Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of rental controls in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 884 signatures of Inuvik residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories enact and enforce rental controls in the NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if I can commit to having the consultant work on the request the Member is asking us to look at with the farmers; however, I will consider looking at it as a separate issue. I believe the consultants that have been brought online have already done a lot of work in one area and most of the report is concluded. So it would have to be a separate issue, but we certainly will look at it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are not backing away from the commitment of doing a review of PATA. We are intending to do it in the future. At this point, we have focussed on a couple of issues. We are still doing some research. We have hired a consultant to do some work on assessing some works and mobile equipment policies that need to be dealt with in that area. Again, at this point, we haven’t made that commitment. We would like to see that done. There has been a request from a number of organizations and communities. So we realize it’s a priority. However, we have still some discussion to do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Later today, at the appropriate time, I will be tabling, on behalf of the residents of Inuvik, a petition related to the need for improved rent control legislation to protect the residents of the Northwest Territories from unreasonable rental increases. Our economy is booming, particularly in Inuvik and Yellowknife. With the boom, the price of rental accommodation is rising on an annual basis. Some of these increases are for legitimate things like power and electricity costs, but some increases, Mr. Speaker, seem to be only to take advantage of an over-stimulated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we certainly will consider that. We are considering it. We are not lumping in Nahanni Butte with bigger centres. Kakisa, in fact, is smaller than Nahanni Butte, and they don’t have a gym. So we have to consider that and it’s not as if we are totally ignoring the communities. Most of the communities…Every community, in fact, has a multi-purpose hall that can be substituted for a gymnasium. It’s not the requirements to meet standards of a gym, but we also have been investing in new centres in communities, so a gymnasium is something that has been put...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member gives me more credit than I actually have in terms of authority and power. Mr. Speaker, we can't just come out and start to just one-off and pick out one facility for one community. We have to start looking at our plan. We have, in our budget, that we're going to be voting on during the session, indicated that we need $1 million to do some planning. We need some consultation work, we have to start putting it in order. We also have to work on how the MRIF money is going to flow out to the different communities. We have to start developing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The community of Nahanni Butte has certainly made their views known. I have received a petition. I have received letters from practically every student and every youth from that community. It’s been in the media. We have heard it from the honourable Member for Nahendeh on several occasions now. We’ve gotten the message. We’ve heard it from other small communities that there has to be a new focus on recreational facilities and we intend to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has been very difficult in the last many years to put recreational infrastructure in the communities and put it through the capital planning process and have it compete against water treatment plants and sewer lagoons. This year we have some new monies and we have a considerable amount compared to what we had for capital projects and infrastructure.

We certainly support recreational infrastructure being put back on the radar screen. It’s something we want to work towards as social Ministers to improve the quality of lives. So capital infrastructure...

I will take the request to consider the recreational facilities in the small communities. It’s an issue that has generated a lot of discussion over the last while and it has been something that has been put on the back burner for a considerable amount of time as our budget for capital has been reduced. Over the next while, we may have an opportunity to do something about it. We would like to be able to have a good, thorough discussion over it. I will commit to making sure that Nahanni Butte, Gameti, Enterprise, Kakisa and Detah and all these communities are all part of the discussion.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to provide Members with an update on an initiative being undertaken to address our government's commitment to support healthy lifestyle choices as outlined in the GNWT Strategic Plan - Self-Reliant People, Communities and Northwest Territories, A Shared Responsibility.

Tomorrow, February 12, 2005, is Northwest Territories Ski Day. As part of the celebrations, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is pleased to announce that through the Pan Territorial Sport Strategy, a new Ski Promotions Program has been developed in...