Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I speak broadly that home ownership, in my belief, is a way for people to take more pride in their belongings and it is a goal that most people achieve towards from when we leave our parents' house, I seriously believe that. However, I also recognize that one size does not fit all, and so we have to look at each community separately. Within the smaller communities, it may be a better possibility. Within the capital city, the majority of our public housing units are actually in multi-dwelling buildings where home ownership might not be as feasible. That is why I...

Yes, we are meeting with the six municipalities during the summer, when session is over, to discuss the proposed changes that we are looking at. We have also realized that it is not only the municipalities that will be affected by this; it is also hotel operators and lodging operators that might be affected by it, as well. In trying to be as transparent and inclusive as possible, Municipal and Community Affairs is also reaching out to those operators to get their feedback on the proposed amendments.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I am more than proud to report that the relationship between the City of Yellowknife and Municipal and Community Affairs is positive. Yes, it is true that we have a new deputy minister, but her experience has been many, many years working with community governments. She is not new to Municipal and Community Affairs nor new to city governments, so she has a solid relationship with the City of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Municipal and Community Affairs recently met with the five sports and recreation associations, and I may be incorrect, but I believe it was around about a month ago. We are in the process just currently of identifying all of the gaps, overlaps, and areas of need, so I will commit to bringing forward the need to look at providing events, not only in the capital cities or the market communities, but in smaller communities. I will bring that to the table as an identified gap. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, our government made a commitment in its mandate to work in partnership with Aboriginal governments on a training program for First Nations governments with municipal-like responsibilities. I am very proud of the work that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has done to design and launch a training program to help improve the governance and management capacity of these governments. Mr. Speaker, in order to move this initiative forward, Municipal and Community Affairs, through the School of Community Government, has partnered with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada...

Due to our working relationship, our partnerships with the five sports and recreational associations throughout the Northwest Territories, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does not currently track the information on the location of the selected camps. As so, we do not have that information, what specifically is provided in Yellowknife as to other communities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Respectfully, a lot of the bands and designated authorities actually do provide municipal services. Not all of them do. We do have 33 communities within the Northwest Territories. However, municipal governments are different, as stated before. Although job descriptions will have similarities, municipal governments are not responsible for promoting the language or the culture within their communities, and so job descriptions will have to be changed. They also are not responsible for some of the health and social services and the justice supports that designated...

At this point, we are just negotiating with the federal government to see if they will provide funding for the delivery of this support, so it is a little bit premature to report on what exactly this delivery would look like. Once we have the information and a partnership, then we can look at how we deliver it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am as confused as the Member in trying to understand why we got short-changed in the northern housing strategy, and so I am actually flying down to Ottawa this Sunday to meet with the Minister responsible for the CMHC, Mr. Duclos. Mr. Duclos, right after the budget was released, did give me a call the next day and promised me that he would provide me a funding formula, because we do support our other territories; however, Nunavut has double of the amount of needs for housing and got eight times the funding. We are asking for an explanation for why we got short-changed...

We are working diligently with the federal government as well, and CMHC has made an agreement to put a hold on the declining funding just for this year, but they have still stated that in 2038, those operating and maintenance monies will be gone. With that in effect, we have to look at ways that we can actually support our residents in the Northwest Territories in meeting their housing needs.

At this point, I am not looking at increasing our public housing units, but I do believe that the Rent Supplement Program for the City of Yellowknife would address that need. For example, if I build one...