Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a problem we are facing across the Northwest Territories. We are taking steps to deal with the rent collection. I have to point out, though, that our five best performing LHOs, as far as average arrears per unit, three of them are in the small communities. Our best average is in one of the smaller communities, so that showed me that these are communities that are honouring the commitments that they’ve made and these are the communities that we don’t hear concerns from, from the MLAs. This is one of the reasons I believe we are in the situation we are in today...

Each community has five-year capital plans and I’ve had the opportunity to see some of the plans. They’ve identified some of their priorities in the community and I want to commend them for doing a very good job. We have a very strong NWT Association of Communities membership. The president sometimes attends the Federation of Communities and Municipalities, FCM, and they have opportunity there again to raise any concerns that they might have with funding from the federal government to the Northwest Territories. It is an ongoing work but we continue to support the communities with a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve stated on a number of occasions in the past, responsibility for community infrastructure now lies with the community. We have been fortunate that we have been able to access the Building Canada Plan money, the infrastructure stimulus money, as well as all the infrastructure money that we give to the communities. They have received a significant amount of money. If there are any projects that are meaning to be done in the community, it would be a community responsibility to identify the projects and work with the funding that they do have.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation continues to work with the local housing organizations (LHOs) in their rent collection efforts under the Public Housing Program. This work is intended to increase collection of rent and rental arrears. These funds are reinvested in community housing.

Mr. Speaker, the success of the Public Housing Program depends on a partnership between the Housing Corporation, LHOs and tenants. If each does their part, it contributes to the sustainability of the program and reduces the cost of living to Northwest Territories residents and it...

We’ll play a secondary role and the Community of Lutselk’e will play the lead role as they have the funding to allocate to applying dust suppressant to their road. We’ll be more than happy to work with the community and identify the best ways possible to make sure they get their roads done.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 19, Cost of Credit Disclosure Act, be read for the first time.

Thank you. The committee for Rural and Remote Communities was a very important committee that provided very important advice to the government in allocating funds, and I think through some of the work of the committee we’ve recognized on that committee, too, how important it is to invest in the youth.

The $400,000 that we recommended going into the Regional Sports Program I think is an excellent example of the investment in youth. The Youth Centre Funding Initiative is another good example of that. We actually doubled it from $250,000 to $500,000 for the youth centres across the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do agree with the Member’s comment and I think this whole Assembly agrees with it. That’s why this Assembly has determined that in the life of the 16th Assembly the amount of money that we’ve put into youth is unprecedented in any Assembly before us. I think that goes a long way in showing that we do recognize that investing in youth is a very good issue and it’s something that we all support. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Local Authorities Elections Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I think in the communities that have put up a youth centre like Fort Resolution, I don’t think those infrastructure projects will go to waste. I think the communities themselves have the ability, through their O and M budgeting process, to allocate funds as they see fit, and most of the communities would have recreation workers.

As a department, as a government, we also provide $825,000 to all the communities across the Northwest Territories for recreation purposes. That’s on top of the O and M monies that we give the communities. So the community itself would have the ability to...