Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, since the implementation of the New Deal for NWT Community Governments in 2007, community governments have been in control of their own infrastructure priorities. The New Deal has changed the way they do business with Municipal and Community Affairs, and as a result, the department’s role has transformed into that of coach, advisor and supporter.

Building on the ideas and intentions of the New Deal, MACA worked with the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT to develop the Accountability Framework. It will emphasize and reinforce the goals of the New Deal initiative, and support the Assembly’s goal of a strong and independent North built on partnerships.

By providing advice and guidance to community governments, MACA’s staff have become advisors, encouraging communities to assume responsibility in implementing their own capital plans. MACA’s role is to be a strong, effective and supportive partner to community governments, acknowledging our shared responsibility in managing public funds.

The framework is designed around five core areas of responsibility: good governance, financial management, sound administration, planning and safe communities. We will continue to provide practical support to community governments in all of these areas.

In April 2011 MACA delivered a brief presentation on the project to the NWTAC board of directors and the LGANT board of directors, and has since presented its initial concepts to the NWTAC in May

2011. Following the presentation, the department reviewed feedback, refined its framework and prepared the final steps for the implementation of the framework.

We are nearing the completion of the Accountability Framework and anticipate implementation to begin this year. We will be asking communities to provide quarterly reports to ensure that the framework continues to meet their needs. This project is integral to building sustainable, vibrant, safe communities and is equally valuable for the future partnership between the Government of the Northwest Territories and community governments. Through the implementation of this framework, we will continue to strengthen our relationships with community governments and remain active, supportive partners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Early childhood development and the early years of learning in kindergarten are a priority for the department. As we are all aware, healthy childhoods are the best foundations to develop healthy, productive adults.

The departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services are revamping the 2001 Early Childhood Development Framework for Action. To assist with the work, the departments reviewed the programs and services called for in the framework. And we’ve looked at other Canadian programs, policies and literature.

As Members know, we are working to develop two of the child and family resource centres called for in the Framework for Action. A number of northern communities have programs and services that are the foundation for this kind of initiative. The GNWT recently held a successful first meeting with community stakeholders to discuss an action plan for these centres. We want to work with them to build and streamline existing programs and services for children, families and communities to link service providers and decrease the administrative burden.

Mr. Speaker, the framework review showed us that we have limited information on children’s development in the Northwest Territories. In February and March we began to measure children’s development in kindergarten with our Early Development Instrument. The results will be available in the fall. They will give us information on our children’s development and the early childhood programs and services they encounter before entering the school system. We can use this data to improve our support for healthy child development.

Although kindergarten is not mandatory in the Northwest Territories, for many children it is the transition year into the formal education system. The department developed a new curriculum to better support children’s learning and development in kindergarten. It integrates learning by harnessing children’s natural learning processes, and is culture-based and relationship-based. Eleven teachers from across the Northwest Territories are currently piloting the curriculum, which will be implemented territory-wide in the fall.

Mr. Speaker, I will keep this House informed as this work in the area of early childhood development moves ahead. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the Western Premiers Conference in Edmonton, Alberta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We need to improve the quality, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of our NWT housing and building stocks through an NWT buildings act.

Right now, mandatory standards in all provinces and Yukon require new buildings to meet the EGH 80 energy efficiency standard and 25 percent better than the National Model Energy Building Code.

GNWT buildings and houses in Yellowknife are required to meet this standard, but there is nosuch requirement on new construction in the rest of the NWT.

While the standards of the National Modern Energy Building Code are required, there are no assurances these standards are being met due to the lack of small community inspections and enforcement systems.

Project management capacity at the community level is also a concern. For example, there is no guarantee that a new community building won’t be sited on permafrost for lack of a geotechnical survey. This raises major concerns. Public safety can be put at risk. Without standards there is no assurance of operational quality, energy efficiency, durability or security of investment. Because the best expertise for northern construction resides with our northern architects, engineers and consultants, lack of standards can allow our public dollars to leak south to those unfamiliar or under-qualified with northern requirements.

We need to ensure GNWT funds transferred to communities are used to build long-lasting and efficient buildings. The NWT Association of Communities has long called for the creation of NWT-wide building and inspection capacity, and passed resolutions pointing to the need for improved construction. There is a beginning of a response from the department, as we heard this morning.

The NWT Association of Architects, a bunch of professionals, has repeatedly brought forward the need for standards and compliance. The NWT Greenhouse Gas Strategy and the new ministerial mandates call for NWT building standards to assist communities in reducing their energy costs.

An NWT buildings act would meet our responsibility for addressing these concerns, but we will also need to help our communities and citizens meet these standards by establishing an advisory and inspection capacity and by establishing systems to require professional assurances that standards have been met. We need to aim higher by ensuring our NWT standard for energy efficiency recognizes our northern conditions and exceeds southern standards. I will have questions for the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to take a moment to reflect on our incredible event that our Commissioner Tuccaro, our Premier, our sports Minister, four MLAs and, of course, you, Mr. Speaker, who attended the Sport North Federation Annual Awards Banquet this past Saturday night. What an honour it was to be amongst some of the most gifted athletes in our

territory and share ideas with some of the strongest supporters of amateur sports.

