Caroline Cochrane

As a Minister, I am committed to addressing the wait list of people waiting for housing. It's a priority of my own. It's also a priority for all of the MLAs who have made a motion in the House to address 250 homes taking them out of core need; and so I am working diligently at meeting that figure and exceeding it is my goal. So, we have quite a few. Currently, and they remain in force, we have a CARE major program that gives up to $100,000 a year. We have a CARE minor program that gives up to $10,000 a year. We have a SAFE program that gives up to $10,000 a year, and with the SAFE program, you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Evictions are not an easy thing. When I first came in, my objective was to be able to provide people with the tools so that they could obtain, maintain, and retain their housing. Eviction does not fit within any of those priorities of my own. It is a last resort. It has always been a last resort for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. The process we go through is, first of all, the local housing organizations work closely with the tenants to try to get them to deal with their arrears and set up a repayment plan. If that follows through, then the process is...

The lifespan of all of our units within the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is about 40 years, so whether they are a modular unit or a stick-built unit, we do try to provide repairs and upgrades to make sure that they can last as long as they can. Some units of course suffer higher damage through a variety of reasons and so they do not make the lifespan of 40 years, but we do try to make sure that all units are repaired or upkept to meet that 40-year lifespan.

Yes, I will direct the staff to go back to the very original to see where the housing was, how many houses were turned over, and I will ask them to actually do research on the actual $28 million that is provided from the Government of Canada and to see if that money is actually being distributed properly, because maybe I am wrong. Maybe less than a million dollars a community is more than we are actually spending in Indigenous community, although I have a feeling that we are actually spending a lot more than less than a million per community per year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Currently, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation does have a community initiative that we work with municipal and Aboriginal governments to kind of look at how we can work together towards providing more housing in their communities. Quite a few of the communities have come forward and are putting things like land or labour on the table. Therefore, we are putting things like material on the table. I am more than willing to work with any government that is willing to look at a kind of partnership model.

In regards to meeting with any specific Aboriginal government or nation at this point...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 1, Western Canada Lottery Act, be read for the second time.

This bill establishes the Northwest Territories Lottery Commission. It also establishes the Physical Activity, Sport, and Recreation Fund, a special purpose fund that will receive proceeds from the operation of lotteries by the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. The commission is responsible for the conduct, management, and operation of lotteries. The Minister will administer the fund and distribute proceeds for limited purposes, including the...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Towards Level Ground: Addressing Persistent Core Need in the Northwest Territories" and the "NWT Housing Corporation Annual Report 2016-2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As stated earlier, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has actually been working quite diligently with the federal government to leverage the infrastructure monies that are coming. Communities such as the City of Yellowknife are actually getting a substantial amount of the federal infrastructure monies, whereas other communities who have a surplus are not getting that amount, so I am not a hundred per cent convinced that any tax increases to the residents of Yellowknife are only because of the $1-million shortfall.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are in the process of developing a long-term plan to address the funding gap for municipalities. That is a commitment. Currently what we are doing is every year, there has been an increase in some of the areas from the territorial governments, and we are leveraging with the federal government's monies to access more infrastructure money.

Communities that are at a surplus currently have been kind of topped, or are staying at that level, and then we are focusing on the communities that have a deficit with the new monies that we are bringing in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, it was kind of interesting when I started this position. My understanding as the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation was that I was to put houses on the ground. It was a short time later that I realized that actually a large percentage of the Housing Corporation's money does go to providing employment in communities. Not only do we provide jobs for maintaining and building units. We have 23 local housing organizations in communities that we provide support for, too, so a huge amount of our money is actually going...