Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the federal support for housing, there are tons of things that we can accomplish, but I would rather focus on the need, in my opinion, to build further the relationship with the federal government and the new Ministers within that federal government to make them understand the needs of the Northwest Territories. To understand the costs, when you talk about affordability, the costs of a house to be built in the southern province is almost half compared to what it is in Yellowknife. Going into Tuktoyaktuk or higher regions, it is even more unaffordable. I think that...

Yes, actually, I can. There are a few programs that actually pertain to the residents in Northlands Trailer Park and all residents, too. We will be having the new seniors' Aging in Place repair program that the Members helped advocate to get additional funding in for. We are going to be looking at a new rent supplement program for people who can't afford their current costs. We are going to be looking at a fuel tank replacement plan, which might be pertinent to people in Northlands Trailer Park, because we need to get rid of the old fuel tanks as they are an environmental concern. We are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the last leadership of the Minister, before I took the position of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, it was identified that we needed to be more proactive in our work. That Minister at the time took the initiative to actually start a preventative maintenance care program which goes in annually to look for issues such as mould or other issues that can cause major problems to houses. I will not take credit for it. I will give credit to the appropriate Minister, but it is something that was very proactive, very good, and we will continue to maintain that...

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has done a cross-jurisdictional analysis of hotel levies to see within other jurisdictions how they are presented, how they are run, what the costs look like, et cetera, so we have done that research. We are also working with the City of Yellowknife very closely. We have had over six meetings with them since October, developing a discussion paper that we will be bringing forward to other stakeholders.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a member from a constituency from Range Lake, also the chair of the Montessori school, Mr. David Wasylciw. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Sport North right now has the Kids Sport program, and they provide support to families that have a demonstrated economic need, so lower income families can apply for that to access sports and recreation facilities. We also have the two regional recreation associations that will take applications to address accessibility, and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is willing to provide the information to any families that need support in not knowing where to get the applications for these supports provided.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs actually supports the various sports organizations throughout the Northwest Territories to provide services to the residents. The territorial sports organizations themselves decide where the selection of camps will be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

They are a little bit different from the municipal government courses that we provide through the School of Community Governments. There are two types of community governments. They are governed by different legislation, they have different authorities, and the reporting arrangements, as well, are different to deliver their programs and services.

Bands generally perform services in the areas of governance, culture, language, membership services, and areas in health, social services, and justice. Municipal governments, on the other hand, generally perform services in water distribution, waste...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The availability of the training online is one method of reaching people to access their training needs. The reality is that online training does not work for all residents in the Northwest Territories. We also want to make sure that we can also provide face-to-face training and community group-based training as required, so that we meet all of the different learning styles that people have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Rent Supplement Program will be exactly that. It will not be supplementing units that we already own within the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. They will be supplementing market rental units so that we can reach more lower-income families and individuals within our market communities.