Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my questions are going to be a follow-up on a moratorium that was brought forth to us earlier or actually towards the end of our last session. It is for the Minister of Housing in regards to the short-term moratorium on evictions due to public housing arrears. I just want to get an update from the Minister on how many tenants were in arrears or actually getting caught up on their rental payments. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was recently a meeting held in Yellowknife with all the LHO managers across the Northwest Territories. One of the items discussed was the moratorium. At the time, it was noted that of the 20 people that were facing eviction, none of them have actually come forward and entered into a repayment plan. It is not going as well as we would have liked. We have two months left. We are hoping there is not a rush at the end and hoping that people start dealing with it right now. That way, we are not faced with mass evictions come April 1

st .

Thank you.

In communicating with tenants of the public housing portfolio, they were asked to come into the LHO and work out a repayment plan. I am not sure if we are following up with that, but right now the opportunity is there for them to work with our LHOs, enter into repayment plans and honour them, and come April 1

st there is

a possibility that they would be able to stay in their units. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as stated in the moratorium, on April 1, 2012, the NWTHC will once again be carrying out its evictions. We have a number of tenants who have not got into a payment plan. Is the Minister of Housing committed to possibly having their LHOs go out and speak with these individuals? In some cases we may have some individuals who have some language barriers or some mobility issues. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we would do the best we can to try and work with all of these tenants, those with language barriers. We are more than willing to work with them so they understand the whole process. The same thing goes with mobility issues. If there are mobility issues, we are more than willing to work with them.

Again, we have a lot of tenants that don’t face these challenges. The onus is on them to come into the LHOs and try and work out repayment. Part of the duties of our LHOs is they try to communicate with the tenants as much as possible. This is one of those cases where the tenants would be wise to come into the LHOs. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This last question deals with the tenants that have not gone into a repayment plan. Do we have a number of tenants across the Northwest Territories who will possibly become evicted April 1

st that will result in

some of our other programs being accessed such as income support? Does he have a number of tenants that are possibly going to be evicted come April 1

st ? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, right now we stand at about 20. The number was at 36. We are at 20 right now. There could possibly be more. We are encouraged by the fact that there were many people that were non-payers, as far as rent goes, before this moratorium came into place. A lot of them are actually stepping up to the plate and entering into repayment plans or working with their LHOs. There has been some positive news come out of this. Those that have always paid their rent are continuing to pay their rent. There has been some positive come out of this, but again we are hoping we are not facing mass evictions come April 1

st because we have given people every

opportunity to come in and enter into a repayment plan. Unfortunately, it is not working out the way we would have liked. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on my Member’s statement wherein I spoke about Fisherman Lake just across from Fort Liard and the contamination that is present. I would like to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, it has been on the agenda for some time for Fort Liard and the residents. It is almost 30 years there. During my recent visit to Fort Liard, the concern of the families there is that it has been contaminated. What type of mitigation efforts, what type of ongoing monitoring is happening in Fisherman Lake?

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a project that is on federal land and regulated by the federal government. We have a marginal role, as the Member pointed out, due to the fact that that responsibility is a federal responsibility, and should the day come with devolution, we would be able to have a much more fulsome and thorough discussion. We review their plans if the remediation plans are available on their website doing their testing. There has been testing done in 2011. The Member’s point is well taken. It is a long existing project and there are concerns as

he indicated. The steps that are being taken fall within the requirements under their land use plan. Thank you.

When it comes to the water and the fish that is in that lake, there is potential contamination of that as well. What can this government do to work to get the water also tested and monitored? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We monitor and track what is being done. We work with federal agencies and officials to ensure that they take the right steps. There are the concerns that the Member has stated. We have, as well, our own officials, as I indicated, that will work with the federal government keeping in mind still that they have the lead role to play here. Thank you.

All this contamination will affect about seven families, not to mention all the users from Fort Liard. I would like to highlight this as a grave concern for the community. I would like to ask the Minister how can the community act on highlighting this with the federal government to ensure that it is a priority on the federal agenda. What steps can we take to heighten the awareness of this contaminated area? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, having the Member stand up in the House to voice their concerns is a good way to do it, but in the long term the Member himself has observed the key way to get control of these matters and these issues is to sign the Devolution Agreement and take over that authority or responsibility. There is a separate chapter under remediated sites that would allow us to make sure that work is done. It would be a federal responsibility, but once we have the authority, we can make sure of the legal ability to go after the federal government to ensure that they honour their responsibility. If the Member stands up and says that devolution is going to help us sort this out, the leadership in the Deh Cho say we have to take over control over land, water and resource planning because looking to the future, we want to avoid these various situations. That is the surest, most imminent way to make those significant changes. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am well aware of the government’s intent to have devolution for our northern territory, but I think the most important thing for the residents of Fort Liard is to address their serious environmental concerns that are affecting their people. I would like to ask the Minister once again how can we raise and heighten the awareness of the environmental concern of Fisherman Lake for the residents of Fort Liard. It could be up to and including a public inquiry. Thank you.

We will be following up based on this discussion in this House. There are officials from all levels of government that listen closely to the debate here. I am completely and fully serious when I talk about the benefit and the ability for us to do this job properly being greatly enhanced within the next very few years and within the life of this Assembly, as a matter of fact, to be able to have that transfer over to the Government of the Northwest Territories so that we don’t have to have the discussion about a third order of government that has their headquarters in Ottawa. It’s very real, it’s very imminent and it’s very doable. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you. In my Member’s statement today I talked about medevacs and I need not remind anyone in this House how important those services are. A lot of Northerners depend on them and it’s more than just lip service when I say that in a lot of cases it is life or death on those medevac services. So of course time is very important.

Yesterday I was speaking to someone which has caused the reason why I need to make today’s statement to talk about medevacs. I found out that Deputy Premier Doug Horner of Alberta is moving towards the Edmonton Garrison solution for the medevac problem on the pending closure of the Muni Airport.

My question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is: Is his department willing to get behind this particular initiative, work with the Province of Alberta, work with the City of Edmonton and lobby the federal government so that Edmonton Garrison can be turned over to the Alberta government as a viable solution for medevacs? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.