Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we will get that information to the Regular Members tomorrow. I do want to clarify, I do recognize that you do need a Journeyman to teach apprenticeships. When I was talking about that, I meant only apprentices, not journeymen, who need to train. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, that actually is the annual pay-down of the CMHC, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, debt. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Currently, the only method that we really use besides the one-on-one outreach to people is when people do sign up to the Housing Corporation, we actually sit down with them, have the paperwork signed for the landlord/tenant agreement form, and in that we talk about their obligations to make payments with them. We are recognizing, however, that we are not the best in communicating. So we are trying to beef up our communication plan and have a better way not only to address people with their arrears, but to also let people know what their rights and their responsibilities are in a variety of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are open to any of the recommendations that the local housing organizations do provide. However, recognizing that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation will have ownership of those, it does need to fit within our own capital plans. If they have something that works with our capital plans, we are more than willing to work with them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation Agreement, the Memorandum of Understanding, MOU I will call it so I do not stumble on my words anymore, was kind of a unique situation. They lobbied the federal government directly to get the access to the funding. We cannot tell Aboriginal governments to lobby or not to lobby, so I cannot say what the federal government plans are in the future regarding that. I know that the federal government is really supportive of First Nations and of building partnerships, but I cannot say any more than that. I can say within the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In all honesty, since the time I have been a Minister I can't speak for the time before me I have had no one come to me and complain and say that they couldn't access the CARE major or any of our programs because your EnerGuide 80 is too high for them. I have never heard that complaint.

What I have heard, complaints for the CARE programs, is the copayment, so I am not a hundred per cent sure. If people do come to me and say it is because they can't meet the energy efficiency, I would look at that, but that hasn't been my experience. It has been around the copayments, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do want to say that I take a little bit of offence to the Member's statement. As the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation, I feel that we have done a lot of work with the Hay River Reserve. Especially, before, we didn't have land tenure; it was a huge issue. We have negotiated with the federal government. We have gotten the land tenure for the 10 units. We are still negotiating with the federal government to get land tenure for six more units. We are working with the community. The community can access services through the Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are working very closely with the local housing organizations to identify the apprenticeship needs within their communities. We do have funds for it, and we will be rolling out the extra positions right away, as soon as we can get people. Like I said, training in itself is a huge focus that we will be looking at within our program renewal, not only on training people to maintain their own homes, but training community people to be able to provide the services within their communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there was a request for proposals out to support three communities; actually, four communities. Only three communities actually applied for that funding at the time. We did save the money for a fourth community, which allows us to branch into the Sahtu to deal with that money. We are open to all ideas to address homelessness. Homelessness is not only about having shelters. Homelessness is about having permanent residents to support people. Within that continuum of care, you need to look at shelters. You need to look at single units. You need to look at training for...

As the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, I have made it a priority to try to work with Aboriginal governments and municipal governments to try to address their housing needs, so it was really an honour, actually, to be invited to sit in on a partnership with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.

So during the next fiscal year they will be accessing $10 million from the federal government towards their housing needs. We are working with them in partnership. We will be looking at defining what the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation would like to see as their...