Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the last meeting that we had with the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers we had strongly advocated for Northern consideration within the national housing plan. The result of that meeting is that the federal government is going to do a Northern Strategy, so that meeting was very successful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, Cabinet is concerned about it. We had looked at a few things. The money that we had looked at taking reductions in the first two years. We had hoped that we'd be able to invest more money into the final part of our terms; we're still hopeful for that. We're not sure what will happen. We are hopeful for federal monies as well to support that. There are other options. I have requested a meeting with the Standing Committee on Governance, I believe. Let me just check. I'm hoping that offer is still on the table. I'm really hoping that the committee will meet with me to go over the various...

Yes, we have met with the federal government, a couple of times actually, and we've been asking them to consider our request for 911 under public safety and under future investments in infrastructure funding. We have really put forward the case that 911 is an issue within the territories. We've told them about our difficulties with the limited population and the cost, so they're well aware of that. We will continue to advocate to the federal government for infrastructure money to implement that, and, as soon as I hear any more, I will commit to bringing it forward.

It is a mandate of the 18th Legislative Assembly and we do take the mandate very seriously. I think that all Members actually have a serious concern for our elders and a respect for them and want to promote them to stay in their own communities. So we're doing a number of things. Actually, one, prior to the engagement survey, that we're asking every person in public housing, every person that is taking part in housing programs, what's working, what's not working, what they want to see, so I'm taking that very seriously. Once that's received, we'll be going through every single policy, every...

I cannot say exactly if there will be any money or when there will be money. It is hopeful that there will be money, but until the federal government releases that, we don't know. I will be meeting again at the end of this month, with them again, advocating for a northern strategy, and as soon as I find out then I can bring the results back.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Blake on Friday, October 14, 2016, regarding power connection to modular housing unit in Tsiigehtchic.

The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has increased the number of market housing units in small communities to meet the housing needs of critical community workers essential to the governance and safety of our residents, such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and nurses. In the community of Tsiigehtchic, two new market housing units have been constructed and are ready for occupancy, which include...

Yes, we have met with Northwestel in asking them to change the recorded message. Northwestel is not willing at this time to change it. They say it's due to technical and liability concerns. They've also talked that it would require a technical upgrade and they're concerned that it may jeopardize the current message should a new approach prove not successful. However, we are still working with Northwestel regarding cellular service providers, and we're trying to figure out if we can actually redirect callers that call into cell service to the existing emergency numbers that we have.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of MACA actually did meet with Northwestel. We were asking them if we could utilize some of the funding for 911. We found out that that wasn't an option. The money that was brought down through the court case was offered back to people who had paid for it and, anyone who didn't want to pay for it, that the monies was provided to the Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation. So that was the avenues that we had taken regarding working with Northwestel on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There's actually quite a bit that we're doing to assist seniors to age in place. So there are many programs; we have a CARE Major program that will do major renovations such as ramps up to their buildings, et cetera; we have CARE Minor; that'll do small programs, and then we have the preventative maintenance that we do every year that goes in and looks and tries to just nip it in the bud and make sure that their houses are in sustainable shape so that we're not looking at extended renovations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The building actually was zoned as an institutional building which limits the usage and so we had very few people that were interested in purchasing it. We had tried to go to the community. We had offered it to other departments. Selling of the building is actually one of the last recourses, so the price that we did actually sell it for was negotiated with the buyer after being on the market and Coldwell Banker which is our normal real estate firm. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.