Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the clarification. The detail that we were provided with, Mr. Chairman, explains that this money is needed because of higher than planned expenditures in these four different categories. This is obviously something that's in front of us every year. I wanted to ask to what extent is this a sustained trend and are we able to forecast and budget for these kind of costs with any more predictability, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I appreciate that in some of the really longstanding deals before the whole consciousness of environmentalism and liability was really at the fore, that our government probably did not include the kind of contingent liability things that we should have in the transfer. I accept that. The main purpose of my question here is to make sure that on each and every one of these properties that we're dealing with and potentially taking over, that this is one of the criteria that we're looking at to explore whether there was a previous owner/operator and to what extent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we shouldn’t allow this to get into such a bureaucratic argument at this stage. I am disappointed to hear that the Minister says we should compare ourselves to other jurisdictions. We should compare ourselves to the contracts and things that are in place. Mr. Speaker, we really need to look forward in a much more progressive and collaborative way and rethink this. I will ask once again, is the government going to instruct the business planners to really rethink the way we set up our partnerships and our long-term business with these organizations?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to see that we are making some progress here, but I don’t know that I would say that allowing organizations to allow for forced growth really amounts to rethinking a partnership that we should engage in. Let’s connect the dots here, Mr. Speaker. There are homelessness issues, family violence and dysfunction, and mental health issues grow in our communities and become more sophisticated. We rely very heavily on these organizations to be the frontline, go-to places to manage this for us. But even as these issues increase in our communities, we are disabling...

Thank you for the update, Mr. Speaker, on the affordable housing project. One of the aspects of the Novel plan that had come under some discussion was that we would be, in effect, exporting a lot of jobs and a lot of value to factories in southern Canada that would be prefabbing this, and it caused some of us ask, well, why couldn't we create that kind of an industry here in the NWT for ourselves, knowing that housing is, of course, a perpetual need. So I'm wondering to what extent the Housing Corporation is looking at enabling the creation of a viable housing manufacturing facility here in...

But we learned a little while ago that due to changes in the project that the Mackenzie Valley pipeline people might not or it's not likely they'll be using this particular idea and it takes off our list of options, Mr. Speaker, potentially several hundred housing units that we had thought could be put into place over the next few years. So my question, Mr. Speaker, to the Premier is, does the Novel housing project remain a viable option for our housing situation in the foreseeable future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a family friend, Mr. Wayne Sweeney, from Yellowknife, and visiting from Richmond, B.C., Alison Fraser. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Housing in the NWT, in terms of availability, quality and affordability for renters and owners, continues to be a major barrier to personal, community and economic progress across the NWT. Here in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker, the YWCA Transitional Housing Program and the Yellowknife Housing Authority continue to see demand for their housing stock well beyond the supply. The housing authority has seen a waiting list of over 100 families in need over the past three years, with a significant number of those on the waiting list being seniors and persons with disabilities.

Aff...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am very pleased to see this initiative coming forward and to give it my support. As a matter of fact, I may be in a position in the next little while to experience its benefits. I am very happy to see that when we do this, it’s something that works for a lot of people. I think this is one of the, unfortunately, little known secrets and advantages of living in the Northwest Territories and raising a family. Whenever I get the chance, I promote this as an enormous benefit that we have that makes us almost unique in Canada. So it is one worth defending, promoting and...

Mr. Chairman, I wanted to ask in another area a little bit about the minimum wage provisions. This bill proposes that minimum wage from now on could be set by the Minister in regulation, which is a change. It takes it out of the legislative realm. On occasion, legislatures do go in and amend minimum wage to accommodate for things like the activity or lack of it in the economy or rates of inflation. It’s not done very often. I think I remember in the last eight years, I don’t know that it’s come up more than once in my term here, but I wanted to, and I have no objection to it becoming more...