Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a friend that I made over the last two days, a retired teacher who is visiting from Vancouver, British Columbia. She is here with family who is attending the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. Her name is Mrs. Bev Wong. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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The last question, Mr. Chairman, before we leave the Department of Health and Social Services; we are almost close to leaving this session. I know the Minister was waiting to hear from the federal government as to what is happening with the federal money that we want approved. Is there anything this Minister could advise this House?

I don’t think I got the answer as to whether those kinds of families are able to get some assistance under this program. Maybe I could ask in another way. Under this program, the money you have allocated here, can the families or whoever are absolutely homeless, do they have to go to the Centre for Northern Families or Salvation Army? Is that the only way they can access this help? Under this program, does the government or department or whoever is delivering the program, do they rent private space in private apartments if there is overflow of people who are in need or do we just book so many...

Who’s blushing?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will not be supporting this motion for three reasons. One is that, as I stated, this bill has nothing to do with the Civil Marriage Act in Ottawa. This is creating equal status between unmarried couples and other unmarried couples. It has nothing to do with marriage.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for the benefit of the record, could I just get the Minister to state what this motion is to do? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted its public review of Bill 17, Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act, in Yellowknife on December 9, 2004, and February 16, 2005.

The committee would like to thank Egale Canada and Out North for their submissions and the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill. Bill 17 is intended primarily to remove discriminatory treatment of same-sex and heterosexual common-law couples from a number of NWT acts. The bill is similar to what has been done by other Canadian jurisdictions in response to a decision...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister of Justice and it’s in regard to collection of judgment once someone wins a judgment from court. Mr. Speaker, the law we have with respect to collecting judgment in the North is very outdated, probably because it’s not something that’s on everybody’s mind all the time. The laws we have are that if you win a judgment and you want to collect against somebody and you have to file what’s called a garnishee, that only lasts only 10 days now. Which means everybody has to go to court and file it again, pay $5, then there are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, later this month, March 25th to 27th, Yellowknife will be celebrating its 50th annual Caribou Carnival. Mr. Speaker, every year since 1955, Yellowknife residents have celebrated the coming of spring with this annual carnival. Incidentally, the Caribou Carnival is as old as the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, which we are celebrating. I wonder if there are any connections.

Caribou Carnival, Mr. Speaker, began in the 1950s as a competitive event. Hunters and trappers from far and wide emerged from the bush to compete for the title of Bush King...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps he could tell us more about that tomorrow if there is any news to report.