Of course, we were in attendance to recognize athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers for their performance and contribution to sport in the NWT. These awards are no doubt a valuable role in supporting athletic success and recognizing the NWT’s growing talent.

I would like to take a moment to once again recognize Sport North Federation award recipients for 2012:

•

Youth Female Athlete: Madison Piling for speed

skating;

•

Youth Male Athlete: Isaac Wideman for speed

skating;

•

Coach of the Year: Shane Clarke for speed

skating;

•

Community Contributor: Valerie Gendron;

•

Official of the Year: Doug Swallow.

•

Of course I’m going to be biased for the next

one as obviously I had some dealings with coaching this individual, Junior Female Athlete: Cassey Mooney for swimming;

•

Junior Male Athlete: Christopher Lirette for

biathlon;

•

Corporate Contributor: First Air;

•

Senior Male Athlete: Bernie Bennett;

•

Contributor to Sport: Shane Thompson;

•

Of course the members of this team are in

Range Lake, Team of the Year: Team Koe for their outstanding performance at this year’s Briar.

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, let’s once again congratulate this year’s awards recipients and praise all the hard work for the people of the Northwest Territories who dedicate their time to amateur sport and fitness.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Residential Tenancies Act of the Northwest Territories was first enacted about 25 years ago, in 1987. It was modelled on legislation that was in effect across Canada at that time. It’s been amended over the years since, but only on a piecemeal basis. There are three areas of the act in particular which require some amendments: rent increases, the lack of power in the rental officer position, and coverage in the act for residents in

transitional housing. Today I want to talk about rent controls.

The Residential Tenancies Act does not currently control the amount by which a landlord may increase a tenant’s rent. It does restrict increases to one in any 12-month period and it requires the landlord to give three months’ notice in writing of any increase. Beyond that, tenants have no protection from unscrupulous landlords who can increase rents every year, year after year, and can raise rents as much as they think they can justify to a court should the increase be contested.

The issue of rent controls has been brought to this House a number of times but no action has been taken yet. The government generally considers the imposition of rent controls as a major intervention in the housing market. Every indication is that rent control as a way of dealing with excessive rental increases would be expensive to implement and administer, and the negative aspects could well outweigh the positive by a large measure.

Research in the experience of other jurisdictions suggests that rent controls could divert resources away from the provision of housing and could even contribute to existing housing problems. That may be so, but the Justice Minister needs to revisit this issue and consider potential solutions.

To quote a local lawyer, one who sees the impact of rent increases on her clients, “This supply and demand monopoly is created by the low vacancy rate, and middleclass families are sinking under the poverty line because of this.” If rent controls are not the answer, this government has to look outside the box and find something that can be the answer.

I will have questions for the Minister of Justice at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Today what I’d like to talk about is the finance and how the territorial government handles financing and $1.4 billion. If we think about that amount of money, it seems like a fair amount of money and in regard to how you want to look at it, and every one house gets a certain amount of money and how it should pertain to the residents that are living there. Our territorial government works on our behalf, or if there is $1 that is spent and if we evaluate how $1 is spent, we can get a concept of the way they operate.

Health and Social Services seems to expend a lot of the money. It seems like every 25 cents of the dollar that we have goes to health and social services, and this goes to hospitals. Also, students

that are going to the schools, it’s about 25 cents of the dollar that is spent on their behalf. This expense also encompasses teachers. Our language and museums also expend a bit of the money. It seems like about every 40 cents of the dollar goes to these items.

Also, in regard to Transportation, about 10 cents of the dollar goes to transportation and Justice expends about 10 cents per dollar as well. This goes to operations of the RCMP. Our territorial government, if a person were to live a good, healthy life, expends about 25 cents of the dollar. This is what I would be asking questions about.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to discuss the increasing need of our seniors. In Hay River the situation for seniors housing is reaching a critical point. Many seniors are finding it difficult to maintain their own homes and are trying to secure a place in senior public housing. As we all know, these spaces are very limited. At this time I would suggest that if we were able to assist the seniors to stay in their own homes, it would take the pressure off the government to supply more senior housing.

Currently, seniors are given some assistance for heating costs, but with the increase in our cost of living, seniors feel that they will no longer be able to afford to stay in their own homes. Something as simple as breaking down or replacement of an appliance can leave a senior unable to pay their other bills. The infrastructure of seniors housing is very high to this government and the demands are increasing. Is there a way that we could subsidize them in their monthly utilities or the maintenance of their homes so that they could continue to live in their own homes?

I feel that if we do not act on this issue quickly, we will see seniors housing demands double of what we can provide, and this will encourage seniors to sell their homes and put the government into a crisis mode, or subsequently, many seniors will have no option but to move south where seniors housing is more available.

