Madam Chair, I support the motion. The information that I have is that the Housing Corporation has really not exercised any kind of degree of creativity or flexibility in this. It just wants to continue doing business the same way. Let’s just add some more PYs here, let’s just continue growing this government instead of looking at what I believe, Madam Chair, would be opportunities within headquarters. As Mr. Ramsay has indicated, the intent of this motion is to say where are existing resources, PYs, where are priorities that could be shifted and that could be applied to look after this new...

So we are taking on what will amount to a $1.6 million commitment in perpetuity here initiated by a three-year housing program and, Madam Chair, a chronic, almost constipated situation at the Housing Corporation with lands. This has been going on for years. The current Ministers needn’t take total responsibility for this because we have heard about this for years now, just how bunged up things are at Housing Corporation with lands issues. I am anxious to find out here, Madam Chair, a three-year Affordable Housing Strategy, we are taking on how many lands officers here, five, six, seven, at...

Madam Chair, the detail we were provided with here says that the funding is required to ensure the corporation has the capacity needed to deliver new housing units through the three-year Affordable Housing Strategy and improve inspections and maintenance of new and existing housing stock. Could the Minister provide us with more detail on what is comprising this capacity valued at $957,000, Madam Chair?

Madam Chair, what I was hoping for was in the course of this discussion that we could get some answers to the area of liability here, which is really what I need to determine before I can vote on this. I would like to find out about what kind of liability we assume here and why did we allow ourselves to be put in this position, it seems, Madam Chair, of a liability for something that may not have been our cause? I need that information before I can vote. Can you help us get it? Thank you.

Yes, briefly, Mr. Chairman. What is so disappointing about this discussion is just the inability of the Minister, and I’m assuming the client department here, to broaden their horizons, to look at innovation and new thinking that could really work in the best interests of the whole community for the long term. I just don’t get the sense that the government is capable of doing that and it is terribly disappointing and now we have this ultimatum in front of us.

So there is no direct application, or the leaseholders here aren’t being assessed a certain portion of these remediation costs over time. A lease fee structure has been determined. That money goes into general revenue and that department gets what it needs from general revenue to fix the job here. What I am trying to determine here, Madam Chair, is are the people who are the tenants on these leases being charged directly or indirectly for the cost of remediation as opposed to a standard lease which has a standard fee structure and a regular way of handling it, Madam Chair?

The timeline we are looking at here, $3.5 million to get an extra four years of life…I’m sorry?

---Interjection

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the discussion here and the acknowledgement or confirmation that this is not something that seems to be happening; it is something quite tangible. The Minister has told committee that it’s a growing problem and one we are going to have to deal with. Would the Minister advise or commit to coming back to perhaps standing committees with some outline of what the status of this growing problem is, and perhaps come back to committees with some options on how we can help address it, Madam Chair? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Chairman, with reluctance I'm going to vote for the motion to delete. The amount of information that the Minister's providing is not enough to convince me that for $320,000 we're getting value for money. I really have difficulty accepting a request for this amount here. The information given us originally here to provide funding for planning and the functional program, the new consolidated office complex in Inuvik. It doesn't go so far as to say we're getting detailed drawings or architectural design. That's going to be another part. You know, Mr. Chairman, given the kind of...

You know, Mr. Speaker, we can see this on the back burner for a long time. Mr. Roland told us earlier today of his optimistic reaction to the expert panel on financing. I share that optimism. But there are so many other initiatives that are going to take their time to sort of grind out through the system. Mr. Speaker, I think as one of the Members who is involved in this motion -- I moved this motion last February -- I’d like to press the Premier to see if he could have a look at this again, speak with his northern counterparts, and see if we could put some kind of a time frame on advancing...