Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has come to my attention that we have a Human Rights Act in place which clearly does not allow for discrimination on the basis of race, age, gender, disability, sex, political beliefs, social conditions. It’s still apparent that the word has not gotten out, especially to our front-line workers who are discriminating on the basis that the individuals who are coming forward to pick up an application to apply to the housing authorities are refused simply because they do not want those individuals to be tenants.

The Human Rights Act is very clear that you cannot discriminate solely on the basis of the person in front of you being someone you do not want as a tenant. It is very clear that the law protects you against discrimination in certain areas of your life; for example, in your workplace, in your ability to rent a place to live.

The Human Rights Act has been in effect for several years. The message does not seem to have gotten out, not only to the public but also to the public service, that we’re responsible for ensuring that we as a government and Legislature and provider of programs and services understand that we do have a Human Rights Act in the Northwest Territories.

We have to do everything we can to not only educate the public but to educate the public service of the Northwest Territories, the front-line workers and public housing authorities, to ensure that landlords and other people who have a responsibility to provide housing to residents of the Northwest Territories, that they do not discriminate simply because they do not want those individuals to be tenants.

At the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister of housing questions on exactly why this practice is still continued today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I find it kind of mindboggling that people say they weren’t consulted. We’ve been talking about wildlife since the trapping industry moved into northern Canada back in the 1800s. From registered group trapping areas to game sanctuaries to looking at protection of different species on the basis of protecting species such as buffalo in the Northwest Territories, transplanting species, this stuff has happened over the decades.

One of the fundamental principles of legislation is to enact legislation that hasn’t been enacted. I’m talking about the land claims. We have land claims groups who have been waiting 27 years to enact their legislation and yet at the 11

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hour we have

people in this House saying they haven’t heard about it. I find it kind of insulting that today in this area realizing that we have constitutional land claims rights protecting the Constitution of Canada still not being enacted for 27 years.

The same thing when I came into this House some 16 years ago after being involved in the land claims process for 10 years talking about the Wildlife Act and talking about the Dene-Metis Land Claim,

talking about the settlement of the Gwich’in and Sahtu claims, ensuring those people that their fundamental rights as indigenous people to be able to harvest and to hunt and to have certain rights protected through a constitutional process. The only way that can happen is the legislation has to be enacted in a legislative process such as in this House. That’s the whole intention of the legislation that’s before us, to ensure that we fulfill our obligations under those constitutional agreements regardless if it’s the Inuvialuit claim, the Gwich’in, the Sahtu, the Tlicho and also those other self-government agreements that are presently in place. More importantly, the fundamental principle of the treaty entitlements under Treaty 8 and Treaty 11 which were one of the founding principles of those treaties to ensure that indigenous people were going to be able to continue to hunt and trap and fish as they always have without being interfered with and to be able to carry out that obligation under Treaty 8 and Treaty 11.

I think that I also took a glance at the e-mail coming from the NWT Chamber of Mines. They’re talking about legislation that was passed in this House a couple of years ago called the Species at Risk Act to have the ability to establish protected areas for certain species. As we see today, we have threatened species in the Northwest Territories, whether it’s the Bluenose herd or the Bathurst caribou. We are already realizing the challenges we are going to face going forward, regardless if we say it’s climate change or industrial development or whatnot. We have species in the Northwest Territories who are now being threatened. We have to have the legislative tools in place to ensure we’re able to do that.

I also look forward to going out on the road for public debate and hearing exactly from all sides. I think we also have to realize that we have an obligation to the land claim groups in the Northwest Territories who have been waiting some 27 years to get their land claim implemented in this Legislature and yet to say at the 11

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hour, sorry, we didn’t

know anything about this. I think, for myself, someone who represents the Inuvialuit and Gwich’in, we’ve been waiting a long time for this legislation to come through this House and I’ve been waiting 16 years to see this day become a reality.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will be supporting the motion. I, for one, do feel that we have to fill the gap between market and non-market communities and we have to be fair to all our working residents in our communities. I think that we as government have provided housing in the past, whether we called it staff housing. We still provide housing in our communities for the nursing staff in our communities. They have a fixed rate. They know what their rent is when they go into those facilities in our communities. They know exactly how much they’re going to have to pay for that particular unit. So we already have a program running in our communities. All we’re asking is to expand the program to offer the same type of programs to the residents of the community with a set rate per unit based on the unit that’s there.