My questions today will be for the Minister of Housing regarding helping our seniors stay in their homes. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am going to talk about the long-term care room and board rate increases that occurred April 1, 2012. I am very concerned about… [English translation not provided.]…that is pretty much all of their elders’ income support… [English translation not provided.] I truly believe that it is in the treaties that our health care is provided for, so I don’t know how our government is charging our Aboriginal elders rent increases for hospitals, even for people that aren’t elders that want to go to the hospital. Their health needs are taken care of by Health Canada, so when it comes to elders, we are charging almost all of the little old age security income that they get. It is a real conundrum.

I raised it in the past. I would like to pursue it a bit further. I will be asking the Minister of Health and Social Services questions about this. Why isn’t our government pursuing it with Health Canada? Why aren’t the treaty aspects being addressed from that perspective? Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This year marks the 50

th anniversary of community health

representatives, a very integral part in our health and social services system.

CHRs are front-line workers in all of our communities and they do a lot of our groundwork that we ask them to do in terms of prevention and promotion. However, although we do ask them to do a lot of work in our communities, we don’t always provide the necessary resources financially for them to make sure that they do their job as efficiently as we would like them to do or as what they have brought forth to this government asking for help.

Community health reps do a lot of prevention and promotion to keep our residents healthy and they do it through education awareness programs. A lot of them go out of their way. They are counsellors, community counsellors. They are also nursing assistants, data entry clerks, as well as administrative duties that they have to do for the health centres as well as some of our public health units.

I believe that we need to support our community health reps a lot more. This is the 50

th anniversary

that they have been an integral part of our communities, making our communities a lot

healthier and our people a lot healthier. As one of our Caucus priorities and prevention and promotion, I feel that we need to utilize our CHRs in the best way we can by providing support so they can do the best jobs that they can.

Being that this is the 50

th anniversary of the CHRs, I

would like to take this moment to say thank you to all the CHRs throughout the Northwest Territories for all their hard work, dedication and compassion in helping our residents live a healthy lifestyle and making our communities a better place to live.

When I finished college, my first job was a community health rep. I wanted to become a teacher in the school system, but seeing all the hard work that these individuals do in the job and how much impact it has on the communities, I stuck with that job for four and a half years and there were a lot of really good changes that we made in the communities. When I started my job as CHR, in about two years, 2000, there were a lot of people working in that area and field and they are still working in that area. They are dedicated individuals that have a compassion for the people.

I just want to say thank you to all the CHRs across the Northwest Territories and across Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement again today is on fairness. We all know that there is economic disparity between the regions of the Northwest Territories. Last week I asked the Premier if departments would ask this question: Is this a position, a program, a project or a gathering that could be located outside of the capital in order to support strong, viable regions and communities? As I said before, we can’t control the decisions of the private sector, large industries, and we can’t control where natural resources are located, but we must look for ways to maximize benefits to Northerners, individuals and companies and bring meaningful economic activity to all regions to offset the gap that currently exists.

We have energetic, innovative entrepreneurs in our private sector that could sustain and create employment in various sectors of our economy, but here’s the challenge: access to working capital is often not readily available from conventional lenders. But here’s a real opportunity for our government. We have lending limits through our government lender, the BDIC, but it’s time to review those limits again and I think, like so many other government policies, we can craft the policy to

achieve specific outcomes and specific goals. We have done this through the NWT Manufacturing Policy, Business Incentive Policy, Negotiated Contracts Policy and our Tourism Development Product Initiative. We need a policy that allows the BDIC to extend credit to businesses with a proven track record, which are willing to take on expansion and risk, focused on regions that are currently experiencing an economic downturn. Within the parameters of all due diligence, this can be done.

This is an initiative that could be a real boost to our economy and cost this government, all things going well, absolutely nothing because we are offering these loans at the going interest rates. So this would be a self-sustaining increase in the amount of money that we loan at this time and we need to look at the times, we need to look at the $2 million limit, we need to expand on that and I think we need to do it in the regions outside of the capital where right now we are experiencing significant economic downturn. We need help. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories has gone from the worst to the best. In our 18 months of our transportation program, we have had zero fatalities on our roads and our trails.

---Applause

A large part of the reason is that people are getting in the habit of wearing their seatbelts in their vehicles, or in the habit of wearing their lifejackets in their boats. The Drive Alive program has challenged communities to buckle up. The Drive Alive program has a challenge and your community can win big. All of the communities that we represent can win big in this challenge program. One of the big prizes is having Leela Gilday have a concert in your community on Aboriginal Day in 2013.

Also, your fire department could win $5,000 to take on this challenge if they win. They say you can win big by promoting safety seats, buckling up and wearing lifejackets in the boat. You can win big by saving lives.

