Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; the 16th Assembly did pass the Cost of Disclosure Act, and it basically gives consumers an idea of what the interest rate might be with the companies that are charging. It is a situation we faced on a couple of occasions in the Northwest Territories. Down south it’s a little more widely spread. They are protected under the Criminal Code, because they are not allowed to charge in excess of 60 percent.

We continue to monitor this. We work with our southern counterparts to monitor this. As of this moment, we think the Cost of Disclosure Act and...

Mr. Speaker, it is an ongoing review. I will contact those that are involved, and see where they’re at, and see if there are any preliminary findings that I can share with the Members. I will be sure to give that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, one of the things we heard from NWTAC and a lot of the communities that are on the highway system, is their lack of capacity to respond to accidents that might be outside the town. We have $200,000 that was earmarked for ground ambulance and highway service rescue. We have decided that we’re going to allocate some of that for training. So we’ll have a lot of people in communities that are trained to be first responders. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a few residents of Inuvik. We have Lisa Semmler up there. Mr. Jozef Carnogurski. Topsy Cockney is up there. I’d also like to recognize Caroline Lennie from Tsiigehtchic. Welcome to the Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, we had identified $200,000 in the past for ground ambulance and highway services. We had some communities take us up on that money. Once they realized there is a huge liability without the proper training, they kind of backed off a bit.

We are looking at the overall picture. There is a departmental advisory committee that’s looking at it right now, and we’re waiting to see what they come back with, what some of their recommendations might be. So we are looking forward to that. Once we get that, we’ll be able to share it with the Members. We will share it with NWTAC, and look...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through the office of the assistant fire marshal in each region, we’re working with community fire departments to identify training and anything else they may need. I believe that work has been done and we are just waiting to hear. Once shortcomings are identified, we will work with the communities and try and get them trained up, or work with them in identifying potential pieces of equipment they may need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would have to find out to see if I have any powers to make a decision today, because as the Minister responsible for Consumer Affairs, if I were to say we want the price on par with the rest of the NWT, do I have that power? I need to find that out before I make statements like that. I have a bit of research to do here. I’ve committed to a couple of Members that I intend on doing that and that I will return to the Members with any information that I may have gathered.

I will have a discussion with our folks over at Consumer Affairs in our department to see what options are available to us. The Member pointed out some of the concerns that were raised in the public and we’ve heard those complaints. I will have a discussion with the folks over at the department to see what our options are and I will communicate that to the Members.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have committed to doing that. Thank you.

Thank you. We do take the concerns of the public very seriously here. Again, I pointed out that there is a process that we have to go through, and I’m sure the governments that the Member had mentioned just didn’t do it in a day. There are opportunities for us here in the Legislative Assembly to get the message out there, and by the Member asking questions is one of them. There’s also an opportunity to move a motion to have us have a look at this. But regardless, we are monitoring this, and we will continue to monitor it and see what options might be available to Municipal and Community...