses every spring and that is around the corner. I would like to ask this government what is their plan for Highway No. 7 when it comes to infrastructure investment. Thank you.

We are well aware of the concerns of the Member. We are well aware of the circumstances of the road. We are well aware that we have far more needs than we have resources. This road is on our red flag list. We have to resolve the borrowing limit issue and look at collectively making those strategic initiatives necessary in critical areas such as Highway No. 7. That is the intent of the government. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I know that when there is will and desire by the Cabinet to spend extra money, they can certainly come up with the money. I would like to ask the Finance Minister when is Highway No. 7 being discussed at the Cabinet table. Who represents my constituency at the Cabinet table when this investment is required? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Transportation looks after and is responsible for the highway system in the Northwest Territories. He is responsible. This Cabinet is responsible for addressing the issues of the Members as they are raised in this House. Specifically, the highway issue and the highway inventory will be addressed by the Minister of Transportation as he comes forward with the business plan for the coming year. As we resolve and finalize and move forward with the borrowing

limit issue, it will give us the capacity to address this particular circumstance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to ask the Finance Minister to continue highlighting it at the Cabinet table, because every year for the last nine years, investment expenditure has been done in the late fall when it is rainy season and nothing can be done and projects continue to collapse. My concern is that I cannot wait until the new capital and new budget to be discussed in June during prime construction season. Something has to be done now. I would like to ask the Finance Minister to commit to look after the needs of my constituents and our highway system. Thank you.

That commitment stands for the Member in his constituency as well as all the other Members opposite. We will and are going to do the best job possible with the resources available. We are going to look at making strategic investments. When the Minister of Transportation is back from his travels, he will be able to speak to great detail about the Member’s concerns whether from a broad government point of view. This issue very clearly is on our to-do list, our priority list should extra funds become available, which we anticipate they will in the coming months. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Housing. Today we heard some questions regarding the alcohol and drug issue that we continue to see and face in the Northwest Territories. Meanwhile we also have a housing issue. I would like to put the two together and talk about how we can address that and try to deal with both problems. That is going to the root cause of where the drugs are coming from, why people are in the situation they are. I would like to ask the Minister of Housing what is the policy regarding tenants who are accessing housing programs in our small communities, or even in our larger centres that are also engaging in illegal activities such as bootlegging and selling of drugs to people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t condone any kind of illegal

activities in our public housing units. Especially the LHOs usually have a zero tolerance policy. If someone is convicted of illegal activity in their unit, then their residency will be terminated. Thank you.

Thank you. This would apply to all criminal activity that takes place in the unit or that they’re charged for and convicted. So it would apply to all. There’s no different sized penalty for different convictions. Thank you.

Thank you. I really commend the work that Housing has been doing on this situation and hope that they do have a plan where we can start looking at tenants who are abusing this program. It’s still contributing to our social problems by feeding these addictions to the people of the Northwest Territories. In regard to tenants being evicted, would the same enforcement be put on all tenants of the dwelling or all people on the leasing agreement? Can the Minister please confirm who would all be infracted with this penalty? Thank you.

Thank you. That is one of the downsides of this and sometimes there’s unintended fallout from the leaseholder being convicted of any illegal activity, and that would apply to the members because they’re the main person on the lease, their residency would be terminated. Unfortunately, some of those caught in the crossfire are those that really have nothing to do with the activity, but because they’re residents of the unit, they would be looking for another place to stay. It’s unfortunate that it has to come to this and we do our best to try and make sure that all the tenants are housed adequately, but if there is criminal activity going on, unfortunately there’s some unintended fallout and there’s some innocent victims to all of this and it’s usually the children. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again I really enjoy hearing what the Minister has to say about making sure that people who are selling to our people actually are evicted, and that should cut down on our problems with the selling of alcohol and drugs to our people. Has the Minister done any work from the housing side of things with the Minister of Justice or RCMP division to find out who these people might be in our communities? Has there been any communication? Thank you.

Thank you. I don’t think we need to work with the RCMP or anybody to know who these people in the communities are. Every community knows who in the community are carrying out illegal activities. Unfortunately, some of them are tenants of public housing, but you can’t evict them even though the Residential Tenancy Act allows you to possibly evict them on assumption. The LHOs normally wait until they are convicted. But every community knows who these folks are and until we can get them convicted, unfortunately there’s not much we can do, as much as we would like to have them no longer tenants and carrying out illegal activities from subsidized public housing units. So we’ll have to continue to work diligently on that and make sure that we send a clear message out there that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated within the public Housing Corporation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are following up on my Member’s statement today and they’re directed to the Minister of Justice. So my first question is: In some of our earliest briefings as the 17th Assembly, we were

alerted to the work that the Department of Justice was doing to really list the anticipated costs of the proposed Omnibus Bill C-10, Government of Canada. So I’m looking to the Minister of Justice to find out what those costs are. When will he be bringing that to committee, or is it ready now? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re working on that right now. We’re very interested to actually identify what those costs are and break them down so that they’re reasonable. Some of the costs are easier to identify. The cost of facilities is certainly an easier cost to come up with, but when it actually comes down to how much it’s going to cost for legal aid and how much it’s going to cost for court time, or even how much it’s going to cost in the facilities itself, because we actually have to do an analysis of the actual cases that have gone through the system and try and figure out how the new act is going to affect it. So we’re working on it. I’ll commit to getting something to the Minister in the next two months on those costs. I’m interested in seeing them as much as the Member. Thank you.