Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The strategy that you will see before you is going to be also through the O and M. We will also be looking at that in the O and M budget. What we have right now is, all we're talking about is, capital. When we recognize the capital, it is on a quarterly basis. As I mentioned, one of the ways we are trying to adjust that is through some of our federal funding agreements to try to offset some of those core need infrastructure in some of the communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned, we are looking at working on it again. We put a delay on it since there was an election coming up. I would say, probably the earliest that we might be able to see it, I would say, is in February.

Just for clarity, is that what the core needs are in the community, or what is outside of it or just the core needs? Sorry, I missed part of the question there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The easiest answer is no.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I did hear the Members' comments, all of them that made general comments to the Minister of Finance's opening remarks. We do know this is a concern, and I did hear it when I did become Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, when I did sit with the NWTAC's executive. This year, there is a small increase in the funding for O and M as well as, I believe, water and sewer services. Since, I think, 2014, there has been small incremental increases each year. This funding really is used for core needs of the community, and I know we need to find ways to address that. As you...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of that is the CPI funding that they do receive as well as the gas tax. They can use either or look at any kind of special projects that they do. Our main focus is to have those core needs in place, the water, the sewage, the solid waste, for the health, wellness, and safety of our residents. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Since we've put some of this particular program in since 2015/2016 I think it's really a positive note to say that power consumption has declined by about 8 percent in the communities. That means our tenants are becoming more aware of their usage as well as, like I said earlier, trying to be more conservative on their energy and also a little bit more self-reliant, but also understand that we've got other programs that we've got to sustain within the NWT Housing Corporation.

I do have a list of some of the programs that we have done in this area: we invest in energy efficient building practices...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will get a definition of all the core infrastructure in the communities. We will share it with Members. I do believe that office buildings are part of that core, as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Member's opening comments, in his Member's statement, he is right that, over the past three years, public housing tenant power rates have been gradually increasing to adjust in line with what other households in the NWT communities are paying under the GNWT's Territorial Power Support Program. The impact from the last base rate adjustment would be approximately $36 per month for the average household, and then it was about $87 per month, considering all base rate adjustments over the last three years.

Mr. Speaker, we do face a challenge here in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We can put something in there, a definition of what the core needs are and how we use it to look at doing our funding to the communities and some of the questions that have already been asked. Yes, we can definitely do that.