Mr. Speaker, the last time I went down this road, our government gave all kinds of reasons not to establish nursing services in Wrigley. I think here I was using the point that there is extra development and extra impact on the community of Wrigley because of the development in the Sahtu. That alone makes the case that we should examine the need for nursing in Wrigley. Can he also include the impacts of development on Wrigley in his assessment? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes, we will look at the impacts of exploration that’s happening in the Sahtu on Wrigley when we examine the need for nursing in Wrigley. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am also well aware that our budget is very limited and stressed, as the Minister of Finance is quick to point out to Members on this side. Also, I think this strategy of introducing

nursing in Wrigley involves working with our federal counterparts.

Will the Minister also work with our federal counterparts to see if impact funding is needed for this development? That way, I think we can work towards getting nursing in Wrigley. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, each time there’s an opportunity for the federal government to participate in any of our medical health services, we always take the opportunity to try to work with them. Yes, I can discuss this with our federal counterparts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Just over the course of a few years, there has been a trend of people moving to the winter crossing. These are people that have gone through the housing programs, and most of the time they have been evicted or else they have arrears with the Housing Corporation. There have been noticeably several houses that have been sitting empty in Fort Providence that the Housing Corporation owns. How much longer will those empty houses sit there idle and empty? Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a few empty houses in Fort Providence. There are a number of reasons people are evicted. Arrears is one of them. There could have been noise and disturbance, and a number of other issues that they are evicted from public housing. Usually there is opportunity there for them, if they enter into some kind of agreement, to try and get back on to the public housing waiting list and hopefully back into public housing.

Our goal as NWT Housing Corporation is to house people, not to evict them. But at the same time, as a partnership, they have to work with us. Many times we have exhausted all other options and eviction is the last resort. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to thank the Minister for outlining at least the process of trying to exhaust all options. The focus of my questioning is not so much the eviction practice but to try and highlight just the issue of arrears. Most of the time people are facing obstacles in small communities as it is, so it becomes an obstacle.

Will the NWT Housing Corporation remove the barriers of these obstacles standing between

homeless families and empty houses in Fort Providence? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation will do our part in trying to get people into units. At the same time, the clients themselves have to remove some of their own obstacles. In many cases all we ask is that they enter into some kind of an agreement with the LHO, and not only enter into it just to get back on the waiting list, but we would like them to honour it. We’ve seen situations in the past in a number of our communities, where a lot of clients that have been evicted have entered into a repayment plan or some kind of option with the LHO and they have honoured it. We’ve seen some success stories in that. A lot of times it is just a partnership that has to be worked out between the client and the local LHO.

I repeat again, Housing is not in the business of evicting people. We are in the business of housing them, but they have to work with us also. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, will the arrears be adjusted for previous public housing tenants as they will be for current tenants, so they have at least a starting chance to restore their credit ratings and eligibility for housing programs? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, no, we will not adjust their arrears. There have been opportunities in the past through a number of different programs where the arrears have been adjusted, the latest one being when it was transferred. The role of the assessment was transferred back to the Housing Corporation or the LHOs from ECE. A lot of adjustments were made at the time and there was a significant decrease in arrears.

Again, a lot of times it’s a matter of the client coming in, verifying their income, because if you don’t verify your income, you are automatically assessed at market rate and that tends to have their arrears build up. But there is always opportunity for adjustment. Again, verification of income is the biggest one. If they feel that they have been charged too much, then they can verify their income and adjustments will be made. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aside from evictions and looking at a repayment plan, at least there are options for clients or previous clients, what level of assurance can the Minister provide in terms of looking at some immediate options in terms of addressing people with arrears that want to get into the housing system? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the first thing that could happen is the tenants themselves

could make a point of going into the LHOs and working out some kind of plan with the local housing authority, and then they can honour the plan. I believe that once they do that and they show good faith, I think good faith will be shown on the LHO’s part.

As I said before, it is a partnership. We will work with them, but they have to be willing to work with us also. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The realignment of the Tlicho winter road was Premier-directed, not a Cabinet initiative or brought forward by the Members-at-large as Caucus. It has been my understanding that there has been some type of formal instructions with Fortune Minerals about creating a year-round road out all the way to the community of Whati and even to Gameti.

I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, if this is the case, what is actually happening out there that Regular Members have not been informed of. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue discussions with the Tlicho Government on the winter road realignment and trying to identify monies going forward to allow us to carry out that work. As far as the road the Member talks about to Fortune Minerals, nothing has been decided in that case. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as many of us know, this is approximately a 120-kilometre road which could run anywhere about a $2 million project. In speaking to some people who work for Fortune, they’ve coined it as a deal has been struck to work on a framework to do this road and that they’re planning for investment.

I’m trying to find out what has been struck in the form of a deal with Fortune Minerals in order to either build a road, lease back a road, or create a road. What is happening on this issue? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in my role as Minister of ITI I do meet frequently with industry representatives. I have met with Fortune Minerals a number of times in the past. Certainly, a road to the project is really fundamental to the project going ahead.

We haven’t signed any agreements. We haven’t entered into any negotiations on a road. None of this has happened. It’s all, I guess, just guesswork

on the Member’s part. When that does happen, you can rest assured Members of this House, the Member and his committee will know about it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister can say it’s guesswork on my part, but it was a Fortune Minerals person who told me they were in discussion with the Department of Transportation on this. So if he would like to change departments on the discussion, that’s up to the Minister. In this case, it happens to be the same person which obviously can mean it is.

Maybe for the record officially in this House, what work is being done on that road to the communities of Whati and Gameti and, specifically, how much has been the investment on that work to those communities, because I’m not aware of anything specifically asked for in any budget. I just want to make sure that’s clear in the House today.

Thank you very much. I’ll get that information for the Member. Thank you.