Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had a comprehensive plan to revitalize the commercial fishing industry. It is an industry that is here on our doorstep. It is renewable. It is sustainable. We need to get more people involved. We need to find a better market. Will the Minister commit to undertaking an initiative to see that happen within his department?

The goal of this government is to diversify the economy here in the Northwest Territories. Certainly we’re going to take every opportunity to do that. I’d be more than happy to work with Regular Members to look at commercial fishing here in the NWT to see what we can do. If we can do things differently and make a difference and grow that industry here in the Northwest Territories, that’s something I’m interested in. I know there’s a number of Members across the floor that are interested in doing that. We can put our best effort into that.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement today, there seems to be a bit of a crisis out there where cars are more important than the safe access that some women want and deserve to their apartment building. That seems to be a real shame. I tried to highlight that narrative in my Member’s statement. I’ll have questions to the Minister of Justice about what he will be willing to do.

In this particular case my question is: What remedies are now available to the enforcement order of a rental officer when a landlord or tenant, as in this particular case, has trouble getting the order enforced and followed through by the landlord as issued by the rental officer?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The rental officer has powers and authorities as identified within the Residential Tenancies Act. When a dispute occurs between a tenant and a landlord and cannot be resolved through mediation or discussion, the rental officer does have the power to make an order. Once filed with the court, that order does have the power of the courts. If one of the parties disagrees with the order, there is a right to appeal. The right to appeal is the cornerstone of the Canadian justice system and that cannot be ignored. When an appeal is filed, the Supreme Court has a couple of options. They can allow the appeal, dismiss the appeal, or change or cancel the order. If following the appeal the order is upheld, actions can be taken to make sure that the landlord and tenant comply with the order. Where an order has been made and is not under appeal and is not followed by one of the parties, a person or corporation can be charged with an offence. If found guilty, a person is liable to a fine of $2,000 and a corporation of a fine up to $25,000.

I appreciate that canned answer because it really structures part of the problem. The thing is, the rental office is really meant to be something simple. Somebody can go in, they have a dispute, it’s ruled on one way or the other whether they like it or not. It’s about follow-up and commitment on these particular orders.

We have a situation where the appearance of the order is not complied with and they continue to

have trouble with that. That brings us to the question. The rental office has no follow-up power and enforcement power. Why do we need to send people to court? Why don’t we review the situation within the act?

The department is reviewing a number of issues with the legislation that were raised by the rental officer. One of the issues that was not raised was this particular issue about the powers and the orders and the enforcement of those orders.

However, recognizing the concerns of my two colleagues as well as people throughout the Northwest Territories, I have directed the Department of Justice to look at possible issues relating to the enforcement of orders under the Residential Tenancies Act. In this review we need to determine that there are actually issues that can be addressed through the legislation or whether there are some other means to address these enforcement issues. They will be looking into that.

I’m hoping to get back to committee with some sort of analysis and report, as well as the Member, this fall. I will take that to committee and we will have a discussion and we’ll figure out where to go from there to improve this service in the future so that this type of thing doesn’t happen again.

I’ll thank the Minister for scooping my third question, which ultimately only left me with the fact that is it anticipated that there will be amendments coming forward this fall? I’m just trying to get a sense of what he was after. Ultimately this issue needs to be reviewed. It sounds like that is what he was about to do. I want to make sure that it gets reviewed in a timely way so that we don’t put other people at risk. Is that what he’s saying? That he’ll bring forward amendment to regulation changes that can be implemented immediately?

I agree completely. We want to make sure that this type of thing doesn’t happen. What I’m committing to do is providing a bit of an analysis and report on what can be done to make sure that orders can be enforced and how they can be enforced. I’m not sure that’s going to require a legislative amendment. It may be policy, it might be regulation. We will do that research and analysis. We will bring it to committee. We will present it to committee and seek direction from committee and the Member as well. We will seek direction on how we want to move forward on that. It may be legislation; it may not be legislation. We will do something.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to recognize my colleague from Tulita and Kelsi Taylor, two Pages here. I forgot to say that. I want to ask the Minister of Education questions on the Colville Lake School. I want to ask the Minister where within his department, how soon could the people in Colville Lake look at the possibility, amongst the many other projects that we have in the Northwest Territories, that they can look at maybe a planning or discussions on building a new school for Colville Lake.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Colville Lake School has been addressed in the House on numerous occasions. It all depends on the allocation of students. We currently have, as the Member has indicated, 55 students. It’s allowable up to 62 students. At the same time the Member is asking when we can discuss this. The opportunity would be when we’re going through the capital planning process. We put forward any requests on capital infrastructure if it’s a real critical need for the Northwest Territories. We compile those capital planning and then decide from there which is the most priority for the Northwest Territories. There will be opportunity to do that during this Legislative Assembly.

In the Colville Lake School it’s very difficult for the teachers to give the best attention to the students. Where in the capital planning process that the Minister can see that the Colville Lake students can have a chance to say yes, we could possibly get some planning studies done to put us on the capital planning projects to have a new school. Where?

This is an opportunity. We’re listening to the Member. We need to go through the process of selecting those individual capital projects that are important to the Northwest Territories. If we have a capacity of 62 and we have 55 students in there, that’s an area we’re also looking at. We’re closely monitoring those schools, Colville school and Trout Lake and other schools that have been brought to our attention. We’re going to work with that as part of the planning process for capital planning. Discussion will take place as to which priorities we should focus on. That is the process that we need to follow within the GNWT.

I want to ask the Minister who in this government would need to be convinced when you go to Colville Lake. I challenge any Member here to bring their students to Colville Lake, attend the school in Colville Lake, and see if that will help them get a new school. There are four classrooms

in one building. There’s no privacy. Even though that number is there the Minister is rattling off, doesn’t quite fit the people in Colville Lake. Who within the longest system needs to tell the Minister that we need a new school in Colville Lake? This is not acceptable. Who do we need to convince?

The process itself is through the divisional education council, through the superintendent working with the principals and delivering that through the chairperson on to my attention as part of the process itself, then putting it into the system as well. Compiling with all the other capital projects. It is this Assembly that decides on those capital projects and we’ll continue to push that forward. The most critical needs in the Northwest Territories.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people in Colville Lake want to know – at some point they were told that they were going to get a new school – why was that bumped from the capital planning project and they brought in the portable building. Why was that bumped in Colville Lake and they missed out on having a new school?

I don’t have any information on why, but we should focus on as we move forward. If this is part of the capital planning project, then we should pursue it and that will be a discussion that we will be having in this House as well.

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

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