Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that, perhaps the Minister can correct me if I’m wrong, that was a report about four or five years ago. I’m not too sure how old that report is, but I believe some conditions have changed there. Does this report also speak about a relocation plan? Does that report speak to that, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (English not provided).

Today I would like to talk about day care options in the communities that I represent in Nahendeh. In Fort Simpson there are adequate options available to organizations and private businesses that may wish to rent space to provide day care services. The question that day care operators in Fort Simpson have is related to the adequacy of the subsidy of each child and the amount available from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for renovations and purchasing new equipment.

The department will have to seriously look at the level of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to consider Bill 19, Appropriation Act, 2005-2006, with Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Just to take it away from the national level again and just bring it back to, say, Jean Marie River, their need is four units. When can the Minister assure Jean Marie River that it’s not going to be 10 years from now, but three years from now or two years from now? Does the Minister have the ability to do that? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Minister details about how resources would be allocated and now, the next logical question, Mr. Speaker, is what is the placement plan or the long-term plan of placing these units in the communities? What resources have they got earmarked for the Nahendeh riding communities? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker…(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak with you today about the need in Nahendeh for housing; housing for singles and single parents in particular. Mr. Speaker, in my constituency, 25 percent of our households have a core need for housing. This means that there is an issue with suitability, adequacy or affordability with about 200 of the 754 households surveyed by the Housing Corporation; or, in the most simple terms, the types of housing we have now is inappropriate, too expensive, and there is just not enough of it. Yet over the next three years, Fort Simpson will...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes my comments with regard to income security. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I beg the Minister’s pardon if I offended him in any way, but my immediate concern is that the Public Housing Program…I must have missed something because that’s how I understood it to work, that the people currently getting mortgage assistance in that area would be going to ECE for subsidies. The Minister is telling me this is not the case. Why is the subsidy money in ECE, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Minister for that answer. It certainly seems appropriate that department officials had to have some input into this. Of course, the community is going to have some input. I don’t know if the Minister is the lead department for this, but at one point the community is going to have to have input because in my constituency meetings, people were saying it’s a shame to lose this building. In fact, if it can’t be a government office, can we just keep it? Can we maintain it for a training facility, because it’s ideal for that kind of stuff? I don’t know if it...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. While I am glad to see that we are almost in agreement, the fact remains that we may have similar programs, but they are succeeding and we’re not. That is all I wanted to explore and say okay, fine, I didn’t realize that we had a similar model and I am glad that the Minister pointed that out. But just the same, they are succeeding, we are not. Why? What is the difference here? We are going to have to learn from them, at least have a really good look. We don’t have to do anything more than have a good look. If there is something to be learned from it...