Mr. Speaker, I would encourage this government to make the victims their priority instead of putting criminals first. I know this is a tough message to send, but I also know it is pretty tough being a victim of crime. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, when was the last time anyone offered a program for victims to go out on the land, all expenses paid, to rebuild their confidence, their self-esteem and their connection to the culture?

It is very frustrating to hear so much emphasis placed on the offenders and their needs. We seem to spend a lot of time talking about what we can do for them, how we can help them and how we can accommodate them by keeping them close to their families and their culture. Mr. Speaker, if they cared so much about their families and really wanted to honour their culture, they would be taking responsibility for their actions and staying out of trouble. Granted, Mr. Speaker, some may try to take advantage of any programs offered and hopefully change their ways.

The people that seem to get lost in the justice picture are the victims of the crimes. We just leave them to fix and replace their property and mend their broken bones. Long after the physical damage is repaired, many victims are still living with the humiliation and fear caused by the offence. I am talking about people afraid to go to sleep at night because they don't know what they will wake up to or if they will wake up. People are afraid to go outside because they don't know if they will be attacked or if their home will be broken into while they are away. People are left to grieve for loved ones whose lives are cut short by brutal crimes. These people have to put their lives back together and what are we doing to help them?

Mr. Speaker, we expect transition houses for spousal abuse victims and their children to operate on shoestring budgets, while we put millions of dollars and all kinds of thought and planning into new jails, complete with recreational facilities, warm beds and three square meals a day.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to speak about a group of people who often get forgotten in the whole justice picture. I am talking about the victims of crimes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will add a few comments onto this. I like what I see in a lot of this. I kind of look at everything in black and white. I think things are usually pretty simple, like Mrs. Groenewegen has said. One of the things that I like here is this resource revenue sharing. I am reading here where 100 percent of the royalties go back to Ottawa. I don't agree with them. This is our territory. These are our resources. The benefits from these resources should stay here. I think this government has actually taken it upon themselves to try and make sure that the resources stop here and people of the Northwest Territories benefit. I commend them for that. I think that they will be able to accomplish that. I read in here with interest where it says the lands are administered by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. We don't use that the word anymore. That is an old word. It is just a lot of things in here that I see. Like I said, I see everything in black and white. I don't like the fact that we are continually being tied in with the other two territories. I like to think that we are the Northwest Territories; we are not the pan-territories. However, other than that, most of the things that I see in here I like. This is something that will be getting looked at by the leaders throughout the Northwest Territories. With the leadership that we have in the Beaufort-Delta, I am sure they are going to be more than happy to give us their point of view. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to Floyd Roland, Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board.

Can the Minister provide all GNWT positions and their locations related to the diamond, oil and gas industries?

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I apologize for that. One other comment I would like to make and again it's regarding maintenance and everything that I have seen and I find that maintenance is being cut. It seems like administration is going up. It should be the opposite way around, because they are having to maintain older units. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a few general comments. I like the idea of the EDAP program. It allows people to get into units a lot younger than they would normally in the rest of Canada. The old HAP units that they used to have, everything was supplied and they were supposed to supply the labour. Then they started applying for funding, so it ended up that they didn't have any money being put into it and the corporation isn't recovering any money out of that. With the EDAP program, they seem to be recovering some of the money that they are getting.

We made a comment before about the maintenance being poor with some of these units and the mould and everything. Having worked in maintenance, I sort of take offence to that. There is still a soft spot for all the maintenance boys who used to crawl around and thaw out frozen sewage tanks. A lot of these houses were hard to maintain because they were so flippin' old. One particular set of units we tried renovating, then and we started taking them apart and we found out it was the third renovation they were going through. I believe there were nine of them written off in Aklavik and they are being replaced.

I applaud the corporation for trying to make a go to supply market housing for people who are coming into the communities. I don't know if it should be in the corporation mandate or in the respective employers such as Health and Social Services or Education for teachers. I do applaud you for trying to fill a need, but I don't think that should be your mandate.

I made a statement the other day, saying I believe housing should stick to its original mandate to provide public and affordable housing. I really like the EDAP program. You still will recover some money out of it. The potential owners will still put a lot of their own money into it. They will have to pay for it.

We used to have an old program called the R and R program. I don't know if you are familiar with that. It was the Rural and Remote Program. There was this one particular lady in Aklavik who paid faithfully on her mortgage for 25 years, but halfway through the 25 years, a new program came out where everything was supplied. So we tried to get her mortgage forgiven because so many loans were being forgiven; we thought it could work for her, but it didn't. She ended up paying quite a bit of money.

With the trailers, you get the trailers from down south. I realize stick-built would be a bit more expensive going into the communities and trying to put in market housing, but they would provide contracts for local contractors and put some of the local people to work, so the money would stay here.

Apartments or townhouses might be a better idea where you have central heating, central water, central sewage, especially in some of the smaller communities.

Those are all the comments I have for now, Madam Chair. Thanks a lot.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, the drug dealers will only be about 20 minutes behind the pipeline workers. All residents will need to be vigilant in protecting their families and in helping the RCMP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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