Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I like Minister Beaulieu’s response. He said yes. The Minister here says no.

I am asking the Minister if they can examine it, because there is merit in it. I am not looking for new people to start questioning housing standard construction, but in the past, serious issues and arrears are serious concerns for my constituents and in all ridings. I really believe that this must be examined. I think that was one of the real reasons I really championed the appeal system, because someone has to look at this. Someone has to address them. I believe that this appeal board can do it if the Minister is willing to explore that avenue. Thank you.

Yes, Madam Speaker. We will examine it. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to follow up on the Premier’s/Minister’s statement yesterday on devolution as well. The Premier updated us on the status and process for devolution or assumption of authority for land and resource management. This government and our public are on record for decades as serious concerns over the federal legislation now in place. But the Premier said we are considering two approaches of taking down the legislation. We have to weigh the pros and cons. Could the Premier lay out some details on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches he alluded to yesterday? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The advantages of one over the other is with delegated authority, we can assume responsibility very quickly; with the mirror legislation, it would take more time. So it’s a question of time and control. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I enjoy receiving more detail if the time permitted on that, but quick versus slow, easy versus thorough… In his statement the Premier said that devolution is about having more accessible, accountable and responsive government making important decisions around land and resource management will bring those decisions closer to the people most affected by those decisions. Would the first one, a delegated authority imposing the existing legislation that we have complained about vociferously for the last several decades, be consistent with his stated goal

of bringing decisions and responsiveness to our people? Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I guess we normally look at what is done previously on devolution, so a lot of times we look at what happened in the Yukon. In the Yukon they had delegated authority. The delegated authority certainly appears to be working in the Yukon when you look at how they are operating there.

With regard to mirror legislation, that will take a little more time. Also, the MVRMA is something that has been legislated through land claims and so on. It would be something that devolution could not change. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I think certainly I am all for taking the time necessary to do a good job, and easy is easy. You usually don’t get what you really want. I would encourage the Premier to give a lot of weight to that consideration within the restrictions of the MVRMA, which I am not suggesting we change.

The Premier said yesterday that this government shares the Government of Canada’s objective, as he put it, of improving the regulatory system, and Ottawa is being receptive to receiving our suggestions on changing that regime. But meanwhile, Ottawa is gutting the Fisheries Act. They are imposing straightjacket restrictions on time requirements and so on. Minister Miltenberger said last week that the federal proposal to collapse the regional water board differs from our position. I question the Premier how do federal actions square with our priorities for responsible resource management and full public inclusions in environmental review processes. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories shares Canada’s objective of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the Northwest Territories regulatory system and one only needs to look at how long it took for the Mackenzie pipeline to obtain regulatory approval. We know how important it is to have a regulatory system that protects the environment while supporting economic development but providing certainty to industry.

As far as the Government of Canada being receptive to what we are proposing, we are looking at making appointments and also protecting the administrative centres that are already here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have to know that the environmental review of the MGP did not follow the process that we laid down on the MVRMA. It was cooked up completely separate from the processes that we established.

Had we followed those processes, I think things would have happened a lot more effectively.

Let’s consider some concrete examples of the environmental protection we will consider essential once we take on resource management. Yesterday over 150 citizens turned out to express their revulsion at the regressive agenda of the federal government on the social environmental front. I had mentioned the Fisheries Act. I would like a response from the Minister. Does the gutting of the Fisheries Act fit with his view of this government’s approach to environmental protection? Does straightjacketing the MGP, the largest infrastructure project in Canada, into a two-year process if it requires more, and I would say it would have fit with the sort of approach that this government is pushing forth? Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s opinion on the federal government actions. Adversely the federal government is saying that they are making the process more effective and efficient. They’ll be providing for protection of the environment, improving the protection of the environment and also providing for Aboriginal participation. So I guess we’ll have to look into the details more and square the differences between the Member’s opinions and the federal government information. Thank you.

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

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We’re now in the process of

communicating all of this to public housing tenants. I know across the Territories they are starting to let the tenants know what their rent could potentially be. As far as visiting these exact 70 or 50, I’m not sure if they’ve made it there yet, but the plan is to try and notify all public housing tenants across the Northwest Territories what their potential rent change could be. Thank you.

I’ve seen some notices up in the communities where they have a big poster saying that they’re going to implement the new rent scale. I want to ask the Minister, prior to making changes or looking at the changes or implementing some of the changes of the people in the Sahtu, the seniors who are living in these public housing units, prior to this, maybe six, seven, eight, nine months ago, has the Housing Corporation talked to these seniors who are in these units, saying that in the future we’re thinking about or we’re going to charge you rent? Does the Minister have a record of this in the five communities I represent of this rent that’s going to be implemented for the seniors?

We have no records of having talked to people eight or nine months ago. Obviously, I can tell you right now what the answer is going to be. If somebody came up to you and said you’re going to go from zero to paying rent, the answer is going to be no. If you go to those 675 people whose rent is going to drop by $100 or more, if you say are you in favour of your rent dropping by $100 or more, obviously the answer is going to be yes. So the fact that we did not go and talk to these 70 particular individuals, we all know what the answer is going to be. Thank you.

That’s my point. When I go back to the Sahtu, that’s what the elders are saying. They’re saying no one told us. No one said anything and that is certainly showing a lack of respect for the elders and for the seniors. We have asked the Minister to look at incentive programs for young people to go back to work. That was great, but we didn’t ask for him to look and charge the seniors rent. So that’s what the elders are saying. They talk to us and that’s what the territorial Seniors’ Society is saying, give us full consultation on this, slow down, let’s look at this together, but it’s something that’s unilaterally being written by this department, this government, to say from thereon thou shall pay the rent on July 1st . The elders are

saying that was not the case and they want to have consultation. Let’s give them respect. Will the Minister look at how can we do this, rather than saying the train has left? This is what we want you to be paying now to get on the train here. If you don’t, too bad, you’re left out in the cold.

Thank you. It’s an unfair comment to say that this corporation has no respect for our seniors, when you look at all the programs we’ve offered over the years to work with our

seniors, help with our seniors. It’s an unfair comment to say the Minister has no respect for seniors because he did not go and consult with all the seniors across the Northwest Territories.

I’ve said before the answer is going to be no if you ask them. We rolled this out publicly a few months ago. So they’ve had opportunities to know that this was coming and it’s a question of fairness and trying to treat all tenants, residents across the NWT fair and I think we’ve done a good job of that.

For an example, if you look at some of the changes we’re making, you look at a single mother of two that’s making $3,600 a month, under the old system she’d be paying $985 or 27 percent of her income. Under the new system she’s going to be paying $325 or about 7 percent of her income. That’s a savings of $660. So those kind of changes have been made, and in our efforts to treat everyone fairly and equally we did come up with charging seniors rent with a $1,000 exemption to their income which would put them in the lower bracket. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I heard from the seniors that this might be a good thing for them. I’m representing seniors who have come and talked to me and said we needed to be consulted. The cost of living in the Sahtu is high. Everything is high and our dollars don’t stretch as far as down south. We need to be consulted. That is basic respect for our elders and our seniors, they might have an idea that it might have to work out, but they feel that they haven’t been consulted and properly talked to about this issue. That’s the issue. Other ones, that’s good, but I’m speaking specifically for the seniors about this issue. This is what I wanted to ask the Minister. Will he consider and look at – I probably know the answer already – that the seniors need to look at this issue and see if they would do some more work on it before implementing this by July 1st ?