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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The words of the Minister today are encouraging; however, we’ve heard a lot of generalities and I think there are lots of opportunities that we’ve heard today in terms of our training of our road fleet, possibly a review of our protocols with highway accidents when they first become a responder, and probably the needs to improved communication. Again, we’re hearing generalities. I think the Minister should endeavour to address this House and address the people in the Northwest Territories, but more specific. So I challenge the Minister if he’d like to provide that level of detail to this House and table it in the near future. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we certainly have protocols in place when it comes to emergencies on our highway system; however, we don’t have those types of protocols when it comes to whether or not air rescue is brought into play. That is an area that we will continue to work on with the other departments that I mentioned earlier – Health and Social Services, MACA, Department of Justice – on enacting some protocols when it comes to air rescue. But for highway rescue, we do have protocols in place. Again, I’d be more than happy to share those protocols with the Members. We will get that to them as soon as possible. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I raised the issue about NWT Corporation home ownership units that are vacant. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation what strategy is the department currently using to address these vacant units in our communities. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was quite a growing concern a few years ago with the number of vacancies that we had in our home ownership portfolio. I always credit a lot of that to the good work done by the corporation in making use of the money that we got from Ottawa. We had to use the money or we would lose it, so we tried to get as many units on the ground, and that left us with the problem of trying to fill a lot of these vacant units.

I think in the last year or so, we’ve done a very good job in filling these units. We’ve converted

some of them over to public housing. We’re trying to find qualified clients to put into these units. We just had our intake here recently. The number escapes me, but I think we have about 21 potential approvals across the Northwest Territories. I think there are three in the Member’s riding.

We still realize that we have about 67 vacant units now. We’re going through the application cycle. We are hoping by end of summer to have as many people into those units as possible. If we can’t find clients for them, we may have to look at possibly converting them to public housing again. We’re also starting to use some to rent out to professionals that move to the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, so the Minister was talking about the intake cycle. Is that complete now? Are they currently evaluating all of the clients to see if they can match them to the home ownership programs such as HELP and PATH right now? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. The intake cycle is over. We are evaluating a lot of the applications. There are some that get approved fairly quickly because of the information they provide. There are some we still need to work on. I’m not quite sure when the exact evaluation of all applications is done. However, when it is, I will inform the Member and Members of the House. We will see, at the end of that cycle, how many vacant units we have and then our plan going forward with those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, some of the issues that face my communities are they actually missed the deadlines. I had raised the issue of liaison workers in the communities. We had this program about six to eight years ago. I’d like to ask the Minister if he will review that and maybe even consider that once again. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there was a program a few years ago. However, I think when it was determined that we were going to have government service officers in each community, part of their role was going to be exactly that, advising people of all the program deadlines and that with all government programs, including the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. However, I can inform the Member that, as a corporation, we are looking at roles and responsibilities of our LHOs so we can better serve a lot of these smaller communities. We are developing proposals that we’re hoping to bring forward to committee for their input and see where we go from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned that the smaller

remote communities, too, even though they are much smaller, they do need assistance with the clients filling out the application, meeting the deadlines. I would like to ask the Minister if part of the strategy is to be aware of that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we’re going to review how we deliver our programs in the small communities. We want to ensure that our residents in the small communities feel like they are well served by the NWT Housing Corporation in filling out applications. I think we have said in the past that, if there is a need to supply translators so they know exactly what they’re getting into, then we will provide that too. There is still a little bit of work that needs to be done. I think we’re taking some good steps in ensuring all of our residents across the Northwest Territories have equal access to our programs, and have the opportunity to fill out all the proper applications by the deadline so they won’t miss qualifying for any of the programs that we offer. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a good question. Unfortunately, I don’t know if a room exists where this information can be displayed and shared. You’re right; the “G” Division has a long and distinguished history here in the Northwest Territories, from the lost patrol of Rat River, the Mad Trapper, travel up and down the Mackenzie River, travel into the Eastern Arctic when it was part of “G” Division. There is a real solid history here.

I have had an opportunity to travel to a number of the detachments and I’ve been in the detachments. Many of the officers in those buildings actually have a real connection to the past and you will see pictures and historical sort of documents available. But as far as where it’s all brought together and

whether it has been all brought together, I don’t know, but I will check with the RCMP to see how they present this information so that they can share their impressive history with all Northerners. Thank you.

Thank you, and I do agree with the Minister’s comments. We do have a very strong history of the RCMP here in the North and we’re well aware of that. I’d like to commend the Minister for going and taking a look at that, but would he be willing to dedicate a specific museum here in the Northwest Territories, perhaps through Yellowknife which is one of our hubs of all the communities? Would he be willing to dedicate some type of infrastructure towards the history of the RCMP “G” Division and all of their significant events, their members, lost members in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you. I remember as a kid, going to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre here in Yellowknife, they had a lot of fantastic displays, and one of the displays actually had a significant amount of RCMP history and memorabilia. I believe that display is now gone, but I would be happy to talk to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to see about bringing those materials back together and creating a display that maybe could go to different museums throughout the Northwest Territories.

We do have a number of facilities that may be able to show a display like this, but I’d also be interested in talking to the RCMP to see how they would like some of their history presented.

Budget constraints being what they will, anything that’s going to cost money would have to go through committee for consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. Would the Minister not only look at the detachments here in the Northwest Territories, but also work with other jurisdictions that might have possibly taken some of the artifacts, some of the archives from the Northwest Territories when we didn’t have specific detachments here in the Northwest Territories and look at possibly bringing them back to the North? So our Northerners, our residents, can see those archives, see those artifacts, and be proud of the RCMP and the heritage that they have in the Northwest Territories. Would the Minister be willing to look at other jurisdictions and see what artifacts and archives should belong in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, I’d be, obviously, happy to talk to the RCMP about their history and where some of the historic items may exist. But I would also suggest to the Member that helping people in the Northwest Territories understand our history and the important work that “G” Division has done is only part of it. Getting that

information out to other people in the country is important.

“G” Division has a long history that stretches back as the Territories has become a smaller jurisdiction. So there are other individuals outside of what is the Northwest Territories now that have some history with “G” Division as well. I think if we could find a way to share that information, we should take that opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Finance on the Stanton Hospital. We put tens of millions of dollars into a Fort Smith hospital and a Hay River hospital, and now, when we should finally be going after the long overdue Stanton Territorial facility, what are we doing? We’re building new highways on the most costly terrain known, paying off poorly-thought-out bridge infrastructure and pursuing other new and expensive projects.

I’d like a clear commitment from the Minister that this fall’s capital budget will contain a proposal for a full and comprehensive start and an end to nickel and diming this project forever. Will the Minister give us that assurance? Mahsi.