Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in terms of the process between now and the next application cycle, in terms of going to the district, is it also possible that the applicants could go to the local housing authority boards in terms of working out some type of an appeal process? I know that’s something that could be considered rather than to the district office. Would the Minister look at something in the interim?

I appreciate the gesture from the Minister in terms of this specific person. Now I want to ask, in terms of the administration and the flexibility of this program, he’s supposed to be simplifying these programs, the government and the Housing Corporation administration. Does the Corporation have an appeal process in place where if there’s an application that does get rejected, that there can be an appeal process to a body rather than just to the Housing Corporation?

Mr. Chair, just on the last comment from the deputy minister, some of the communities that don’t feel that they will be able to access some of this $200,000 for the ground service and ambulance, does that leave an option for some of the communities who are on the winter road system that could use some of the money for winter road ground services, such as the community of Norman Wells who is asking about this here? The Town of Norman Wells is asking about this, so they’re trying to find a way to look at this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to make comments on the recent 2009 Community Housing Needs Survey. Last week we finished with the Minister of the corporation in terms of the budget. When I left and went upstairs, I received a phone call from a distraught senior in Fort Good Hope. She’s a retired social worker, she’s a senior, and she was looking for help with the Housing Corporation. She had to go through the whole bureaucratic administrative process and the application and the whole information gathering. She rushed to get all this information together so she could get the...

Mr. Chair, can I ask the Minister in terms of, you know, you look at community rescue services on the winter road in the Sahtu for the time that we have the winter road, for three to four months, the issue is the search and rescue or the emergency community emergency management planning. Has the department considered using the Canadian Rangers in terms of emergency rescue or emergency measures in terms of road rescue or calling on some that are similar to the ambulance type of service? Members were talking about they have these Rangers here, that they can certainly be called up and be part of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The land requirements. Some of the issues that we have with land requirements in some of our communities and because it’s quite complex and sometimes we don’t get the houses we want built for that year because of the issue with the municipal or, as in our case, with the Sahtu municipal lands there are certain agreements that need to be put in place before the Housing Corporation puts houses in the communities. Sometimes when these agreements don’t come in time because of the schedule, sometimes we’re told that if you don’t get your land, it’s too bad, you can’t have a...

Thank you, and now the mortgage collection specialists. Is this going to be part of their long-term O and M or is this going to be a program where they’ll train or work with the local housing authorities to take more of a role into it and the mortgage collection specialists would ease their way out? So is this going to be a part of the ongoing O and M?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the increase of nine positions, could I get a little more detail on that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly I’m prepared to lace up with the Minister of ITI and defend this claim to fame in terms of the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada. I want to ask the Minister in terms of all the good publicity we have and now with the Olympics that are going to start, I think it’s going to somewhat scale back and the focus is going to be on the athletes in that once we finish this whole event that’s happening in Vancouver we’ll be sitting down and looking at a bigger picture strategy in terms of how to go forward and continuing on the good work that this department has done on...

Mr. Chair, in light of what we’ve just been reading now, the survey of the NWT community housing components and the old 2004 survey with the acquisition for the infrastructure, I’m going to have to look at it. I’m just asking the Minister, does that match with our needs in the Nahendeh, the Sahtu and the Beaufort-Delta in terms of the dollars that we’re spending to bring down the core needs, the percentages? I haven’t done my own analysis so I want to ask the Minister that. Thank you.