So today I challenge all of the MLAs to encourage their community to get involved. Write to your fire department, e-mail the fire department to say we want to take the challenge and buckle up and water prevention. If your community wins, the Department of Transportation, through the Drive Alive program, would support your community by allowing you to have $500 for the community or the fire

department. You can win even bigger by getting $5,000 for your fire department and having Leela Gilday come to your community to play a concert.

I say this to all the people: summertime, we need to save lives. We in our communities, especially when we use our boats, that’s our highway. The communities down south of us, they use the road so that’s their highway. So I ask them to promote this in the community, promote safety on the water, promote safety on the road and that their communities can win big. Get into the Drive Alive program, get onto Transportation’s website and get your communities involved. I challenge all of the MLAs to save lives. Everybody then can be a winner. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many promises and commitments were made in the TLC some months ago about being responsive to Members. Most notably, many of the Members, and some of them sitting on the other side of the House, pleaded with their colleagues and told them how hard they’d work for them and they’d be responsive. I’ll acknowledge that sometimes forgetting things is the reality of doing a job and it does happen to all of us whether we want to admit it or not. Often it’s referred to as being human.

There is a certain exception to that. If you’re in Cabinet, you’re expected to rise above those problems and, of course, you have to work around them at the same time. Some of the biggest critics, or I should say often the harshest critics who are now sitting on the other side of the House, have been ignoring some e-mails and questions even by myself. Several Ministers, to put the point even sharper on there, I’ve e-mailed even the Premier, who has had no replies. I’ve e-mailed and even visited the Minister Robert C. McLeod, with no replies, and in one particular occasion I’ve waited three months for a response that I had to remind them the other day. I’ve got an e-mail outstanding 20 days ago that still has no reply.

When you make a commitment in the House to follow up on a particular issue such as the road salt used on Ingraham Trail, that’s been waiting 103 days for that response from the Minister of Transportation. These commitments are not just to us but to our constituents in trying to do the job. If a Minister says in this particular House they’ll follow up on those things, it’s very important. When a Premier or even a Minister decides to ignore your e-mail and chooses not to answer it, that affects our

job. How do we do our jobs as MLAs without those types of responses? It makes it very challenging.

We want to work as hard as possible and certainly in a collaborative way, but the challenge before us is to do these things. Later today I’ll be asking the Deputy Premier, who is the first lieutenant of this particular ship we know as the McLeod government, what leadership he will provide at the Cabinet table to ensure that Ministers are responding to Members and their concerns. It is an important duty if they’re in that office that they respond to us, because we’re working for constituents and how do we do that in the absence of the information.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. 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 recognize a former resident of Aklavik and Inuvik, a good friend of mine, Mr. Frank Edwards Jr., better known as Somoe. Welcome, Somoe.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize, as I have before in this House, a constituent of mine: Mr. Rocky Simpson with Concept Energy in Hay River. I’ll let my colleague recognize his constituent; I won’t take that from him.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize one of my constituents, Janet-Marie Fizer. Rocky Simpson also owns a business in my riding; so welcome, Rocky.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I, too, would like to welcome Somoe in the House. Good to see you. And Janet-Marie, we worked together years ago at Norterra, so it’s always good to see friends. I’d like to welcome all visitors in the public gallery here today. Thank you for taking an interest in today’s proceedings.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs following up on my Member’s statement and actually the Minister’s statement as well where he notes that the department has a role as a coach, advisor and supporter in terms of infrastructure. I think it’s much more than that. I think there’s also a responsibility for inspections on the safety and efficiency front.

I’ve noticed that all provinces and Yukon, our sister, have building acts to ensure these sorts of safeties are in place. In contrast, lack of comparable law here leaves us out of step with the times. Why would we not follow the established wisdom of every other Canadian jurisdiction to ensure quality construction through creation of a buildings act, or perhaps that’s already underway.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raises a very good point and I think it’s one that we need to have some follow-up discussion on as a department, because as he’s said, across the country all the jurisdictions have their own Building Standards Act. We ask our communities that are putting up projects to build it with best practices in mind following, obviously, all the building codes, the National Building Code and that. As I said before, it’s to the community’s benefit if they build buildings that conform to all these regulations and they have good quality product. It’s been raised on a couple of occasions now and it has been suggested by the NWT Housing Corporation as to having building inspectors in all the regions. With that much concern coming on this particular issue, I think it’s one we need to follow up on.

Thank you very much to the Minister for that comment. I’m glad to hear we’re thinking that way. I just want to note that all jurisdictions, we have faith in our communities, as the Minister has repeatedly said and used as an excuse for not having a building standards act, but I do think all other jurisdictions do have communities. Would the Minister agree that it is consistent to play this role and have some standards in legislation and that’s still consistent with having faith in our communities, which I think we all do?

First of all, this is not an excuse that we’ve used. We don’t make excuses. The Member has said, as well as I have, that we have great faith in our communities’ ability

to build quality products and put them on the ground. However, it is felt that there is some need for this particular service and I’ve committed to the Member that I will follow up on this and see where we can take it from here and put all the proper research together and see if it’s something that we can carry on further here in the Northwest Territories.

