Caroline Cochrane

Yes, as stated earlier, any time that there is a major disaster, in this case, an evacuation, we do review all the techniques that were used, the tactics, and see if we can make them better. Some communities, I hate to say that are in better situation than others. I know market communities, they will put them on public service announcements. They have webpages. They have radio announcements

Smaller communities unfortunately do not often have that service, so sometimes it is a matter of communities actually having to go door-to-door to get people evacuated. Nahanni Butte did have cell service so...

Absolutely. On the second day of evacuation, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs decided that it would be better to keep the residents out of the community for an extra day. Those costs would be covered, and we have just got the municipality collecting those at this time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to provide you with a report on the Government of the Northwest Territories’ progress on meeting its mandate commitments related to housing. Under the priority of cost of living of the 18th Legislative Assembly, this government is committed to continuing to implement northern solutions for northern housing. Addressing homelessness is part of this commitment.

One of the related actions is our support for the Housing First project in Yellowknife. An agreement was signed with the Yellowknife Women’s Society to fund this project in the amount of $450,000 over three years...

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...

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. I will have to give some thought to actually releasing a public statement on the plan, but I can say in the House here that the plan was actually a great joy to read. Dr. Alina Turner, who wrote the plan, actually backed up everything that I have been saying for the last two years, that we need a continuum of support, that this is not just one strategy will fix all. A lot of her plan actually was very complementary to my own personal beliefs based on my expertise in dealing with homelessness by working with homeless people for the last 20 years. I have also been in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The list of projects where they do say "replacement" are actually new builds. We have within this proposed fiscal year coming up, we have a total of 21 public house replacements. There will be 21 new housing units on the ground where the units that are currently there are not usable. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are just doing the final touches, putting the pretty pictures on, and it will be tabled during this session. Thank you, Mr. Chair.