Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure and pride to recognize and welcome my daughters to the gallery. Ms. Diedra Villeneuve and Ms. Candace Lafferty-Villeneuve. I’m glad to have you here to see your hardworking MLA dad.

As well, my constituency assistant, also hard working, Ms. Pearl Norwegian.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 64-17(3), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2013-2014, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 64-17(3) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear that the Minister is being flexible about the small and remote communities where an idea such as transitional housing can work. That idea did come from the chief of the Jean Marie River First Nation.

At this time I’d like to invite the Minister to accompany us during our Nahendeh tour to the community of Jean Marie, and we can discuss this idea, and see if we can make it work, and if we can pick that community as a pilot project, so to speak. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the idea of transitional housing for our small and remote communities. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, firstly, to explain the purpose of the one-year residency requirement to access housing programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The lack of housing is a huge problem in many of our communities. On the other hand, there are also vacant units in some of our communities. I believe that there are also problems with access to housing that is available. That is, there is housing and there are people who need housing, but they’re not eligible for it. For example, I am told that there’s a one-year residency requirement to access some community housing programs. In general, that is fine, but what happens when someone returns to a small community and has nowhere to live? It seems that the NWT Housing...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that criteria works well if it is a school, but this is not a school. It is one room in the community hall. I keep impressing that on government. Why do our children deserve less in the smaller communities than others? I would like the Minister to explain that to myself and everyone in Trout Lake. They have to recognize that this is not a school. It is actually a room in the community hall. When will this government replace that school in Trout Lake? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Trout Lake school Member’s statement earlier this afternoon. During my last visit to Trout Lake and with the recent letter received, they have indicated that parents and council, the chief has indicated that the Charles Tetcho School is too small. This fiscal year alone, there are 19 students listed in the morning, and in the afternoon there are 16 students. There is a big open class. I have always said it is like the one-room school. There are too many distractions from the kindergarten class all the way up to the Grade 9 students, as...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to, of course, continue my dialogue and actually ask a library question, as well, in my dialogue about replacing the school in Trout Lake. I know that government, we do have a 20-year needs assessment, so maybe I can ask the Minister if he can show me that list and show me where the Trout Lake school is on the 20-year needs assessment, and maybe we can start that dialogue there and if he can make a commitment that we can meet sometime this week to look at exactly where the Trout Lake school is on the capital needs assessment.

We had a good debate in...