I take that criticism. Excuse was probably not the best word. Perhaps “reason” was a better word for that.

I again appreciate the Minister’s positive response here. I would say that we’re very fortunate to have a resident community of world-class experts in building standards and so on. They’re very active in national organizations and government-level inputting to national standards and so on. Would the Minister agree to meet with those representatives of those associations and professionals as one of the steps towards developing this legislation?

Obviously, it would be to our benefit if we were to meet with all those that were able to provide some expertise and how we can best move forward on this. I would commit to the Member that as we look at developing this particular initiative, I will commit to meeting with the experts in this particular field.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Justice. I talked in my statement about rent controls or the lack of and the impact that rent increases are having on constituents, particularly in the market communities and particularly here in Yellowknife. Without a rent ceiling, many residents have been finding it extremely difficult to find the rent that’s needed every month. Our cost of living is always going up and rent is a huge part of that. I would like to know from the Minister, he’s a new Minister to this department, and I’d like to know from him when this issue of rent controls was last considered by the department. I don’t mean just talked about, but when was there a thorough review of this issue?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that a number of amendments have been made to the Residential Tenancies Act over the last couple of years, but I can’t say exactly when and if any action was actually taken with respect to rental controls or whether that was

actually considered by the government. I would say that rent controls, there are as many people that support them as oppose them and it is a double-edged sword. We would have to look at that very seriously if we were to look at it. At this point in time we don’t have any plans to review the Residential Tenancies Act.

Thanks to the Minister. I do agree with the fact that there are as many opinions for as there are against rent controls, but I have to disagree with the Minister that the government is taking the position that there’s no intent at this point to look at the Residential Tenancies Act.

I’d like to get a little information from the Minister on what tenants can do if there’s a huge increase or if there’s a major increase one year and then for the next three years running. Can the Minister tell me what process exists, what avenue exists for tenants to deal with what they consider as an unjustified rent increase under the current Residential Tenancies Act? Thank you.

If a tenant has a concern with something done by their landlord, they always have the ability to go to the rental tenancies officer.

That just leads me right into another failing of the Residential Tenancies Act, and that’s the powers of the rental officer. The rental officer, at this point, cannot make any decision that is binding.

I’d like to ask the Minister, if I have had a 15 percent rent increase for three years running and I appeal to the rental officer, what exists for me to make sure that my landlord is not going to give me another 15 percent increase in the following year?

I’m not familiar with every detail of the Residential Tenancies Act, but I’m happy to find that out for the Member and get back to her.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Your final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, I’m glad he’s going to get back to me with information. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit – although there are no plans at this point – to developing some plans to look into the issue of rent controls, and as I mentioned in my statement, find a solution other than rent controls if rent controls isn’t the way to go.

I’m always happy to sit down with the Member and committee to discuss their concerns and issues, and I’d be happy to discuss this in greater detail with the Member.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. As the Minister well knows, the government crafts many different policies that help it achieve its goals. One of the stated goals of this government is to have viable and strong communities and regions, and as I’ve stated in my Member’s statement, there is a growing disparity amongst the regions in the Northwest Territories when it comes to their economic well-being.

One vehicle or tool which this government has at their disposal to assist with this would be greater access to funding, to loans by businesses in the regions. I would like to ask the Minister what is the current amount of money that the Business Development and Investment Corporation has at its disposal to lend within the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the total credit facility portfolio for the BDIC is just under $50 million at $49.6 million. Approximately $7.6 million approved in credit facilities and $257,000 approved in contributions for this past fiscal year.

The lending limit of the Business Development and Investment Corporation, I believe, is currently $2 million. When is the last time that that cap was reviewed and considered?

The timing of the Member’s questions is good. We’re currently putting together a terms of reference for review of the BDIC and the programs that are there. The hope is that those terms of reference will be established sometime this summer so that the review – and it’s being conducted by the program review office of the GNWT – will be underway this fall. I certainly look forward to working with the Regular Members as that program review plays itself out. Certainly, the limit on lending at $2 million is something that will be in the mix.

The Minister did give me the full amount of the lending portfolio, but how much room is there left that is not fully subscribed? I didn’t do the math. I didn’t write it down in time to do the math here. What avenue does the BDIC have to come back to the government to expand on the amount of money that they have to loan out to NWT businesses?

I don’t have that exact figure but I would be more than happy to get that for the Member.

Thank you. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would it be possible to include within the terms of reference of the review of the Business Development and Investment Corporation, the possibility of a policy that would recognize, as I referred to, the economic disparity which would look at the way that this government could help businesses in the regions at this current time who have viable business plans and proposals that could help them employ and expand on the employment they have within their communities?

We know that the Yellowknife economy is doing well. It’s healthy. What have we got that we could do for the regions by way of policy that could be included in those terms of reference?

