Kevin A. Menicoche

Thanks, Mr. Chair. All right. I’ll await that confirmation. I just wanted to ask for another hour for my further questions, Mr. Chair.

---Laughter

I’ve got no further questions.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased that they’ll look at it here right away. Like I said in my Member’s statement, a particular case is an elder needs his water tank replaced and in that case he cannot come up with the $1,200, but it’s a need for that elder and his family. Water and cleanliness is one of our basic needs. So, I appreciate the Minister looking at that immediately and if he can, once again, to look at it and review certain situations. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just with regard to road licensing and safety, residents of Fort Liard still find it burdensome that they’ve got to drive all the way to Fort Simpson each time they need to get their vehicle registration and/or trailer registration. I know that we were supposed to have a mobile licensing unit out there. I don’t know if they ever got that going, or has online registration advanced to the point where they can do it from the comfort of their community? Thank you.

Thank you very much. I know that when I first began in the Assembly with the 15th Assembly, we did have a specific seniors or elders housing program which spoke to giving relief for those kind of things. I’m wondering if the Minister is willing to look at it in that perspective in identifying specific seniors or elders repair programs. Thank you.

I know that in the past few years that the highway between Fort Simpson and Wrigley there was investment in replacing culverts and almost like mini-bridges, so I’ll just ask one more time if there are any plans for replacing any more culverts towards Wrigley.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I wanted to talk about the repair and renovation programs offered by the NWT Housing Corporation. Over the past few years, I’ve had elders, seniors on pension and those with disabilities contacting me that part of the programming that the Housing Corporation offers comes with a co-pay portion and the minimum co-pay portion is about $500. It’s very, very difficult for those on pension and low income to even come up with that type of co-pay portion.

As an example, in Wrigley there was an elder who needs their water tank replaced. Typically in Yellowknife it would be...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just in terms of highways, culverts, bridges and chipseal overlay project, I know that one of the priorities of my communities is we’re excited to see the ongoing development of chipseal between Providence junction and towards Simpson and we’ve still got quite a bit of a ways to go yet. I’d just like to see what the department’s plans are for continuing chipsealing between Providence junction and Checkpoint. I know that we repaired some of that chipseal, I think it was 18 kilometres from Providence junction towards Fort Simpson, and there’s still another 18...

Yes, I certainly realize the cost of a brand new snow blower, but I think there may be other ones in the Department of Transportation in other communities or other regions that could be perhaps repurposed to the community of Trout Lake. So I would just ask the Minister to keep that in mind as they evaluate their equipment and the equipment needs. I did speak in the House about it before and I thought there was a solution of an older, not very old, but an older snow blower in another community that could have been purposed over to Trout Lake. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

So, just in terms of integrity of the new airport, it sounds like it all settled out. Certainly residents are very happy to see the new airport terminal building was certainly in the bidding process and look forward to the construction to protect the travelling public during the upcoming winter months. Maybe the Minister can let me know when that’s slated for completion. Just with that, then I have one other thing with regard to the Trout Lake Airport. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Well, all the more reason for the Minister to make a commitment that he won’t move any money from our future capital. Like I said, that’s a concern of mine and we all work hard as an Assembly, Members on this side of the House with Cabinet, and a couple of weeks ago when we went through the capital budget, we’ve come here, we’ve got a fairly good plan that everybody’s agreeable with, but the impact of $32 million I just sure don’t want to see it being amended or changed because there is a successful claim there.

I’d just like to ask the Minister one more time what are his thoughts about that...