Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any amount of work that is not started, completed, by the end of March 31st, and that is right around the corner, actually, so it will not be completed, those will be carried over into the new fiscal year. That money will not disappear. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We are looking for cross-jurisdictional, about how other jurisdictions are implementing this request. I will commit to taking the document and to reading it. I cannot commit to it being a sole document that we use in determination. We work closely with all of the communities and the NWT Association of Communities, so it is important that we do not confine ourselves to one document when we are looking at developing partnerships.

I just really want to add on to that that this is not only about taking costs away from the Housing Corporation. Really, it is one thing to address the CMHC declining funding, but it is really about energy conservation. I would rather lower my cost of rent than keep providing utility bills where people are opening doors and leaving windows open in the winter. It is about energy conservation, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I cannot commit to tabling it at the end of this session; it does need to go through the process to go through Cabinet, but I will table it at the earliest possible opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Martin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It seems like I'm getting up and down a lot; I want to remind Members it's anti-bullying day.

We have looked at the idea of tiny houses, Mr. Speaker, in seriousness to the Member's question. We are bound, however, by national building codes and our own standards around energy efficiency, so those are issues that we are conscious of, but we have made agreements with some municipalities to actually explore some options around tiny houses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The issue of actually collecting arrears should no longer be an issue to communities because the corporation actually took that internally into headquarters a number of years ago. We do not need LHOs to collect arrears at this point anymore. Again, Kakisa is a very small community, but if they wanted to approach us, we would consider it. I can't commit, but I can consider looking at a local housing organization if the need justifies it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we are talking about page 359 and it is the $600,000, then that answer is correct, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, recognize that there are a lot of homes within the Northwest Territories that do not have basic amenities in them such as running water and flush toilets; however, as the Government of the Northwest Territories we have to be very careful in what we take on as liabilities. So therefore we have a useful life with our housing stock. If houses are deemed to be over 70 per cent in need of repairs, at that point we cannot invest financially in them because of the liability that may come and the huge expense.

So for people who have homes that in a fair condition, they...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The increase will be implemented April 1st. The goal of that is to try to actually get more people to conserve energy. When people don't pay for their own utilities, we tend to find a lot of open windows in communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.