That certainly would be a possibility, and I believe as the Minister responsible for economic development here in the Northwest Territories, it’s important that we’re not duplicating our efforts, that it’s seamless, that we’re getting capital into the hands of those folks who can do something with it, that can grow our economy, especially out in the regions where we are seeing high unemployment and we need those types of investments in the regions that will grow the economy here in the Northwest Territories. I certainly look forward to the discussions as the terms of reference are established and we get to work with the committee on next steps of that review.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement today I questioned the assistance to seniors housing and helping seniors that are currently in their own house and what is available. My question to the Minister of Housing is: What programs are currently available for seniors in their own home?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We recognize that we do have a lot of seniors across the Northwest Territories that try to be very independent and live in their homes. Through Housing we try to support them as much as we can. We have repair programs for seniors. Within the other departments they have some programs within their departments that are geared towards assisting seniors, because seniors like to be independent by nature and the fact that a lot of them want to live in their own places, but living on

fixed incomes, with a lot of them, it is a bit of a struggle, so as the government we recognize that we need to do what we can to offer them some assistance to live in their unit. It’s still a work in progress, but I think for the most part, the government’s doing a very good job with assisting our seniors.

My question for the Minister of Housing is: What is Housing doing to alleviate some of the pressures for the seniors that are in their own house other than charging seniors rent, I guess?

Obviously, this government takes its role at trying to look after our seniors very seriously. That’s why a lot of seniors, for the last 16 years, that are living in public housing are not paying public housing rent, and a lot of seniors have sold their units to move into public housing because of that. We feel with the initiatives that we’re undertaking right now, it might keep more seniors in their own homes and free up public housing units for those that are really in need of public housing.

But as the Housing Corporation, I’ve relayed to the Member that we do have an emergency repair program that we are planning on rolling out. A lot of seniors have been able to access a lot of our repair programs where if they had to pay for it themselves, they’d be unable to do so and it would be a great burden to them. We have some of our programs that we roll out for the seniors, and again, government-wide there are many programs that offer some assistance to seniors.

My next question is: What kind of wait-lists are there in the Hay River area for senior housing currently?

If the Member is referring to a wait-list to get into public housing, I would have to get the information and relay it on to the Member. Obviously, a lot of our communities across the Northwest Territories have some waiting lists, but I will gather the specific information and relay it on to the Member for Hay River North. Thank you.

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

I appreciate that information. Could the Minister be able to coordinate some of the information he provides to me that the government’s currently doing for seniors, along with coordinating with his other colleagues to give me the specifics on all that available for seniors in their own homes? Thank you.

I would be pleased to do that. I’ll have discussions with my counterparts and we’ll try to put all the information together with all the services that are provided to seniors. Because we are quite proud of the fact that, as a

government, we do assist our seniors very well. I will put the information together and pass it on to all Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Transportation some questions on the Buckle Up water prevention campaign. What types of initiatives has his department done to allow or to notify the communities of this campaign? Have there been radio ads or newspaper ads? How do the communities, other than what I am saying this afternoon in the House, possibly know that there is a challenge out there for all of the communities to take up this challenge and win some good prizes? What has the department done to communicate this to the communities in Dene, and French and English?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really appreciate the Member’s support for the Drive Alive program and other initiatives by the Department of Transportation. We had an excellent safety record in the past 15 months. We look to continue that.

The department views safety as the number one priority. To the Member’s questions, the public awareness campaign distributes safety information through the Internet, through newspapers, radio, television, printed material, audiovisual resources and community activities across the Northwest Territories and will continue to do those types of initiatives so that the public is aware of the campaigns that we have. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in the Buckle Up program, I mentioned in my Member’s statement that it’s usually for the people who are mostly south of the lake, but I also mentioned that up in the Mackenzie Delta they had Dempster Highway No. 8. Hopefully in the future we will have Inuvik-Tuk highway. They would be part of the campaign on the road there. In the Water Safety Program and the Buckle Up program, in the communities that apply for this program. We need this for the community council, hamlet council, town council or the fire department. They also go up to $1,000 for promotion dollars. When will the Minister be able to tell us when is the closing date and when will the big grand prize winner be known to the people?

Mr. Speaker, DOT coordinates the awareness campaign related to drowning prevention, helmet use and child

occupant restraints to support injury prevention. That is our component of the Healthy Choices framework, so we continue to work with communities on establishing those resources. If there are community organizations that want to take part in this and help us spread the message of safety first, we would be more than happy to discuss their participation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Drive Alive program has been a very successful program. It certainly shows in the records. Has this program had any type of appetite from the other provincial jurisdictions that look at the North in terms of leadership and safety on the road, trails and water? Have other governments looked at the North on the Drive Alive program to say this is one good program and we should also be using it on a national level?

Mr. Speaker, on a national level, as the Minister of Transportation I have yet to attend an FPT on road safety or get together with my counterparts from across the country on that, but certainly, when you have zero fatalities on your roads and waterways in 15 months, other jurisdictions will pay attention to that and the public awareness campaigns the GNWT have had have been first rate.

