Bill Braden

Thank you, Madam Chair. I may be one page out here. Under advanced education and careers, Madam Chair, I wanted to ask a couple things about apprenticeship and employment training. Are we on the page yet, Madam Chair, that covers apprenticeship and employment training under advanced education and careers?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the 15th Legislative Assembly vision statement sets a goal of adequate, affordable and accessible housing;

AND WHEREAS current policies on housing programs for seniors and disabled persons are uncoordinated and there is a clear need to improve the level of services so that individuals are able to live independently and with dignity;

AND WHEREAS there is significant housing infrastructure that is underused because it was built without ensuring it met client or community needs;

AND WHEREAS the $33.2 million annual contribution for public housing from the Canada...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I will still look forward to the Minister’s statement on Monday, by the way. I am wondering in the criteria for this, are there going to be any limitations or anything that is not going to be considered in this, Mr. Speaker. Are there any criteria at all of what will or will not be considered in the review of this act? Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, this is an issue across Canada, but it’s so acute here across Northern Canada. Has the Finance Minister taken this extremely serious situation up with his counterparts in the other territories to see what we could do if we linked arms and moved this along? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My reply this morning is perhaps not so much related to the actual budget documents before us, but to the process by which our Assembly puts together the business plans and the budget documents.

Mr. Speaker, we are proud in the Northwest Territories of our consensus system of government. We hold it up as something that is different, is suited to us, has deep roots in the traditions and the cultures of the First Nations of the North and that it is something that we want to protect and keep.

But you know this isn’t done easily or just at the drop of a hat. It takes work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs some continued questions on the potential development at the sandpits in relation to the housing approach.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, affordable housing in any community is something that I welcome. I champion this initiative.

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But I also look for sustainable long-term compatible development. In this sense, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask the Minister if we’re looking at what has been suggested would be, say, a 400-unit, actually a satellite community perhaps, what obligations would MACA have in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will look forward to that information. The Minister indicated part of the strategy -- which I think is one of the most relevant and necessary -- is bringing sex education into grades at a younger age. There is a move underway right now, I think, in one of the Maritime provinces, to do this. Has this initiative been taken to the district or community education level to get their initial input and buy-in into this idea? Have we gone there yet? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are for the Minister of Health and Social Services, related to the alarming reports about the incidence of sexually-transmitted infections in the Northwest Territories. The report filed indeed signals that we need to take some very strong action. The information presented in this document is not all that complete. I wanted to ask the Minister, at this stage, what has been done to put more detail on the plan and make a turnaround in this very sad situation possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that costs would more or less be at the expense of the developer and then, of course, the occupants or the customers, but surely there are purely public infrastructure costs. Would we be potentially looking at, say, the need for a new fire hall or schools or parks or recreation? These are very distinct responsibilities at the territorial level. So I just want to get a sense, Mr. Speaker, what kind of obligations would we be looking ahead to, to perhaps enable this to happen? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the one target that is outlined in the document is that we can at least see the possibility of bringing our rates down below the national average before the end of this decade with the trends that are outlined in here, the incidence of sexually-transmitted infection. That is an enormous task. I wanted to ask, is this doable? Is this really achievable? Are we potentially setting up an unattainable expectation here? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.