Robert Villeneuve

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources and Health and Social Services a question just referring back to October last year when the Minister has committed, as a department, to do a review of the health and social services arrangement that they have with the Yellowknife Health Authority as far as the relationship with people of Deninu Kue. I just want to know what the status of that review is and, if it's completed, is it available for public consultation? Thank you.

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...

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. You know, $450,000 for the review is pretty expensive. That’s a lot of public money. I just want to ask the Minister, the membership on these review teams, are they going to be independent members that ensure that there’s some objectivity and non-biasness, or are they just going to consist of FMBS employees and department employees of FMBS, because if they do, then what’s the use of even having these review teams in place, Mr. Speaker? Is the Minister going to create an independent arm's length body to do the reviews for the government? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I was talking earlier in my Member’s statement about the lack of improvement, I guess, in the government’s Employment Equity Program and new human resources amalgamation that a few Members have brought up in the past to the Minister of FMBS. I guess my first question to the Minister with the human resources service level agreement that rolled out in 2004 on the performance recording process, if the level targets and their achievements have been documented in annual reports to date and if the human resource performances have been monitored to date. Is there any reports on...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one more quick question. If you are going to run a sprinkler system through the library and the cultural centre and the Open Door Society offices, you don’t have to if you didn’t want to keep them open. So why incur that extra cost if the government isn’t going to recoup it somehow through their community capacity building initiatives or all this Northern Strategy money the government is throwing around, the gas tax money? Why don’t we get a contribution from the community on that portion of the building that we are paying for to keep them open? Why haven’t we...

Yes, I guess it’s quite obvious that the other community societies that are occupying that building comprise more than 50 percent of the whole building itself, just thinking about the building itself. Is the government going to be looking at ways to recoup any of this $3.5 million, or is roughly $2 million of that $3.5 million going as a grant-in-kind to all these societies, the historical society, the Multimedia Centre and the library? How much of that money is going as a grant-in-kind?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I haven’t been a resident of Fort Simpson for quite a number of years myself. I know basically the Deh Cho Hall inside out. I know it’s an old building. Half of it is storage space. I don’t think the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the education council, Justice and community wellness are all departments that take up…Some of the offices in there are 20 by 40 feet offices in that building. That’s way overkill. I think that the government could use something that is probably half the size and just as functional for the same cost. Just a question to...