Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is actually just beginning to do a full study on seniors' needs, not only where they are most populated and where we should be building, but also what exactly they want within those buildings. We will be working with the Department of Health and Social Services because I know they have quite a bit of information. We will be working with the NWT Seniors' Society. We are looking at how better we can serve seniors, not only what their necessities are, but also what their wants are as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, after any kind of an emergency or an evacuation within a community, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does do a review of the situation to see if there are issues that we could make better. I do want to put a call out to the community of Nahanni Butte. They did an awesome job of the evacuation. It was without incident. They did a really great job. There were some things, like I say, transferring to Fort Liard when they should have gone to Fort Simpson. Those are issues that we are looking at to see if we can make their plan better for the next time - hopefully not next...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Municipal governments are actually responsible for evacuation plans. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs works with them to develop their emergency evacuation plans and also to review them. If the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs asked residents to leave because we have deemed a need for an evacuation, then we will cover the costs. If the community takes it upon themselves to ask people to leave, then it is up to the community to deal with those costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As stated earlier, this is an exceptional agreement that we made. This was a negotiated contract. We do set budget amounts when we put buildings out to tender. If we had gone with the normal contract procurement process where the bids are open to the public, then we would expect that the bids would have come in at a more reasonable figure, closer to our projected budget. We did make the exceptions because of the negotiated contract, and so therefore, because of the great discrepancy between the estimated amount and the amount brought forward to us, we had to look at ways that we could actually...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The nine-plex in Fort McPherson was an interesting process, actually. We did have a contractor originally scheduled to complete it. There were some issues. We had to dissolve that contract. Then I entered into a negotiated contract with a local company, which fit the true definition of negotiated contracts in that it was about building capacity for the contractor and providing in the community, so we were really eager to actually begin that process.

The difficulty was that, in trying to do that negotiated contract, the contractor actually came back at more than double...

My understanding is that the Hay River hospital actually went through the same process and therefore did have to stop construction over the winter months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As stated, the projected budget that the Housing Corporation had estimated for the construction of that building was not based on a low bid. It was actually based on a cost analysis that is done for a building within each community that takes that into account. We are hoping that the building will start up again in April and that it will be done as soon as the contractor can do that. However, if the contractor wishes to build over the winter and can promise me that he will be able to do that contract within the negotiated contract price, then I am willing to allow the contractor to move...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right across Canada, most jurisdictions actually have a halt on because of the declining CMHC funding that was announced many years ago, as well. All jurisdictions have been negotiating with the federal government to reverse that decision so that we can get funded for the operating and maintenance of units.

Within those negotiations, the federal government has agreed to put a halt on it temporarily, but that is not a permanent decision by them. That is why I am looking at different initiatives to move more people into home ownership. Through the lease-to-own, we will be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All of the new builds actually meet the Energy Guide 80, which is a high standard of energy efficiency. We also partner with CMHC, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, on any energy efficiency initiatives that they have and we work closely with the Arctic Energy Alliance as well to see if there are areas that we can either support them or use their programs to support residents. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $15 million has been the same for many years, in all honesty. The reality, though, is that the capital is one small piece of the financial allocations that we provide. We provide $15 million, but in total we spend $132 million. A lot of our actual work is done in the operating and maintenance in the mains that come in later. A lot of the work that we do in communities is actually retrofitting; so upgrading and renovating units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.