Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, the allocation of money, we give all our money to the communities now and the communities will then do their capital plan and do their priority list. We’re having more and more communities now identifying some firefighting equipment, and their fire halls, they’re identifying those as part of their capital plans. So the Member’s communities up in Nunakput, I’m sure, once they work with the assistant fire marshal and realize what their priorities are and what equipment they need, I’m sure that they’ll take it upon themselves to identify those and start putting some money towards...

Mr. Speaker, I have had some discussions with the assistant fire marshal and he’s aware of some of the community demands. He’s more than willing to meet with the communities, identifying some of their equipment, their priorities, what needs to be improved. They’re also planning on having regional workshops, where they bring the firefighters in from the communities and have a regional workshop in Inuvik. I think that’s a great idea instead of sending them a long way. I think we’d be able to accommodate more people by having it in the region. These are initiatives that he’s got on the go and I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have an assistant fire marshal in the Inuvik region that would be more than willing to go and visit the communities and work with them to do an inventory of the type of equipment they have and some of the training that they need. He’d be willing to do that and that would help the community identify some of their priorities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I will communicate to the assistant fire marshal in the Inuvik region the member’s desire to have him go into his communities. I’m sure that he will be well aware, after our discussion today, that he is needed in Nunakput. But I will communicate to him the Member’s desire and we’ll make sure that he gets up and works with the communities in identifying their firefighting equipment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome to the gallery my new constituency assistant, Ms. Leah Ipana, Welcome.

The Housing Corporation goes a long way into assisting homeownership clients through repairs and trying to get people into homes. We have some challenges that we face. There is a gap of people that we’re looking to try and capture. I’ve given instructions to the corporation to see if we can start capturing a lot of those people who are quite capable of looking after homes, but for one reason or another are not qualifying at the moment. There are a lot of programs designed for the seniors through the preventative maintenance, where they go in every fall to do the maintenance in their units...

Offhand, I’m not quite sure about a time limit. I could follow up on that and get back to the Member. I do know that when a unit is sitting vacant in a community for too long or what the community feels is too long, then the community or the Members will usually let us know that there are some vacant units in the community that haven’t been filled and then we’ll take steps to try and address that and come up with the way we can fill these units.

Mr. Speaker, if it is a matter of printing someone else’s legislation onto our paper and our letterhead, it is something that we try to stay away from, because we always say, and we have said in the past, that we need legislation that is built in the North, for the North. To go and copy other jurisdictions’ legislation, that’s something we wouldn’t look at. But I could commit to the Member that we can do some research and see if there’s a demand for this particular type of legislation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not aware of any policies that are out there, but there are some policies within the Housing Corporation where a one-year warranty usually comes for those that are constructing units for the corporation. The best advice that I can give is if the homeowner is entering into a contract with a builder, first of all make sure they are a legitimate builder and do the research on that and always make sure that you have a warranty built into the contract. If they refuse to put one in, then I would have to seriously consider signing on with that particular builder. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Workers’ Compensation Act to provide for a presumption in respect of certain diseases that occur more frequently among firefighters than any other workers or the general population. These diseases are slow in development and are disabling and often terminal. They appear to arise from exposure of conditions at the scene of fires. This bill identifies those diseases as listed diseases and the...