Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I had mentioned strategies tabled by this government, and more specifically my question today is on the transportation strategy here, to the Department of Infrastructure. My question: since the last session, and more specifically, what progress has the department accomplished or done since the tabling of the federal government's budget this past couple of months? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister for Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the federal government has passed their budget, I and the Premier had the opportunity to go down there and talk to the Minister of Infrastructure, the Minister of Transportation, and also the Minister of DFO to figure out the plans that the government has laid out in their budgets. We have learned a lot of different things about different pots of money and how they are spread out through different ministries and the timeframe that has been laid out for these different pots of money. Our government will continue to work with the federal government to figure out the best way forward for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Now that there has been some dialogue on the programs available to Canadians, more specifically on the application of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, has the Minister and the group had some discussions on a formula or financing plan on the programs available to support the Mackenzie Valley Highway application?

When we were down there talking to the federal Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation, which is two different pots of money, our understanding is the Mackenzie Valley Highway application is still there. It is still frozen until the federal government has figured out what they are going to do on bilateral agreements with the territories and provinces and Canada and how they are going to roll out some of this other infrastructure money.

When does the Minister expect to have a decision on the bilateral reviews and the decision on the application that this government continues to support as a priority for the Mackenzie Valley Highway extension?

My understanding with our conversation with the federal Minister is that decisions on most pots of money around infrastructure will be decided by fall of this year.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very happy to hear that we are drawing near to a decision on the highway application that was submitted by the previous government. Will the Minister keep us informed if there is an immediate reply this coming fall? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As soon as we hear something from the federal government, I will definitely let the House know. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recently we completed the constituency tour, and it was a pleasure to have the Minister of the Housing Corporation view firsthand the concerns and issues that my constituents have regarding housing, so it’s appropriate that I ask the questions to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. My first question is: where is the current process for public housing tenants who identify an urgent repair need after-hours? Mahsi.

Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In every community that we have a local housing organization, we also have a 24-hour emergency response system in place. When those systems are called on, the emergency is moved to a priority, taking precedent over any other scheduled regular maintenance that we’re doing. If the situation is deemed not to be a priority, then it falls within the realm of regular maintenance, but we do provide a reply within a week’s business time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Members in the Housing Corporation have often talked about training and employing local community-based skill workers to deal with day-to-day repairs and maintenance of public housing stock. What is the department currently doing to make this a reality in every community with public housing?

The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation recognizes that it is important to have accessible workers in every community, and so we do strive to do that. We do have in every community that has a local housing organization, a position for a housing maintainer, a maintenance worker, so if that position is vacant, then we do our best to fill that position as soon as possible.

This is not the first time I’ve heard the matter being raised before. It was actually important that the Minister hear this concern. Has the matter been raised during the corporation’s major policy review?

The Housing Survey that was conducted by the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is actually to be tabled tomorrow. We’re really pleased to provide that. There were over 6,000 responses, and so, in all honesty, I do not know if that one particular – it wasn’t highlighted as a major concern, but I would like to state that when we were doing the tour, I did hear within the community of Kakisa that they had concerns about after-hours support. The difficulty within that community is, currently, we only have four home ownership programs and zero public housing in that community. Because we do not provide public housing or rental housing in that community, we do not at this moment have a local housing organization.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, often we are asked this question. I will field this question to the Minister, as we were often asked, you know, ask the Minister on behalf of our constituents that live in public housing, whether it’s in Kakisa or the 33 other communities that we have in the NWT. What will she do about it? This, of course, referenced the need for after-hours service. Mahsi.

It is concerning if the Member has identified that he’s heard that in other communities that they’re not sure about how to reach emergency responses with the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. It does tell me that we need to do a better job of communicating our services. Communications of our programs and our supports was identified within the survey, hugely stating that we need to do better on that. So, we will be doing a much better job of communicating the programs, the supports that we have in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, information provided by the department indicates that busing for JK is not mandatory. Could I just confirm with the Minister that this information is correct? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.