Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department will begin public consultation on the draft framework in October of 2011. We will be providing a briefing to various stakeholders including the City of Yellowknife and the Town of Inuvik because of the affected area up there. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the Gwich’in Tribal Council, and the Cassidy Point/Prosperous Lake, we’d be providing them with a briefing prior to the public release of the draft framework. Thank you.

To answer the first part of the Member’s question, we’re always willing to work with the tenants. If there are some hardships that tenants run into, all they need to do is go see the LHO. We’re not without a heart. They’d be willing to talk with them.

As to the second part of the Member’s question about whether or not the hamlet can take over the provision of housing, we’re always open to those types of suggestions. If the hamlet wants to seriously consider it, sit down with the Housing Corporation, then I’m sure there are arrangements that we can work out.

I’ll say it right now publicly, that...

Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.

We recognize the fact that some of our communities have gone longer without units being put in their communities than others. We are starting to recognize the fact that some of the smaller communities now are being left behind a bit, so they are going to need an investment. I can assure the Member that I will make a recommendation that the smaller communities and the one he brings up quite regularly, and rightfully so, Sachs Harbour, does need an investment in infrastructure on the housing side in their community. Thank you.

The Member’s questions are valid. As far as the Community Planning Act, I’m not sure how it fits in. To be quite honest, I’m not well aware of the situation the Member is speaking of, but we will have a look at it and see how all this occurred and we’ll communicate that to the Member.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled “Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 7-16(5), Report on the Review of Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Dog Act.”

Yeah, 1-800...

---Laughter

There have been a couple of cases where we’ve had to go after those that are squatters. We’ve had some complaints from people who hold legitimate leases. We’ve taken action against them.

I have to say that I’ve been very impressed with the buy-in that we’ve had from folks out there. They’ve had a lot of opportunity to come in and legitimize their leases. A lot of them have taken us up on that. I have to say I’m particularly impressed with the folks up in Inuvik at Airport Lake, where every single cabin out there has come forward and gotten applications to fill out.

We see this as a process that...

There is an opportunity and commitment that was made by the federal government that we’ll have to explore to ensure that we take full advantage of it so that we don’t have the glut that we’re having over on the east side of Prosperous Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we close out another sitting of the Legislative Assembly, I think that we’ve all come to realize that the work we do here is quite important. We all have some challenges in that, but usually at the end of the day I like to think we come to a common conclusion and that we’re here to do the best for the people of the Northwest Territories.

We heard yesterday Mr. Roland saying that he was not intending to run again and I just wanted to use this opportunity to thank him for his mentorship. I remember when I first came in, in 2004, Floyd was the Finance Minister. At our...