Stephen Kakfwi

Legislative Assembly photo

Roles

In the Legislative Assembly

Elsewhere

Historical Information Stephen Kakfwi is no longer a member of the Legislative Assembly.

Last in the Legislative Assembly November 2003, as MLA for Sahtu

Won his last election, in 1999, with 61% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Question O192-12(2): MLA Involvement In Changes To The Plebiscite Question February 26th, 1992

Mr. Speaker, when I did these interviews yesterday, I remembered about 11:00 last night -- I guess it sort of hit me that I never finished the last part of the sentence on two occasions during the interview. In the interview I started out really well...

---Laughter

...that technically the Legislature, of course, has the political power to force a change to the wording of the plebiscite question. But politically it is almost impossible or unwise to tamper with it. I thought it was important to indicate that you can do that.

There are a couple of things that should be brought to people's attention here. One of the things is that the TFN agreement in principle was initialled in December, and before they initialled off, TFN was quite insistent that the plebiscite issue was sort of put to bed, resolved, so they could go into finalizing their claims package, knowing that Article 4, that part of the claim that deals with the creation of Nunavut, was clear. So as a cabinet we had dealt with the draft question in November, with the understanding that it had to be addressed quickly in order to meet the deadlines that TFN had set for themselves and meeting the commitments that we had made, relative to the spirit of Article 4 of the TFN agreement.

It should be mentioned as well that during the last Legislative Assembly, last summer in July, when the whole question of division and the creation of the Western Constitutional Commission came up, the Executive was mandated by this Legislative Assembly to proceed with the plebiscite. When we dealt with the Plebiscite Act and making amendments to it, at that session, there was a provision in the Plebiscite Act which provided for -- I think in 1985 it made it explicitly clear that the Legislative Assembly at that time was going to draft the question. In July, that provision was removed because it was outdated, and I think Members at that time felt -- knowing that TFN was going to be trying to finalize their claim in the early fall and they would be calling for a plebiscite in the early fall --that the Executive would be mandated to draft the question to deal with the plebiscite question.

That is the background to it. I wanted to make it clear that technically, politically you can have -- if there is a massive call for redrafting the question, we would have to adhere to it. I must draw to your attention -- with the best of intentions the government had made a commitment to TFN, as an aboriginal organization, in trying to help in finalizing their claims package -- that we made a commitment to them and I think we are politically bound very strongly to that.

Question O185-12(2): Strategy For Sale Of GNWT Staff Houses February 26th, 1992

Mr. Speaker, the future of these units, if they are not purchased by the present people living in them, we will be addressed in the long-term housing strategy that we hope to have for you in June. It will be considered and addressed at that time, I hope.

Question O184-12(2): Allowing Non-residents To Purchase GNWT Staff Houses February 26th, 1992

No, Mr. Speaker.

Question O181-12(2): Disposal Of GNWT Staff Houses February 26th, 1992

Mr. Speaker, the offer is to sell 49 units in Fort Smith to the people who are living in those units. If they choose to accept the offer, we will proceed to complete a sale. If they choose not to purchase these units or negotiate some way to lease-purchase, then they can continue staying in them and the future of those units will be addressed in June when we release our long-term housing strategy. Thank you.

Question O178-12(2): Sale Of Staff Housing Limited To Three Communities February 26th, 1992

Mr. Speaker, this announcement is just indicating that at this time this is what we are prepared and feel comfortable with initiating and following through on. We are not at the stage where we are comfortable with addressing the situation in the smaller communities, but we will be, I believe, by June. We will take what the Member is saying into consideration. Thank you.

Question O178-12(2): Sale Of Staff Housing Limited To Three Communities February 26th, 1992

Mr. Speaker, the overall approach on what we are going to do with government staff housing in the Northwest Territories is going to be addressed in June when we bring out our long-term housing strategy. In the meantime, we have decided that it is probably the least disruptive to the housing market if we go ahead with selling these housing units in only Fort Smith, Hay River and Yellowknife, since they have the most developed housing market. We are aware that by doing this it is not going to flood the private market because we are actually selling them to the people who are living in them.

The question of what to do with communities like Inuvik, Iqaluit, Fort Simpson, among other communities, will be addressed because we do not have, as yet, a comprehensive way to address the situation in those communities. Thank you.

Question O176-12(2): Sale Of Staff Housing Units In Fort Smith February 26th, 1992

Mr. Speaker, I believe that might be confused with the original sale of units that happened last year. At that time the criterion for providing an offer to sell units in some communities was that it must be to employees who have been employed by the government for five years. That criterion is not necessary in this round. Thank you.

Question O176-12(2): Sale Of Staff Housing Units In Fort Smith February 26th, 1992

Mr. Speaker, the main intent is to get the government out of providing housing in these larger centres. It is not geared toward making it a benefit to

employees. It is to get us out of owning government units that are defined as stand-alone units.

Question O176-12(2): Sale Of Staff Housing Units In Fort Smith February 26th, 1992

Mr. Speaker, if a government employee lives in one of these units, they will receive a letter from us, probably tomorrow, notifying them that they can purchase the unit if they are interested.

Question O176-12(2): Sale Of Staff Housing Units In Fort Smith February 26th, 1992

There are 49 units.