It’s not a simple question of cash switching hands. Sweat equity is a way that people do work things off, and I know in the past, people did trade, barter, and did whatever they had to do to help the other person out. I think that should still originate in this government. I think we have to be conscious that people do have talents in our communities, and if you can make use of those talents and tell them you can work it off, I think that’s all I’m asking for.

I’d like to ask the Minister to take this into serious consideration. Since you look at the arrears that are out there, I think it’s going to take many, many years to pay down the arrears simply at $30 a month or whatever. I think you have to find a way of working with them to pay them down sooner and get these people back into housing.

As we know, we have aging housing stocks in the Northwest Territories. A lot of it does need upkeep, and that’s where I’m trying to focus my question on. Those units need some improvements such as painting and the possibility of doing minor renovations and also replacement of, say, electrical fixtures. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could get his department to look at what is on the business plans for capital investment in those different communities and see if some of those investments could be used for the tenants in those units to maybe do some of that work and work off their arrears by simply painting their units so you don’t have to bring a contractor in from outside the community. Those dollars will stay in the community and will help those individuals to pay down their arrears.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of the Housing Corporation with regard to my Member’s statement and looking at alternatives and options to work with tenants that are finding themselves in situations of either being evicted or having arrears and finding ways. As the Minister should know, in most of our communities we have 45 percent unemployment. There are very few jobs to go around. I think as a department you should consider looking at what you can do to help these individuals work off their arrears by either simply cleaning, painting, or in some cases, like I mentioned in Tsiigehtchic where they demolished housing units which were going to be demolished anyway, and allow those individuals to take on some training and give them some opportunity to get some work experience, but more importantly, pay down their arrears with 50 percent of the income that they arrive at.

Has the department looked inwards of the Housing Corporation and the housing authorities of how they can work along with their tenants to pay down those arrears? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all heard from the Member for Nunakput the concern with housing and people being evicted and also the amount of arrears that we have compiled over the last number of years.

Mr. Speaker, in previous governments there were two communities that seemed to have had a problem with arrears and all the other LHOs did not have the arrears that we’re seeing today. Yet, Mr. Speaker, some unique efforts were made from

different communities, and I’ll use the community of Tsiigehtchic in my riding. They worked with the tenants to work off their arrears by demolishing old Housing Corporation units, which were going to have to be demolished anyhow, and allowed the individuals to work off their arrears in which they have their wage earnings go towards their arrears; the other half they got to keep.

It’s these unique types of arrangements that I think the Minister should consider in light of the situation in Paulatuk and also in other communities that you have arrears where we do have a lot of infrastructure that is basically ready to be demolished. Again, that’s one of the ways that you can assist communities dealing with the arrears.

Mr. Speaker, it’s also important that we ensure that the people we put into our care programs get into homeownership, that we work with them to ensure that they’re able to transition as a Housing Corporation tenant to a homeowner, but not to treat them as if they’re still a tenant in the Housing Corporation unit by using the 25 percent income in which the individuals are discouraged from basically trying to bring in revenues.

I’ll use the situation I have in Fort McPherson where the individual’s wife went and got a job at the school as a teacher’s assistant, and because of the amount of rent and basically the amount that they were supposed to pay on the unit was almost $2,500. If they went to the bank and got a mortgage, they would have paid somewhere in the region of maybe $500 to $1,000 a year on a mortgage. So it’s discouraging for people to try to get into housing and being treated the same way they were as tenants in the Housing Corporation.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be having questions for the Minister of Housing on trying to find solutions to arrear problems and evictions. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, if it’s acceptable to the House, can we do this in blocks? We’ve got 80-something clauses, so it could save us some time. So if that’s acceptable to the rest of the House, maybe we could consider that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, colleagues. Again, I’d like to state that it’s not only what’s in the land claim agreements. I know I spoke about IAB lands and treaty rights. I think that these conflicts can exist simply by going ahead without getting a band council motion. People have tried that in the past, and they’ve basically learned the hard way and they’ve ended up in court. I think that’s what we’re trying to avoid here, that we avoid a long, drawn out process, and take the time to consider those other legal binding obligations we have, whether it’s through treaty entitled lands, land claim agreements or even developments adjacent to municipalities that may

have...(inaudible)...through resource development or a simple thing like expanding a municipal boundary outwards on different types of land.

