Glen Abernethy

I agree completely. We want to make sure that this type of thing doesn’t happen. What I’m committing to do is providing a bit of an analysis and report on what can be done to make sure that orders can be enforced and how they can be enforced. I’m not sure that’s going to require a legislative amendment. It may be policy, it might be regulation. We will do that research and analysis. We will bring it to committee. We will present it to committee and seek direction from committee and the Member as well. We will seek direction on how we want to move forward on that. It may be legislation; it may...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The rental officer has powers and authorities as identified within the Residential Tenancies Act. When a dispute occurs between a tenant and a landlord and cannot be resolved through mediation or discussion, the rental officer does have the power to make an order. Once filed with the court, that order does have the power of the courts. If one of the parties disagrees with the order, there is a right to appeal. The right to appeal is the cornerstone of the Canadian justice system and that cannot be ignored. When an appeal is filed, the Supreme Court has a couple of...

Agreed.

It’s an intriguing idea and it might be a great opportunity for Public Works and Services and ECE and ITI to get together to figure out how we can get local artists’ products on walls. As long as we’re not talking about consuming floor space, obviously, which is incredibly expensive, but as long as it’s walls in public parts of buildings, it’s certainly something that we should be pursuing and I’m happy to take that forward and discuss it with my ministerial colleagues to figure out exactly how we can try to make something like that happen.

I don’t, obviously, have that information with me today, but I will commit to getting that information from the department and providing it to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, I don’t.

Right now we have just completed the drafting of a new Legal Aid Act, which will be coming in front of committee soon, hopefully. We’ve also been having discussions in Cabinet and with committee about enhancing or providing some additional resources to the legal aid unit, and we will continue to have those discussions and find a way to enhance the services being provided in that area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the report, it identifies that we think we might see as many as 11 positions or 11 people in those facilities over a year, at a whole year duration, not actual days, which will put additional pressure on the facilities, absolutely. Right now we have an opportunity, given that we have Nunavut inmates as well as federal inmates in those facilities, and our first step would be to stop taking Nunavut inmates, which would leave us room for northern inmates. Thank you.

The department is reviewing a number of issues with the legislation that were raised by the rental officer. One of the issues that was not raised was this particular issue about the powers and the orders and the enforcement of those orders.

However, recognizing the concerns of my two colleagues as well as people throughout the Northwest Territories, I have directed the Department of Justice to look at possible issues relating to the enforcement of orders under the Residential Tenancies Act. In this review we need to determine that there are actually issues that can be addressed through the...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to establishing a public service that is inclusive and representative of the population it serves. Today I am pleased to provide my colleagues with an update on initiatives currently underway to achieve this important goal.

Established in March 2010, the GNWT Advisory Committee on Employability provides advice on how government can promote, support and increase the participation of persons with disabilities. Working closely with this committee, the Department of Human Resources has developed a draft framework to guide efforts...