Caroline Cochrane

That's me. My brain is gone. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table to following document entitled "Followup Letter to Oral Question 36518(2): Tuktoyaktuk Shoreline Erosion Mitigation Project." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Actually, at this point, now, we're just getting things in place. We had expected that the survey would be finished on January 27th. I was approached by an MLA in asking if I would consider extending it, like I had said. Again, this is the first time this is public knowledge or being put out there, that we have agreed to extend it for one month because it is important to get the results.

So, we're in the process of restructuring our whole office to make sure that we have enough people within the policy department to provide the analysis that we need, so we're doing that right now. We also are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated before, the results coming in for the survey are actually pretty positive. We're at over a thousand already, which is significant considering we have about 2,400 public housing units and about 400 market housing units, so a thousand out of 2,800 homes is pretty high, recognizing some of that is government.

As stated previously, I will not hire someone specifically to go door-to-door. I think there are better usages of the funds. We are doing a very comprehensive, strategic radio campaign, and, at the smaller communities, where they have very low results, we...

As stated earlier, there are a couple of reasons that we're looking at the change. We are looking to be able to utilize the skills and the strengths within our employees in a better fashion so that we can share services. We're also looking to promote a greater range of candidates so that they can apply for positions. We were looking at things such as education, barriers that actually impact people within the Northwest Territories. We're looking at trying to get youth involved in these programs, to promote people within the Northwest Territories to have access to these competitions, to these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The status of youth positions within the Northwest Territories: currently we only have three vacant positions. All the other positions are filled. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I, too, care about elders within our communities, and I also want to get as many replies to the survey as possible; however, for us to hire someone specifically to go door-to-door in communities to solicit the survey answers would be a financially huge cost and, in all honesty, I'd rather put that money that I have with housing towards homes for people versus collecting the data. So I will put a more concentrated effort into the radio campaign. I will let people know that it doesn't only have to be the survey. They can send me an email, they can write a letter, whatever way they can get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As of late last week, we had 1,017 surveys received, which is quite a significant number; however, early in the week we had realized that, when I asked for a breakdown of all of the communities and the amounts of surveys, I realized that some communities still hadn’t received a significant number of surveys. We had agreed, and this will be the first time I'm announcing it, that we actually will be extending the survey for one more month because it is more important to try to get the idea, the solutions, from community people than it is for me to meet a deadline of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, the request from the MLA requesting that I extend it because of the low numbers within the community just came to me the other day. I felt that I am working with them, working in consensus government, to try to meet the needs of the Members, and, in all honesty, for the best programs for the residents of the Northwest Territories.

I did not sit down and do a cost analysis. However, the survey itself can take between  it depends how much time you want to put into it. It can take between 15 minutes to three hours. Some organizations have taken many days to...

The MLA is correct that the survey is actually open to whoever wishes to fill in the survey. The majority of results are coming from people that are accessing housing programs. Again, that is compiled through Survey Monkey. I have stated that I will not hire someone for every community  it would be a huge amount of money  but I can look at any community that does not have either a local housing organization or a government service officer in that community, if there are any communities, then I will consider hiring someone for that community, but, any communities that have either a local...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was no intention during the development of this process that we would be looking at cutting these positions. We value them, as well. A future cut, I can say that within my term as the Minister of MACA I will not terminate these positions. However, I cannot state further than my position. So, there was no intention. I can't give a guarantee forever, but, as long as I am the Minister, that is not my intention. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.