David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS it is in the best interest of the child to have, wherever possible, both parents involved in the parenting of said child;

AND WHEREAS the current adversarial process pitting parent against parent with the child in the middle is promoted in legislation like the federal Divorce Act;

AND WHEREAS it would be desirous for the federal government to propose amendments to the federal Divorce Act so that in law and in practice the rights of both parents to due process are observed in all proceedings and that children benefit from equal parenting from their mothers and their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With other jurisdictions moving forward — and I mentioned Saskatchewan with Fort à la Corne and the Ontario Victor Diamond Project in northern Ontario — time is of the essence here. I don’t think we can wait another year before we develop a strategy and a plan and policies on where this government is going to go.

I’d like to ask the Minister: what is the strategy in terms of a timeline to address policy issues surrounding diamond mining in the Northwest Territories and the government’s role in that?

Mr. Speaker, my fear, again, is that we don’t have — and I know the previous government got rid of it — the Diamond Division at ITI. I’m not sure exactly why that happened. Here we are on the verge of other jurisdictions developing mines, and we need to review where we’re going with diamonds and with diamond mining in the Northwest Territories. Again, I don’t understand why we can’t get that 10 per cent and then divvy it up amongst local cut-and-polish plants here in Yellowknife, and we could also open up a diamond exchange.

Once you have the diamonds, people will come. There are examples of...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to welcome again all the visitors from Nunakput. It’s nice to see them in the crowd. I also would like to recognize my constituency assistant, Ms. Lynda Comerford. And with Lynda, visiting from Nova Scotia, is Ms. Vivian Schouteten. Welcome to Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, be read for the third time.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I know yesterday we had a bit of a go-between with the Minister talking about amendments to the Maintenance Enforcement Act. Part of supporting a motion like this, again, gets back to the children. I believe strongly that both parents should be involved in the upbringing of a child.

If you look around the world, the movement is going to a default system of equal, shared parenting so that both parents in separation and divorce have equal access to children. To me, that’s a fundamental right. I believe many rights in this country, Canada…. We call ourselves a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m pleased to provide opening comments on Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act.

Mr. Chairman, Bill 12 empowers the Human Rights Commission to establish its own rules of procedure and simplifies its annual reporting requirements. The bill transfers the responsibility for hiring and supervising staff from the commission and vests it with the director of Human Rights. The staff become employees in the public service. The amendments empower both the director and the commission to appoint assistants and engage advisors. Finally, the Board of Management of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry to go back to page 16, but I request unanimous consent to go back to page 16. I just had a question for clarification on that page.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. In doing some research on another topic, I came across a couple of programs that they have in the Yukon. One is the Home Repair Program, which provides $35,000 in financing to homeowners at a zero per cent interest rate amortized over 12 years. Another interesting program they have there is an Alternate Energy System Program, which provides up to $30,000 to residents in the Yukon to install alternate energy systems in their homes.

I’m wondering if the Minister can just comment on what comparable...

I thank the Minister and Ms. Shaner for their comments as well. I agree with the Minister: people should be paying their maintenance enforcement. That to me is fundamental. And you’ll see that the statistics, again, don’t lie. People who pay their maintenance enforcement can pay their maintenance enforcement. The people who aren’t paying the maintenance enforcement are the people who aren’t making enough money. If they pay the maintenance enforcement, they don’t have enough money to live. They don’t have enough money to pay their rent, to put oil in their fuel tank, to put gas in their tank.

In...