Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is also on the Legal Services Act aspect here. Given the availability of lawyers relative to workload, the high degree of need for legal aid, and I include both court workers and lawyers here, and that legal aid is typically not based in small and remote communities, and obviously there’s the cost factor. What are we expecting and how would a new Legal Aid Act help out with those issues?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to first follow up on the procurement and the administration of suitable land for the delivery of housing programs and services mentioned under the infrastructure services division. I wonder if I could get a concise description of the issue with respect to IAB lands and our challenges on providing housing there. What has been done to resolve the issue and what is our current approach to deal with it? Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, I guess I am reaching a bit here. Had it been the Minister’s responsibility, I would be bringing accountability into the equation. Now I am asking the Minister to bring accountability with a third party. How many years have we funded this position? How many years has it been empty? How many other positions are there that are empty that they are choosing to use the money as they would see fit rather than asking us how we would like to see it directed? I am presuming that it is our money, our taxpayers’ money that we are providing them here. This is just a general attempt to...

My last question is along the same lines. Are we offering any incentives for power conservation, for example, recognizing that tenants are paying much less than the actual cost of power? It seems like it would be worthwhile to offer incentives that would get us a net gain there and I’m wondering if we are doing any policy development in that area. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to follow up on my colleague’s question there. Here on this page, the first item we have a decrease of $316,000 to community justice committees and projects. I wonder if we can get an explanation of that. Thank you.

That I think helps me understand this position. My second question I have is with respect to the law enforcement programs. I believe $128,000 has been identified for work related to the Mackenzie Gas Project. Obviously, that project has been shelved in the immediate future. I am wondering how we are reallocating those dollars in this fiscal year.

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. Those are good comments and I totally agree, you know, if we can do it on a larger scale than just individual units, that’s definitely where the Housing Corporation should be coming from. He also said we would have to do the work. I think that’s what I and others have been asking for all along, is to do the work required to… Actually, I’m not saying throw an individual woodstove into every house without the work being done. I am asking for that work to be done.

My next question is sort of related to that. I’m very pleased to hear the Minister’s...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just quickly for committee here, I know there’s a broad net cast here in terms of support, and we provide support to youth programs and so on. Given what we’re learning, the very exciting research and the massive amount of information that’s coming on board now about early childhood and the implications for investment in those early years for the full and proper development of the human being, and the consequences to a healthy life that avoids the sorts of issues that the Minister has to deal with here, is that an area that the department funds community groups or would...

Again, would we expect that there would be specialized training in the area of family violence from the social program side as opposed to the important side that provides that liaison, or what is our concept here? Thank you.