Tom Beaulieu

I agree with the Minister. I realize that the maximum amount set in the rent scale is 19.4 percent, not 30 percent. The reason it is there is because they are public housing tenants. They have low incomes. They have to be below a certain income threshold in order to be in public housing. I am asking the Minister again to look at the power subsidy portion, which is that subsidy I referred to where everyone is brought to the Yellowknife rate up to a certain amount, if the Minister would look at making the adjustments based on that number. I think that would be the more appropriate way that would...

Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Housing. Mr. Speaker, there were some questions on the power rates that were eventually increased to where, I believe, that the tenants in public housing are paying their own power. At one point, it used to be a payment of a small amount per kilowatt hour, and then it continued to grow until they are paying everything. One of our mandates is to lower the cost of living. I would like to ask the Minister: the benches that are set for rent, it depends on your income; you pay a certain bench. If the power that the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm sure the community will be pleased to hear of that review. I have no further questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have lots of needs in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask the Minister about community learning centres. Currently, we have a new community learning centre in Lutselk’e. That was very good for the community. It was used as a good back-up classroom for when they were renovating the school. So I think the community is pleased with that.

The two other communities that have community learning centres are in very old buildings. The one in Ndilo, and I think I'll speak on the two separately or ask questions separately, Mr. Chair. I'd like to ask...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Like, when the Minister referred to core infrastructure, I was wondering what that included. For me, core infrastructure are all the roads, ditches, dumps and docks -- no, not docks, maybe trucks and heavy equipment. Just a clarification of what would be outside of core infrastructure?

[Microphone turned off]…turned capital, but I could also say infrastructure. Now, if there is a community, such as Yellowknife, which has lots of infrastructure, and there is a depreciation on that infrastructure, then, every year, when they replace water lines, I know that there is little depreciation the first year, but as soon as it goes into use after one year, there is a depreciation. That depreciation would be considered a deficit in the infrastructure. That is what I am trying to get at.

In the small communities, we have very little infrastructure, a few warehouses here; most of our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, along the same line of the previous Member, I am trying to sort out how the whole system works. Is there a situation where, when you are trying to fulfill the capital deficit in the municipalities that have capital deficits, you are removing money from other communities that are not considered to have a capital deficit? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, staying in the area of education, but not something that I mentioned in my Member's statement, is the research centre in Inuvik that's also part of Aurora College. I'd like to ask the Minister if she would look at what is possible for research. It appears as though Inuvik is blessed with probably the best fibre links, the best Internet connections in the world, and there's a research centre there. I'd like to ask the Minister if her department could work with the research centre to see how they could expand that to increase the studies and make Inuvik Aurora College into a world...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I talked about a couple of possibilities that I have been thinking about for post-secondary education in the NWT. I recognize that one of the ideas that I have around turning the Stanton Hospital into a school has a lot of logistics to it, and it would take a full department or several departments to work on it, but I would like to ask the Minister of Education questions on what is possible in Fort Smith.

In the foundational review, it was contemplated to move a lot of the programs out of Fort Smith. I would like to ask the Minister...