Michael McLeod

This is a question that was requested on Thursday. We did indicate if we have the information we will provide it in written form to all the Members.

There is already current legislation in place where a person using a cell phone can be charged. That’s driving without due care and attention. We are looking at what’s happening in other jurisdictions. Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec are the three jurisdictions that have banned cell phones. We have the smart driving program, Drive Alive, I’m sorry, that encourages people to not drive while they are distracted and that program is ongoing. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is aware that this government has taken the approach to coordinate our efforts in energy conservation and projects of that nature through one committee. We in the Department of Transportation do not have additional resources to do the exploration or the research and review the options. I certainly can forward the request to the Energy Coordinating Committee to consider this and have them reply to the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, this is a program that is the responsibility of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. They are responsible for maintaining and improving the marine facilities in communities across the Northwest Territories and also including Nunavut. I believe in 2003 there was some money provided through the DFO, a total of $450,000 to provide docks along the Aklavik shoreline to support the local boaters. There has been use of this facility by the carriers that come to the community. We have had discussions with both the DFO and NTCL. They seem to think it is adequate. There are some dollars provided...

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Our target is $1.5 million. We don’t have it all rolled out yet for presentation and we haven’t got as far as calculating how many houses this will build. That is going to be difficult until we start identifying the areas that we are going in, which communities we are going to work with first and the costing is different in each community. So this, I expect, will be an annual program that will be there for the long term. We are certainly not going to meet all the demands and all of the need out there with this budget, but we need to start somewhere.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Our staff are already aware of this so they’ll be accommodating to that concept.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the people of Fort Providence gathered together to say goodbye to a well-known member of the community, Mr. Alistair Geddes, or Sandy as he was better known, who passed away unexpectedly last Friday.

Mr. Speaker, he was born, as he liked to put it, somewhere 60 miles north of Regina on November 9, 1930. He came north to Hay River in the ‘50s to work as a commercial fisherman and went on to work for NT and also BNR Construction. In the ‘70s, Mr. Geddes moved to Fort Providence to raise his family and to work in the building construction projects that were going on there...

Mr. Chair, the Member raises a very good issue. It’s a real issue that we need to face right now. Our strategy has been to try to convince the federal government that they need to change their position. We’re working at the FPT table. We’ve joined forces with other jurisdictions and we’re hoping that we’re going to be successful on that front. Mr. Chairman, the reality is if we’re not successful, we’re really going to have to rethink how we do business in the social housing area. Will we be able to convert capital? I’m not sure that’s the solution. Raising rents? We are already hearing the...

Mr. Chairman, to the Member’s question, the answer is yes. The focus and the priority this time around, we are hoping, will be on upgrades to our public housing stock for energy purposes and also for suitability purposes.

Mr. Chairman, the Member also asked if we take that into consideration. We do condition rates on our units and that is factored into the rent and any time there are conditions that fall below 60 percent, we take a certain amount of money off for every percentage that it drops below that.

We are just checking to see if we had the latest update on any discussions we have had with the federal government. Up to now, all our discussions on housing infrastructure on aboriginal lands or aboriginal reserves and the funding that flows and other jurisdictions get are not available to the Northwest Territories. Our dollars are presented through a Northern Housing Program. The last Northern Trust and also these new dollars that are flowing are geared to that. With the federal government, I think today we are able to nail down a date that we will be able to have things wrapped up and ready...