Robert C. McLeod

Thank you. I do agree that a solid investment in the youth will alleviate a lot of the issues that the Member has raised. Again, I think I pointed out before, it’s one of the reasons, as Members of this 16th Assembly, we’ve determined that the youth are a very important investment, and I think we’ve proven that with the amount of money that we’ve put into youth in the last four years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories recognizes that shelter is fundamental to the overall long-term well-being of the Northwest Territories residents and is a major factor in creating sustainable, vibrant, safe communities, one of the priorities of the Legislative Assembly.

The GNWT continues to focus on ensuring, where appropriate and necessary, that there is sufficient supply of affordable, adequate and suitable housing to meet the housing needs of NWT residents. To guide housing activities that support this mandate, the GNWT has undertaken a Shelter Policy...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me today Mr. Mike Aumond to my left, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; Mr. David Kravitz is manager of community governance; Mr. Mark Aitken is director of legislation for Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am here to present Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Local Authorities Elections Act.

The amendments included in Bill 8 are intended to update and modernize the legislation to keep pace with the needs of local authorities in the Northwest Territories, and reflect the input of our partners, the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT. I would like to extend my thanks to these organizations for their advice and assistance, and to the participants on the peer review group who contributed a significant amount of time and...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, May 16, 2011, I will move that Bill 19, Cost of Credit Disclosure Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I would, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to speak about the value of strong community governments in the Northwest Territories.

Responsive community governments are critical to support healthy, safe, and vibrant communities. To assist the community governments in their efforts, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs works closely with the NWT Association of Communities and the Local Government Administrators of the NWT to provide training, resources, and opportunities for community governments to work with and learn from each other.

The NWT Association of Communities and the Local...

I have made commitments in this House in the past that we would try and get to as many folks in the communities, especially seniors, that would like to put in applications. I’ve made commitments to also have someone come along and interpret some of the programs so they’re more understanding of the programs that we offer and they’re able to fill out the applications a lot more accurately with the help of an interpreter. I have made those commitments.

As far as going door to door, that would require a great deal of time and resources. We prefer that those who feel that they need some work done or...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We continue to have discussions as senior management on how we can allocate more funding into the home repair. There are opportunities to move some money around and put it into home repairs, and we’re always open to that because we do recognize, as the Member does, that we do need to have a fairly good investment into the home repair, so that would deal with a lot of the adequacy issues we face in some of the small communities.