Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s a very useful answer. It gives me some indication that, you know, perhaps we should not be quite so literal, if you will, in saying, look, simply increase this deduction. There may be other ways that we can actually get Canada to recognize there’s a higher cost of living here, but also that there may be other ways of achieving that end objective. I’m wondering, you know, where the Premier said this has been put on the back burner, is it still on the radar screen though? Is this still something that there is a collective will to do something with, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Chairman, when this project got rolling and got up and started to take form and shape, did we negotiate a fixed amount CATSA was going to reimburse us for O and M before we really knew what the true costs were going to be? Did we negotiate ourselves into a corner on this by agreeing to a fixed amount and now we really have no recourse, we have to swallow this one, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The AFS International Exchange Student Program involving some 52 countries has been active in Yellowknife since 1982. Students come here for a 10-month visit. It has a major impact in their lives and in the lives of the volunteer families who host them. Mr. Speaker, I and my family are proud to be involved with this program and pleased to welcome to Yellowknife four students who have been here since last August. Three of them are in my riding of Great Slave. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the House Ms. Michaela Klein of Austria, hosted by...

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?

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