Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister, are there any different sizes of penalties depending on the infractions that are put forth by the tenant whether it’s bootlegging, selling of hard drugs or recreational drugs, even such things as gambling? Is there any difference in terms of the penalties that these tenants would be enforced with? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Housing. Today we heard some questions regarding the alcohol and drug issue that we continue to see and face in the Northwest Territories. Meanwhile we also have a housing issue. I would like to put the two together and talk about how we can address that and try to deal with both problems. That is going to the root cause of where the drugs are coming from, why people are in the situation they are. I would like to ask the Minister of Housing what is the policy regarding tenants who are accessing housing programs in our small communities, or even in our larger centres that are also engaging in illegal activities such as bootlegging and selling of drugs to people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin my Member’s statement I would just like to take a second to congratulate the Premier on his receiving of the Golden Jubilee Medal yesterday.

---Applause

Continuing with the theme of recognition, I was very honoured last week to attend a long-time service awards for our teachers and staff from the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. They are doing a lot of really great innovative work that is going to reflect on our youth as they come into the future over the next few years and longer. It allows the students of

not only Inuvik but the Beaufort-Delta region to succeed and make a strong, good life for themselves.

I would also like to take this time not only to recognize the long-term serving teachers but every teacher that has put the time and effort into teaching our children, keeping our cultures alive and well and continuing to put the efforts in on a daily basis. That is a very tough job. I would like to recognize all the teachers across the Northwest Territories for being mentors, role models, volunteers, and coaches to our youth, our children, when we don’t have the time to do that, and them putting in the extra efforts that go beyond the time allocated in their daily jobs. They don’t have a daily routine as much of us do. They go above and beyond what is called for them as teachers. I would just like to recognize them.

I would also like to take this time to recognize that it is Aurora College Week, and recognize all the staff and the hard work put in through the colleges in all of our communities that will succeed in getting our young adults prepared for going out into the world and getting jobs and being part of society. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One just short question here. Thanks to the Minister for his information that he’s presented us with. In Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta region everybody knows the very unique ways and where our money goes. Sometimes you can only stretch a dollar so far in terms of education, something that’s very important to us. Is the Minister willing to look at allocation of funds but also possibly contributing a little bit more funding into our region so that our youth can succeed, our students can pass the grades and become successful adults in the years to come?

With our department briefings earlier in this Assembly, there’s a strong correlation between attendance and success in our students. When they go to school they have a stronger rate of success and passing and graduating. This also works in the small communities. With an increase, you know, like, for instance in Inuvik we had a bad spell of cold weather the last couple weeks and the blizzards which are a safety factor for the youth and the parents going to schools. With what the Minister of ECE just presented to us, is the Minister willing to sit down with our district education authority as well as our Beaufort-Delta Education Council to come up with a plan to provide busing services to the students of Inuvik?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just recently attended a meeting on the super school in Inuvik last week and there were a lot of good concerns – good school – that were brought up. A lot of good concerns were brought up not only for this new super school but things that have been happening for the past few years. I just want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if he’s looking at possibly creating a busing service for the students of Inuvik in the years to come.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bringing in more locums just adds to the problem of a lack of quality care, a lack of continued services to our patients that need that trust in their doctors, and that’s not being met when we start bringing more people down from the communities. The incentives, bringing more locums from down south just adds to the lack of services that we’ll get in Inuvik. It’s just more incentives for locums to come from down south, get paid more money than if they were living in Inuvik. So that also needs to change. I ask the Minister if he’d be willing to commit to revising or looking at that policy on incentives for locums and getting a long-term doctor in Inuvik. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Minister of Health for letting us all know that we’re failing in getting staff up into the Beaufort-Delta region. The health authority, 0.8 of nine is not acceptable and I think that needs to change. Even if we had one or two positions filled, that would lead to a lot of success in our region.

Right now the Beaufort-Delta Health Authority is in a big deficit and it’s been accumulating over the years and I believe that the main reason behind that are these incentives that we’re giving locums to come into our region to only work for a short period of time. I’d like to ask for a strong commitment and action plan from the Minister today that this will be addressed and that we can have an action plan before our next session in May. Thank you.

Previous to some of the questions that I’ve asked in the past, we’ve done a lot of talking. We know what the issues are; we need to put action to these issues that have been there for a long time. Since 1994, Yellowknife recruiting staff have not done a successful job in putting a long service doctor in Inuvik. That needs to be taken care of and it needs to be taken care of with this government. One of the main things that possibly can be not having these doctors in Inuvik are the incentives for doctors to live out of Yellowknife but do locum services in Inuvik. Can I ask the Minister how can he change that policy where there are incentives for doctors to work up in Inuvik and non-incentives for doctors to live out of Yellowknife and only do locum in Inuvik?