Certainly it is a message we are proud of. It is a story that we are proud of and we continue to get that message out there. We need to ensure that it is summer and people are using lifejackets. If you look in the past 21 out of 23 drowning fatalities here, 21 of them were not wearing a lifejacket. Again, that is a message that has to get out there. When you are in a boat or on the waterways, wear a lifejacket this summer. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the future, thinking forward and creating some territorial potential on this national campaign, has his department ever looked at a day that they could all celebrate Buckle Up, water prevention day? They do that. They have national days to recognize. Would his department look at something like that? Would a campaign like this be kicked off in the Territories?

Mr. Speaker, that is something that we could look at doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs and will have to deal regarding the emergency preparedness action

plans for communities as well as the National Alert System.

The first question to the Minister is obviously to set the stage here for the questions I have today. It is basically setting a standard in terms of content here. Can the Minister inform this House of how many communities have a current emergency action plan and how many do we have that do not have a plan in place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently we have 21 communities that have community emergency plans. We have four communities that have updated plans. We have four communities that don’t have community emergency plans. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for this response. Again, out of the 21 communities that do have a plan, some of those plans were not looked at for at least a two-year period, so obviously opportunities. So if you add those 21 with the four, we have a large proportion of our communities out there that require updates to emergency action plans. I think the national leaders or community leaders are making that known.

With that in mind, recently our Community Affairs department and our Minister refused to sign the NWT on the National Alert System that deals with emergency preparedness. Some of the reasoning behind so is the lack of cell phone coverage and some issues of communication or infrastructure which was holding our territory back from doing so. Can the Minister indicate to the Members of the House why he and his department feel not joining the rest of Canada is not a priority for protecting the people of the NWT in the wake of a possible emergency?

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the question because knowing a few of the media reports that were out there said we did not refuse to sign the deal and in no way did we say it is reliant on cell phone service across the Northwest Territories. That got some good play a few years ago, so I thought they played the same card again, but we did say, and I clarified in the second interview, that they did and thankfully they played it, was that we are going to sign on.

We are in discussions right now with the company. We are having some discussions with the providers in the Northwest Territories, so it is our intent to sign on but we wanted to make sure that we did our due diligence first and be able to provide the alert in case something happens, because there is no point in having a public alerting system when you have nothing to alert the public with. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, I do appreciate the honesty of the Minister and by no means is this an issue about cell phone coverage, because obviously there was mention of other infrastructure design. Quite frankly, obviously cell phones could be used, but that as it may, cell phone service or lack thereof, is not really I think the major concern here. Nunavut, for example, has very similar concerns to us. They signed on; they felt that television and radio were the proper tools that they could use in a lack of cell service as well. Because they felt the need to do so, why does the Minister feel that cell phones or mobile services really need to be upgraded in order to sign on?

Thank you. Again, this is not all contingent on cell phone service, but we need to improve our communication across the Northwest Territories and that’s one of the things that I had said. One of the things we discussed in the FPT Ministers meeting in Victoria was the fact that some of the information now they want to send out via Twitter and Facebook and that’s not available to a lot of communities.

Again, I go back to it is our intent to sign on to this. We’re in discussions with the service provider and the providers in the Northwest Territories. So we’re in that process right now and we should hopefully be signed on fairly soon. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I do appreciate the angle we’re going here, and again mention the fact that we’re waiting for communication capability to be as good as the department feels it should be and we’ve got to go through this due diligence process here before joining really the rest of Canada.

Again, we’re the only community or territory or province that has not signed on to the National Alert System. Can we have more specifics from the Minister when he feels and when the department feels that we are ready to sign on board? Thank you.

Thank you. We did provide a letter of support to CRTC to support the application that was going in there. We felt that we should do that because we wanted to look at our capabilities here in the Northwest Territories. So we’ve done that and that was done right away so the application could go in and we need to do our due diligence and not just sign on because everybody else has done it. We wanted to make sure we’re ready. We feel that now we’re in a fairly good position in taking advantage of the technology we do have with the hope that technology across the Northwest Territories will improve in the future so we can use some of the other devices such as the mobile devices that we discussed in Victoria. So

the short answer is we wanted to make sure we did our due diligence before we signed on. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Housing. I know he’s fielding a lot of questions here today. It’s just in regard to the address that we heard last week in the House and there was mention of the $1.2 million rent supplement for private rentals, and as some of my colleagues mentioned today, the increased costs of living in our communities, and they’re only going to go higher. Some of my colleagues in the past have talked about the working poor. My question today is with this rent supplement of $1.2 million, when will this program become available to residents of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our discussions across the Northwest Territories during the very extensive consultation process, it was pointed out that there was need to assist, as the Member pointed out, the working poor. We have a lot of people that are just starting in the workforce; we have a lot of people coming out of school going into the workforce. So we felt that they needed a bit of help for the first couple of years and then after that they would either graduate into home ownership or be able to afford private market housing. So we designed a program called the Rent Supplement Program and the launch date is expected to be September 1

st of this year. Thank

you.

