Alfred Moses

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the government allocate an additional $1.2 million to extend the child and family resource programs and services to at least six small communities in the 2014-15 fiscal year; and further, that the Department of Health and Social Services collaborate with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to utilize school facilities for the child and family resource programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I know the importance of home care in the community and I know I did break it down on average just to see what it was in places like Yellowknife and some of the smaller communities that have a lot of our elderly senior citizens who don’t want to leave home and want to live that independent lifestyle in their community. Those are where we see some of the higher per capita numbers, and I just want to make sure that we do have the services to support them.

Moving forward, I know I had some questions in the House, and it brought me on to seniors, which also deals with home care, but when I was...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee did some hard work going through the business planning session and I feel that bringing motions forward for recommendations that, as chair of the standing committee, I do stand behind the hard work of the committee members, the staff, and the departments that came and presented before us and gave us some of their concerns and issues as well.

As this is a recommendation, I will be supporting the motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just following up to some of the positions within the, I guess, authorities in general, we have in this part of the department here shared services. We did receive some concerns from some of the, I guess you could say, some of the computer divisions within the authority that there was a presentation given that would amalgamate all the local computer supports from across the Northwest Territories with the TSC, and although there was talk that no positions would be lost, especially full-time positions, the Department of Human Resources said otherwise. I’m just wondering...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to ask the Minister on our indeterminate, full-time positions for the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority, because we’re just approving the numbers here today, we don’t see the full structure of how positions are allocated within the system. Can I ask the Minister, is the authority losing any positions but gaining other positions in other areas? I see there are four and I’m assuming we’ll have all the same positions when I look at this, four new ones, but I don’t see if there is going to be any positions that are lost and more positions put...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The motion brought before the House today is one of concern of some Members and also some Aboriginal groups throughout the Northwest Territories. The concern, obviously, is the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act was included in Bill C-15 when it was brought into the House of Commons.

I was very lucky to attend the one here in the Northwest Territories at the Explorer Hotel. I listened to all types of individuals, leaders, past leaders, and new and future leaders speak about these bills and these provisions. I listened very carefully to all sides of the story and to...

Still within Section 3.3, it talks about officers must consider the needs of a client and his or her dependents when considering the size and type of the housing need, so is it solely on the officers when they make a recommendation for an individual and type of dwelling that they’ll be receiving and the type of housing need that they’ll have, based on what the officer sees and whether or not there might be some other issues such as some of our seniors, such as disabilities, such as other issues that might affect the client.

Is there another way that these clients can be assessed when they’re...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment with regard to Section 3.3 of the Rent Supplement Program, accommodations, rent or mortgage. In one of the sections, it explains that a client and his or her dependents can receive assistance for accommodation. Accommodation includes rent, mortgage, tax or fire insurance.

I’d like to ask the Minister, in some cases and possibly when a person is in foreclosure or not able to pay up their bills for the month because either something happened that they got less income coming in, would they be able...

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Sorry, I was a little confused there with my first question. With the government response that was tabled in this House in 2011, there were some immediate actions that could have been taken. Has the report itself been updated since 2011? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the budget address the Minister of Finance states that the most effective way we can grow our revenues is to grow our economy and our population. He also states that over the next five years he wants to grow the NWT population by 2,000 people.

I also agree that our economy does need to grow and develop, but I also have a suggestion here that maybe over the next five years we invest that into the people of the Northwest Territories by investing in their education and training in the small communities and the regions where a lot of the economic things are happening...