Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation in regard to the recent report on the housing survey. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of his research that’s starting with the report with discussions with the staff, I want to ask the Minister, has the Corporation found out any reasons why the increase in terms of the survey in terms of the adequacy, the suitability or the affordability in terms of these numbers. It’s very disturbing in terms of the numbers that are increasing. They should actually be decreasing. Has the Minister had any...

Mr. Speaker, in regard to the next program cycle, in between now and the next program cycle, I mean, this is only one of many concerns I have from the region. And certainly I will probably ask the Minister again, is there an interim appeal process or do we just go to the process that we’re doing now, MLAs coming and seeing the Ministers?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the Housing Corporation, in terms of the policies and the programs that the Minister is responsible for, I want to ask him in terms of how do we help a lady like this that is in a bad situation in terms of her house in regard to the conditions she lives in in Fort Good Hope.

I certainly agree with the Minister in terms of his explanation to the ground ambulance services. I bring this up because one of the Rangers in one of my ridings said, you know, why don’t we utilize the Rangers, get them the training, get some equipment, if there’s an accident on the winter road they can call one or two or three or four Rangers together, a quick call, small communities, with the proper supplies and equipment. It wouldn’t take very much and they could go and help our communities.

So I’m not too sure if this could be answered tonight, but have some consideration because the...

Now, is this Arctic Energy Alliance, are they looking to maybe move out of Inuvik and come into the Sahtu region even though sometimes the Inuvik region does include some of the communities in the Sahtu in terms of their authority? Is that something that the Minister is going to look at in terms of asking the Arctic Energy Alliance to start to probably regionalize their offices? Get out of Yellowknife and go into the communities.

Mr. Chair, could I then dare say that if these issues are not resolved in terms of the land tenure issues for housing that’s allocated for a community and they’re still working on a land issue here, that this community, any communities, you know, would they lose their unit? Would it go to another community outside the region, within the region because the units are there? I think sometimes that’s under the impression of the leadership, that if we don’t get this unit, and because we know the urgency and the need for housing, that would make a, what do they call it, a time compressor...

So it’s going to be part of the operations in terms of these mortgage collection specialists. Now these mortgage collection specialists, are they going to be in the region or is that going to be coming out of the headquarters to take care of the regions and the communities?

With the federal funding, the one the Minister made a reference to, is this going to be one year or is this ongoing? Is it going to increase sometime in terms of the ongoing positions for the corporation?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have comments on the general observation of the Housing Corporation. I was reading the Minister’s comments to the House here. Probably somewhere down the line I will ask the Minister in terms of the federal funding for the housing programs in the Northwest Territories. I know there is a decrease every year. I believe the Minister at one time, I must have forgot in terms him stating the amount that the federal government is decreasing revenue towards our housing in the Northwest Territories. So far, I understand that there is $43 million for 2010-11 for housing...

Mr. Chair, just more of a comment here in terms of the programs that are under this budget here in terms of the homeownership entry level program. I just like to give a comment to the Housing here in terms of these programs. The STEP program, the HELP program and the other programs, they offer the PATH program, the CARE program. I think that’s probably one of the best written up programs I’ve read. I had the opportunity to read the STEP program. It’s dynamite stuff that’s there that should be going to the communities. Hopefully, it will be somehow, when we have aboriginal peoples taking these...