Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of questions. I am just wondering: I think we are midway or more through this project, how are our residents, businesses and communities benefitting from this large expenditure for the construction of this infrastructure in the NWT? Thank you.

Thanks for that response. I’m wondering: it sounds like those will be workers coming here from somewhere else, or will they be people who are hired locally? I’ll get another part in here. I assume we would need some sort of hangar facility as part of this. Maybe I could just get what the plan is for that, as well, and when we might see that, if that’s something we would be constructing in the capital budgets.

One last question, and I appreciate this information. Was the new building constructed with the potential of solar on its roof in mind, and associated with that, do we now make sure that that’s a consideration when we design buildings and construct buildings?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just with a couple of questions on the air tanker fleet, we started the purchase of these last year, I believe. When do we expect delivery of these aircraft, and if that’s spread over time, when are we getting the first one and when are we getting the last one?

Thanks for that good information. I guess, since you bring up solar, what’s the potential for our Yellowknife building assets? Do they typically have roofs that are suitable for decent sized installations with respect to the buildings demand?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to table an article, entitled “Universal Child Care Study Highlights Benefits” from the NWT Literacy Council newsletter September 30, 2015. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to the Minister for that. I didn’t expect you to have it right on you, so I appreciate that.

I don’t know the degree to which you would have your finger on the pulse, but I’m wondering what the breakdown is of our lighting in all our Yellowknife assets in terms of energy-efficient lighting. Would we be able to estimate, say, have we converted 10 percent to LEDs, and I don’t know where there are still T12s and T8s around or whether we’ve got better standards now. Something that would give me an idea of how far along we’ve come so far in converting our...

This is a small number of people, and to those involved, it’s extremely important, as the Minister knows.

This week I had a communication with an audiology professional, one of our staff, who said “In the grand scheme of things, it seems so insignificant, but when you are working with these parents and having to look them in the eyes and tell them their child has a hearing impairment and it’s going to cost $2,465, the cost of a pair of hearing aids and ear molds, to give them access to sound, well, it’s a difficult place to be in as a professional and I imagine as a family too. And there is...

Thanks for the Minister’s comments with sharp eyes there. I actually had not found that one. I appreciate very much the retrofits that are done. I know the Minister is aware of the state of the housing in those communities. It’s very difficult to visit people in their homes, which are not necessarily public housing units; people are fierce about trying to keep their own homes going. Unfortunately, I have not been successful in helping them get support from the corporation to deal with some of those clearly traumatic conditions.

I know there was a triplex, there was also a couple of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow up to my statement yesterday on the need for hearing aids for all young children in the Northwest Territories for the Minister of Health. Currently, not all NWT children are able to access any programs to cover the costs of the hearing aids crucial to their development. Although the GNWT sees fit to support the early identification of children with hearing loss, they do not provide all children with the intervention they require in order to succeed.

I’d like to ask the Minister, what is the status of action to address this gap? Mahsi.