Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just with regard to all the outfitters that have been affected by the drop in their quotas, I’m wondering if one suggestion that was brought to my attention is raising the number of tags that the outfitters in the northern North Slave region might be able to bounce back with is raising the number of tags for grizzly bear tags that they’re allowed to harvest in the northern part of the NWT. A lot of outfitters feel that if they raise those quotas -- the number of grizzly bears is definitely grown quite significantly with the amount of polar bear, human incidents that...

Mr. Speaker, I just want to ask the Minister, I guess, if they haven’t really identified how to address the hardships, how to subsidize freight for food or give out food coupons in the remote communities that rely heavily on caribou and just not for the hunters and trappers and the harvesters in the communities, but are they going to take into consideration all the outfitters that are being affected by the low numbers that they’re allowed to harvest? Are they going to be included in the hardships that they’re going to address? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the president of the Native Women’s Society of the NWT, the president of the Seniors’ Society in Res, my mother, Terry Villeneuve.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess back in October during the session the Minister said that he would commit to the Member that this review would be done in the first week of January. I'm hoping that it probably was done in January sometime, and that was four months ago. The community consultation; is there any specific dates that the Minister can tell me and my constituents when they're going to be in the communities to do this consultation, because it's already four months past when the review was supposed to be completed. When do we start the consultation process, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Again, I would just like to raise some housing policies and practices that continue to concern me and my constituents. Since very little has changed in the Housing Corporation’s policies and practices since raising these issues in this House on numerous occasions over the past two years and also bringing them to the attention of the Minister in charge of housing who, I might add, Mr. Speaker, spent four years on this side of the House adamantly demanding the same changes to the housing policies and practices, I feel it is important to raise the red flag once again.

First, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister is in the same boat as I am. It's a review that was done four months ago; he hasn't seen it and neither have I. The leaders haven't been consulted; it hasn't been shared with the community yet. Can I just get some kind of a commitment, a statement from the Minister from his department to say that, yes, we are going to move forward on this and we are actually going to go in the community sometime hopefully soon and bring in a public document in the community and hear everybody's concerns on what some of those recommendations could be? Could we get some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess back in October during the session the Minister said that he would commit to the Member that this review would be done in the first week of January. I'm hoping that it probably was done in January sometime, and that was four months ago. The community consultation; is there any specific dates that the Minister can tell me and my constituents when they're going to be in the communities to do this consultation, because it's already four months past when the review was supposed to be completed. When do we start the consultation process, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Again, I would just like to raise some housing policies and practices that continue to concern me and my constituents. Since very little has changed in the Housing Corporation’s policies and practices since raising these issues in this House on numerous occasions over the past two years and also bringing them to the attention of the Minister in charge of housing who, I might add, Mr. Speaker, spent four years on this side of the House adamantly demanding the same changes to the housing policies and practices, I feel it is important to raise the red flag once again.

First, Mr...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I’ll just be brief on this because everybody is beating everybody else on what their concerns are that we expressed yesterday. I just want to let it be known that I won’t be supporting this motion, not because of what everybody was saying, you know, the government’s lack of foresight and lack of planning escalated by all the changes in the political landscape of the day that kind of added to and made this whole lack of planning look even worse. But I know the Minister stated ECE would be left out in the cold along with all these NGOs. I know that the NGOs that are there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The most important people you want to consult with in these communities seem to be the ones they haven't touched base with yet. I'm sure that the Minister has probably met with the Yellowknife Health Authority and gone over some of the recommendations of the review. Maybe just for the public record and for my constituents' peace of mind, what were the views of the Yellowknife Health Authority so far as the overall recommendations that the review recommended? Thank you.