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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain some of the differences between the Northwest Territories petroleum products supply

and Nunavut’s bulk fuel purchases that have allowed them to stabilize fuel costs while prices in the Northwest Territories continue to rise?

I’m not familiar with the policy that Nunavut employs. The policy that we use is to provide fuel, heating fuel and gasoline to communities where there are no individuals that consider it marketable to be able to sell fuel, so the government steps in as a last resource to provide that service to the individuals. The government tries to come in at the exact cost of fuel and we sell it for the cost of operating and purchasing and transporting the fuel to the community.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement, I talked about the Tulita leadership meeting this past couple of days, and again, I appreciate the Ministers and the Premier making themselves available on the short notice.

I want to ask my questions to the Minister of ITI. Due to the delay in further work and the exploration work in the Sahtu, work will still continue on the Husky road. They will continue doing environmental studies and some seismic work this summer.

I want to ask the department what type of department planning initiatives will continue to ensure that the people in the Sahtu, in the North, that we are ready when work will come up again.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the fact that the leadership from the Sahtu was down in Yellowknife meeting with us, and I understand they were in Calgary as well. It is a pause in the activity in the Sahtu and with that pause we have to keep a positive frame of mind about how things are going to progress there. There are other opportunities, and I know the leadership in the Sahtu is aware of those other opportunities. Our government is committed to continuing to work with the leadership in the Sahtu to see those opportunities realized, and we will continue our best on moving forward with advancing things in the Sahtu to allow people to take advantage of those opportunities as they come, and some are going to be coming sooner than others.

The people in the Sahtu are looking at other opportunities due to the delay in the exploration work. I want to ask the Minister about the other opportunities that we really should talk about and what specifically.

Will the Minister come to the Sahtu to work and meet with the people in the Sahtu to continue this type of dialogue we’ve had in the last couple of days?

Certainly, the future looks very bright for the Sahtu, for the region. I do have plans to travel to Norman Wells and to Deline the middle of June, and I look forward to continuing the discussion that we had recently with the leadership from the Sahtu on how we can work together to advance opportunities that will benefit not only the region but the territory as a whole.

The leadership wants to talk about that we do have a high population of graduates in the next couple of years. We’re looking at the training opportunities and career development.

Again, are there opportunities? I want to ask the Minister, in regard to these, are there opportunities, as the leadership talked about, specifically with ITI to support them to advance these opportunities like the Canol Heritage Trail, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, training institution that we could have in the Sahtu? Is the Minister willing to support the leadership in advancing these types of proposed projects within his department and with the colleagues that are going to be working on these initiatives also?

Again, the dialogue needs to continue and the discussion needs to continue to happen. I know my colleagues, Minister Beaulieu and Minister Lafferty, we need to continue to work together, opportunities to invest in not only in people in the training but also in infrastructure. Those opportunities are before us and we just have to continue to work together. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the concerns that we have also has to do with the geoscience work that’s happened up in the Sahtu.

Is the Minister also going to be involved in some of the leadership, some of the work that could happen that our people also can take advantage of the geoscience work that is going to be happening in the Sahtu?

We are now responsible for that work through the geoscience office here. We will continue to work to best determine how to go about collecting that type of information, cataloguing it and using it to our best advantage. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t talk to the details about the NWT Housing Corp’s programs, but I would encourage the Member to follow up with the appropriate Minister.

What I can say is that I listened intently to the Member’s opening comments and Member’s statement. The issues he is bringing up are consistent with issues that he brought up during the winter session about conflicts in departments and having barriers to providing quality services to our residents. At that time I did get a copy of the Member’s statement with a list of samples and examples of areas where he felt, and others have felt, that there are serious barriers to service delivery.

As the Minister responsible for the social envelope, I did direct the deputy responsible to pull together the types of issues that the Member and other Members have shared about these types of conflicts. We have also directed them to dig into the departments and seek out examples that are similar. We have pulled together over 50 from the departments and added the samples that have been provided by Members.

As we have been going through this, it’s clear that some of these barriers and some of the challenges that the Member is talking about, some of them are due to communication and perception and not clearly understanding some of the rules. Clearly, we as a government need to do far better at explaining and helping our public understand some of the programs and services. But at the same time, there are some that clearly, without a doubt, as a result of conflicting priorities and policies within the departments.

We have directed departments to work together through the Social Envelope Committee to identify which ones are more communication-based, which ones are policy-based and come back with recommendations on how to start breaking down

these barriers and remove them so that our residents are not forced to go into poverty or to have the housing challenges that have been identified over time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister. This is the latter case, policy failures. I hope I’ve exemplified that in yet another example here. I would encourage the Minister of the Social Envelope Committee to speak to his colleagues. That’s why I’m speaking to this Minister on cross-departmental issues. I cannot speak to each of them and address these issues. That’s why we’re failing and that is exactly why we have a Social Envelope Committee. I encourage the Minister to find out why it is that the Housing Corporation has a limit on public housing as well, at the same time ECE is paying sky high market rents. Neither Minister can answer that question. This is a Social Envelope Committee question.

Would the Minister agree that public housing, with its sliding rent scale and relative stability, is a more effective way of providing housing for families in need while they make the productive choices we encourage, more effective that is, than using income support to pay rent in market housing where monthly rent can jump from zero to thousands of dollars depending on how a family’s income is assessed? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure what part of my last answer the Member didn’t understand, but I clearly articulated that we are working as Ministers on the Social Envelope Committee. I have shared this information with committee members and we have continued to have that dialogue. Clearly, we are doing what the Member is directing.

With respect to the specifics, I am happy to take the information that the Member is providing and to bring it into the Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet to continue to have that dialogue. I do acknowledge and agree with the Member that this one clearly sounds like a policy issue. I’m looking forward to getting the details from the Member, and I am looking forward to bringing it into the Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet to have further discussions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister didn’t answer the question. I’ll just give him the question again here. Given the sliding scale and relative stability of public housing, why aren’t we going with that while making the public productive choices that we encourage? It’s much more effective to have that than a situation where monthly rent can jump from zero to thousands of dollars through the Income Support Program. That was the question. The Minister didn’t even touch on that. I will grant you that I’m dense and I didn’t understand something, if that helps.

Would the Minister agree that private landlords, such as Northern Properties, would also likely prefer to have the stable contracts that would be provided if the Housing Corporation was renting their units on a long-term basis instead of the unstable income support system?

Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking me for my opinion. I am happy to give it, but at the same time, I work with my colleagues in the other departments and as Minister responsible for the social envelope, I will continue to do that. We will analyze the questions that the Member is asking and we will come back to the Member with a unified response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks very much to the Minister for that response. The Minister has done some sound work in producing an Anti-Poverty Action Plan. Here is another concrete suggestion that would significantly impact poverty levels in both Yellowknife and the communities where income support is paying for rent.

Would the Minister commit to reporting back on the feasibility of creating more public housing in these communities instead of income support housing? Mahsi.