Frieda Martselos

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to installing cellular service along Highway No. 5 within the life of the 19th Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Does the Minister agree that installing cell service along Highway No. 5 will help enhance the highway's safety and help grow the NWT economy?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Highway No. 5 is the road between Fort Smith and Hay River, and it spans 273 kilometres. It was constructed in 1966 as a gravel road, but it is now a fully paved highway that passes through Wood Buffalo National Park. Missing from this highway, though, Mr. Speaker, is a cellular service along the entirety of the road. This is a long stretch of road to have no cellular service. I would like to enhance my colleague's request to build cellular infrastructure along Highway No. 3, servicing Behchoko to Yellowknife, and include with it a cellular service along Highway No. 5...

I disagree with one of my colleagues. I believe in the renewal strategy because we have got to start making decisions that are based on proper financial statistics and the dollars that we have and what we have to work with. The way things are done now, it's not okay. That is not the way you would run a business. That is all I have. Just a comment, no more questions.

What I am getting at is that we are always saying that we are going to support Aboriginal and northern business, and here we are once again. This is a Crown corporation under the auspices of the Government of the Northwest Territories, and we are paying $16 million for the assets of Northland Utilities in Hay River. I find that is, for clarity, not our mandate, and we are setting a precedent. The next time, over here, when the Yellowknives want to get out of it, we are going to start that here, too, with Northland Utilities? I know they just signed a five-year deal because I keep track of...

I want to go down now to the NWT Hydro Corporation. There is $105,084,000. What does that include in that $105,084,000 of borrowing? What is that? What does it include?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to go back to those P3s, especially the one with the Stanton Territorial Hospital. In the estimated balance, it has $130,431,000 and an estimated balance in 2022 of $127,129,000, so that could not be on the balance, Madam Chair? I am just wondering because it already goes down less than $3 million, and we know the project is almost $1 billion with the 35 years. We also know in that same P3 that we also have the legacy building next to it that we don't own anymore because we turned it over then to renovate, and that is part of the P3. When we go back to...

Will the Minister commit to including Highway No. 5 in any future contract negotiations for new cell service along highways in the NWT?

Will the Minister commit to review the policy of core needs income threshold in order to properly account for one's level of mobility and social and safety needs for seniors?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell us if she considers the current policy of core needs income thresholds within the NWT Housing Corporation as a fair and just policy for the residents of the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.