Bob Bromley

Thank you, Minister. Thank you, committee. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, if I could get your support to turn back to 10-24 for one question.

Well said to the Minister. The second fact is this: no matter how much rent an LHO collects or doesn’t, people still need housing. Piling up these annual funding penalties does nothing but reduce LHOs’ ability to meet that need. Since housing is a basic social need, how does the Minister propose to meet reality and close the gap between what LHOs should and can collect so that service to all doesn’t suffer? Mahsi.

I want to touch base with an ongoing perennial topic of interest the Minister has heard me and the Standing Committee on Social Program bring to his attention on several occasions and that’s the development of these programs for renewable energy technicians and sustainable community administrators. At one point I was interviewed by a contractor doing a study on that and that was probably six months or more ago, but I’m wondering where things are at, if there’s some action being taken to develop those programs. I think the Minister’s aware that we have $60 million slotted for energy concerns...

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty, and I noticed this is mentioned too on the bottom of page 10-17. Sorry, continuing on, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m happy to visit with the Minister further about this. I’m not sure it’s a college position. I guess given that people are left hanging right now, can I trust that the Minister will be in touch with our federal partners quite soon on this to fill that need? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had many of the same concerns that were raised by Mr. Beaulieu and Mr. Krutko. I think we have the opportunity to really support those apprentices in our small communities, in particular, that can help us to address many of our goals. I think it would be good when developing this policy for apprentices or reviewing it or supporting it further to consider, and possibly best presented by way of example, the oil burner mechanics are rare and yet there’s a huge opportunity for fuel savings that can be a huge impact in small communities where employment is low and incomes...

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Next on my list I have Mr. Krutko.

I heard somebody estimated that if we provided child care for all in the Northwest Territories it would cost us something like $18 million a year in the line of the Quebec model, but we would probably get that back through other economic benefits, so it would be interesting to explore some of that.

I guess my last question is, the Minister, again, is aware that we have been interested in having a milk subsidy. Obviously he was able to get our support last year with the $400,000 support for nutritious foods and now that is disappearing. I think the interest still remains high on that. I don’t...