Thank you. My second question on this is pending the applications that the department receives for assistance in this area, is he willing to amend the policy to increase more funding across the Northwest Territories in future years? Thank you.

Thank you. This is very early in the process, so we’re not sure what kind of uptake we’re going to have on this. We’re looking at possibly 175 across the Northwest Territories initially, graduating them into quarterly sections. So there will be a continuous intake instead of doing all of them the first quarter and then having nothing left over for the rest of the year. So the initial plan is to try and assist at least 175 by quarterly installments. Thank you.

Thank you. In terms of getting this information out to the general public, does the Minister or the department have a marketing strategy to let people in the communities know that

this program is available for them to access, and what is that marketing strategy? We only have pretty well the summer to get that done. So over the next three months does he have a marketing strategy to let the public know? Thank you.

Thank you. There have been a lot of changes in the Housing Corporation with the shelter policy review, a lot of proposed changes. We have a very extensive communication plan that we’re planning on rolling out very soon here to make the public out there aware of all of the programs and some of the changes that are going on within the NWT Housing Corp. So we’re hoping to roll that out fairly soon, and get the information out, and be on the website and a fairly extensive communication plan. I’d be willing to sit down with the Member or Members and share that with them. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One final question in regard to this new funding. In some of the communities what we are seeing is much like public housing. We do have a lot of people staying in the same house. With some of our professionals and young professionals out there that are trying to take care of their debts from school, we do see multiple people living in the same house to decrease their debts. With this program coming out, there’s a possibility that they might take advantage of this program where they can get supplemented for their rent, which will even decrease their lower costs. How is the Minister going to regulate those kinds of applications so that the people who really need them get this program for them and not people who are looking to take advantage of the program? How is he going to regulate this? Thank you.

Thank you. There is always a danger that there are going to be some people that try to take advantage of some of the programs we have to offer. We have to do our part to ensure that this is distributed fairly and to those that are most in need. I think in such small jurisdictions in the Northwest Territories, working with the communities we all know the people in the communities that are in most need, those that are trying to get a good start in life. We feel that this is going to give them that good start, and like I said before, they can either graduate into regular market housing or they can graduate into home ownership, which we are intent. But we feel this is an excellent program that’s geared towards giving these people a good start and not have to be so dependent on the government right off the bat. So this is a very good program and the Member makes a good point. We have to monitor this very closely to ensure that those that need it are the ones that are using it. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Deputy Premier of the House, the Honourable Jackson Lafferty. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the concerns about lack of response and, in some cases, timely response. It’s funny, as I’m sitting here I got a print-off of something from Mr. Ramsay’s office regarding information I asked in February, but actually that started off the discussion where the commitments were actually all made in the House, which I will table later today.

So to draw some sort of comparison here, this is the same problem we had in the last Assembly and we tried to take steps with this. So that’s why I’m asking the question directly to the Deputy Premier, like at the time I’d asked the Premier.

So my question to Jackson Lafferty is: What is he prepared to do to take to the Cabinet table to encourage his colleagues at that Cabinet table to ensure that they act and certainly respond appropriately when Members ask questions, whether it’s through e-mail or in the House, that we get a timely response? Because we’re acting for our constituents and we’re working for them.

This particular issue does come to the Cabinet table. We do have a standard rule that any information or concerns that are brought forward by Regular Members are responded to within five days. It all varies on if there are organizations that we have to reach out to to get more clarification. It will take some time in some areas, but our overall goal and objective is to get back to Regular Members within five days. Either to respond back saying we’re looking into it or at least respond back to them. As I’ve stated before, some areas will take some time as well.

I’ll thank the Deputy Premier for that particular response. I’m glad to hear that they have a bit of a framework. I didn’t think I heard the word “policy” or “procedure” but I certainly heard the sense of a framework, five days.

Would the Deputy Premier find in his understanding of that framework that waiting 103 days for a particular commitment made in the House or 90 days for an information request made to the Housing Minister’s office, would he consider that timely within that five-day framework and if not, what is he going to do?

All the Ministers are here today. They are listening to the concerns and questions that are raised. There are some areas that do take time. We have to work with NGOs as

well as department organizations within the communities and Aboriginal organizations. Sometimes we are limited in resources, as well, to dig up some more research analysis and so forth.

The 90 days and 120 days that the Member is referring to, we need to get more information on those areas. The standard rule is to reply within five days as best as we can and at times it will take a longer time.

What I heard was a lot of dancing around the question, which was simply: Does the Deputy Premier find it reasonable if a Member has to wait 90 days or 103 days? Does that reasonably fit into that five-day framework? Respectfully…

---Interjection

No, I’m asking if it fits within the framework, sir. Respectfully, I would say that, you know, I understand people are sick. I’d like to ask that question. Does that fit within the five-day framework, the 90 days or 103 days that I was referring to? What’s he about to do about it?