I think it’s the question of not only fairness but also of ensuring that we are as government being able to provide government programs and services and deal with the fundamental challenges we face in our communities. One of them is dealing with affordable housing and professional housing in our communities to attract those individuals to stay in our communities, provide government programs and services, and not see that as a barrier to delivering government programs and services. All I’m asking is, we already have a program similar to this in our communities with the nursing staff. We already know that they’re paying about $1,000 a month. We’re asking that you provide the same program to the other working residents in our communities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be supporting the motion. I feel, for one, that this is a critical program to not only include supporting our students, but more importantly, developing our communities so we do have healthy, vibrant communities and help the most vulnerable residents in our communities, which are the young students and young children in our communities, so that they are able to grow healthy lives and be a positive role model in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, this program is more than just having a breakfast program in the school. It builds relationships between the teachers, the students, the community, where the volunteers... This program is a majority of volunteers, by way of the parents, the high school students, the teachers, get together. They volunteer to deliver this program. It is no cost to government, if anything. It shows that the communities, by working together helping each other providing these types of programs, it is a building block of how people can help people in our society who may not have the means to provide the nutritional breakfast program without it.

I think, Mr. Speaker, it is important also for the students to realize that as you grow up, part of the value of life is more than just dollars and cents. It is helping those people in our society who may not be as fortunate as other children or other people in our community to help those people who may need a handout and help to basically get them moving forward. Again, Mr. Speaker, for a $400,000

investment throughout the Northwest Territories and also realizing that we have a lot of these individuals who are on income support, who are struggling, like Mr. Jacobson says, with the high cost of living in our communities, people are just making ends meet. People cannot afford to purchase nutritional foods, regardless if it is fruit, vegetables and making sure that we are able to do that.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we realize that, as a government, we have to sometimes look at simply the dollar sign but realizing the value of these programs and how it helps us to not only develop our students in our communities but develop a community as a whole to help each other to be able to promote these programs and ensure we achieve what we say we are going to achieve, have healthy vibrant communities and that includes our children. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Premier of the Northwest Territories.

What is the total cost to date of radio, print and other media advertisement on devolution since the signing of the agreement-in-principle?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, a plebiscite is to get feedback from the general public in regard to how they perceive a particular issue such as devolution. I know we’re spending $16,000 on radio announcements, we’re spending a lot of money on full-page ads. We’re doing all the advertising out there so how do we get the feedback from the public in regard to how do they see a particular issues? Do they support it? Don’t they? I’d like to ask the Premier, in order to allow the public to give us that feedback, would you consider an option such as a plebiscite?

Mr. Speaker, just on the issue of what the question should be, I just sort of wordsmithed a little bit of that in regard to: Do you agree the Government of the Northwest Territories have signed the Northwest Territories lands and resources devolution agreement in January 2007? Do you agree or disagree? Yes or no?

Again, we do have a Plebiscite Act in the Northwest Territories and it is being administered by the Chief Electoral Officer who is in charge of the election which will take place this fall. By having these two events taking place simultaneously, I think it’s important that we do get feedback from the general public on this important policy and political issue in the Northwest Territories. I think it’s important that we do allow the public to give us a sense of exactly where they stand on this issue. I know as politicians sometimes the only time we seem to get direction is during an election. I think this also gives the public an opportunity to have a say on this important issue. Again I’d just like to ask the Premier and his Cabinet colleagues if they will consider that as one of the options to get feedback in regard to the announcements and the important issue of devolution in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Premier. It’s in regard to my Member’s statement and one of the options we can look at to get feedback from the public through a plebiscite in regard to the devolution agreement that was signed by the Government of the Northwest Territories and federal government, also to try to get input from the general public. I know we’re putting a lot of advertisements out there, there are radio announcements and whatnot, but again it’s how do you measure the public insight into this issue. I’d like to ask the Premier if he has considered the possibility of having a plebiscite on this issue at this fall’s general election.