Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a few comments and questions and I’d like to reiterate Mr. Dolynny’s comments about the work that the department has been doing. I should say the corporation. The corporation has been doing a very good job of staying ahead of many of the problems that have existed for quite some time and they’re working very hard at trying to solve them. So it’s nice to see. Of course, I do have some concerns.

Mr. Dolynny mentioned the 168-people-long waiting list. My concern, and I’ve expressed it to the Minister many times before, is with transition housing, particularly in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for the commitment to look into it. I would certainly hope that there would not be anything except perhaps a legal requirement that stands in the way of this kind of consultation. We are a consensus government. We share the responsibility with the federal government and we as Members share the responsibility with our Minister on this particular response. I think it is imperative that the Minister do everything he can to allow Members on this side of the House to have some input into what we’re saying to the feds. I’d like to know from the...

Thanks to the Minister. That’s unfortunately what I was expecting. I appreciate this is a federal response, but I also know that we as a government are sitting at a table and we are presenting a position. I think it is a responsibility of this government to allow Members to have some input into that position.

So I would like to know from the Minister, my question is whether or not I, as a Yellowknife Member, other Yellowknife Members, other Regular Members who want to, why can we not, or can we not have an opportunity to sit down with yourself, as Minister, or with other Members or staff of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to carry on from my statement yesterday and address another provision that I feel is lacking in the Residential Tenancies Act. Sections 30(1)(b), 37, 38 and 40 of the act reference the landlord’s responsibility for tenant safety. I agree with my constituents, who believe that the act does not go far enough towards ensuring tenant protection.

Landlords should have to make sure their buildings are safe and secure from crime. This will mean patrolling their parking lots, laundry rooms and hallways on a regular basis. This means educating their tenants about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome the group from the Status of Women Council here to the House. Can’t see you guys up there behind me, but I know you’re there. Mr. Wasylciw, as well. He’s not a constituent, but we talk often enough he probably could be.

I would particularly like to welcome back some people who used to reside in Yellowknife. I want to call them old residents, but that’s not all that good. Sitting here we have Dr. Anne Davies. Her claim to fame, one of many, is that she was the first full-time president of the NWT Teachers’ Association in 1979. Ms. Davies is...

Mr. Chair, we have concluded Transportation. We could move on.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Defeated

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question here. There’s an expenditure for the Motor Vehicle Information System upgrade and I have a recollection that we’ve been doing this for a while, I think. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could advise if this is a multi-year project, is this the second year of a multi-year project or the first year, and if it is only the first year, is it a one-year project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 107-17(4), NWT Capital Estimates 2014-15, to conclude, hopefully, the Department of Education and then Transportation, then, time willing, NWT Housing Corporation.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for answering my last question. It is very nice to hear things are moving forward and to get a time frame for it.

My Member’s statement suggested three possible solutions to helping tenants if they have what they consider to be a heavy rent increase or put some sort of limits on landlords. I would like to ask the Minister if, having heard them now, although the discussion paper is closed and the review is underway, will the Minister consider the three solutions that I mentioned in my statement. Will he consider them as they look at amendments to the act...