That is something we have to be conscious of. We do have to ensure that whatever legislation we put forward, you have the provisions up front so people realize that that is imperative to any legislation we pass in this Legislative Assembly.

With that, I’d like to request a recorded vote, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I stated earlier, the majority of positions I meant, but I think if you take a close look at exactly where you look at the Indian branch lands and the management of those Indian branch lands by bands in our communities. Also in regard to the municipal lands in our communities, there are special arrangements.

I find it kind of odd from the Minister and the deputy stating that they don’t have anything to do with it because it’s a federal land claim agreement. Those municipal lands that were selected through the land claim agreement are in our communities. There are special circumstances that you have to consider in

regard to lands in communities, regardless, for public purposes. It’s spelled out in the land claims agreements. It also talks about the area of real property taxes and exemptions of certain property taxes by way of those land claim agreements.

I think also realizing that in any changes to the municipal boundaries, there’s a process that this government has to go through with the land claims organizations communities by way of a special process for expropriation. You have to follow that process. It’s in the constitutional land claim agreement. There’s a process to expropriate lands for public purposes.

The same thing with regard to the land claims agreements where a lot of the IAB lands that exist today, I find it kind of odd that someone mentioned that there was no IAB land swap. The whole idea of land claims is to eventually eliminate IAB for land claims settlement regions and transfer to the Aboriginal governments by swapping out those IAB lands in communities and bringing them under the umbrella land claim agreements. There are certain provisions for taxation, 15-year tax holiday where the federal government will pay those taxes.

Also, like I mentioned, like Mr. Beaulieu mentioned earlier, a lot of these lands that the Housing Corporation built houses on in communities on IAB lands, those lands had to be swapped for other lands in exchange that we release that IAB land under the Housing Corporation units or you told the Housing Corporation to move those houses off those lands. That was the situation in Aklavik, where Aklavik at one time was designated a reserve status. They had a large block land transfer in Aklavik to set up a reserve back in 1958 and that reserve still exists today, and it probably still exists in other communities in the Northwest Territories.

I think it’s imperative that you don’t lose sight of the obligations that we have. By spelling this out in this legislation and having similar clauses that we have in other legislation that were passed through this House in regard to abrogation and derogation, it clearly identifies to the parties that are going to basically implement this legislation that that has to be taken into consideration when you develop such legislation as Community Planning and Development Act so that when you’re doing your planning, when you’re doing your development you realize and contemplate that those activities have to be considered and have to be looked at before any planning can be concluded or also implemented by way of the development act.

With that, I again strongly encourage other Members to support the motion. I think it is needed in the confines of this type of legislation where there is a definite conflict between the municipal governments and the band communities in those communities where those lands, regardless of who’s doing the planning or who’s doing the

development, you have to take into consideration these unique situations of lands.

Like I mentioned in regard to the IAB status, that is similar to almost the same status as the reserves in southern Canada. That’s why you have to get a band council resolution every time you try and do something with Indian branch lands from the Housing Corporation to municipal government, or even to a band government where you have to pass a band council resolution. You have to get the legal authority to do any developments on those properties, and I think that you can’t lose sight of that in the confines of this legislation.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to move a motion that Bill 7 is amended by adding the following after section 1:

1.1 (1) For greater certainty, nothing in this act shall be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from Aboriginal or treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada under Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.

(2) An action or thing authorized by this act

must be carried out in accordance with any applicable land claims agreement.

(3) If there is a conflict or an inconsistency

between a provision of this act or the regulations a provision of a land claims agreement or legislation approving, giving effect to and declaring valid a land claims agreement, the provision of the land claims agreement or legislation prevails to the extent of the conflict or inconsistency.

Again, as we all know, most community planners and people that basically make these decisions don’t come from the communities.

Most of the decisions are made at the regional...or Yellowknife on how those plans are going to be imposed and developed. How can you, without having the wording in this legislation, ensure that they take that into consideration and just assume that somebody understands the land claim agreements or somebody understands that you do have the unique situations that I mentioned? So without having the wording in this agreement, you are assuming that hiring somebody from southern Canada and coming in as a lands officer in a community will know that land claims agreements exist. But by mentioning it in the legislation, those rights will have to be considered when you look at the planning act and consider those types of developments taking place when you’re implementing this type of legislation. Thank you.