Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Specific to the Hay River Reserve, we have been working hard within that to support the Aboriginal government on the reserve. There were 16 units actually that we built and put up and actually ended up being boarded up because of land tenure issues. We have dealt with negotiating with the federal government, which took a long process, and I have to give credit to the Minister before my time actually for starting that, but we now have ten of those 16 units that we actually have negotiated with the federal government and we have land tenure. We are still continuing to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m not going to say it’s a really good question, but it is a really good question because I didn’t have any idea either. The first time that an Aboriginal government came to me and said we want culturally appropriate housing in our community, I kind of thought in my head and I said well, I’m sure that doesn’t mean tents and igloos, because we’ve kind of passed that. I asked them what does culturally appropriate mean to you, and examples were given. For example, the IRC had said that within their community, culturally appropriate, they’re hunters, and within their...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Marketing preventive maintenance is preventive maintenance services that we provide to people, such as seniors, et cetera. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To actually set down a timeline would be difficult because the survey has to be completed first. I have committed to working with providing a survey to some of the local selfgovernments to be able to look at the survey questions. I have committed to actually providing it to the MLAs to get their input on the questions. Once we get the questions down, then we have to distribute the survey to every staff member, every LHO, every person that’s using it, so to nail down a definite date would be difficult at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This model also will be by consumer choice. Anyone that does not want to take those units does not need to. It is an option for people. Everyone in the community, based on my experience with managing homeless shelters, is not mandated to stay in the shelter. They have an option if they want to get into other accommodations within the community. The reality is, who will open up their doors to these people? The semi-independent living will be by choice, not by force. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am a bit confused with the question. As stated again previously in the House, I am more than interested in working with the Aboriginal governments so that they can take ownership with their own housing needs. I am really conscious that we need to make sure that they are not set up to fail. It would be sitting down with them and actually defining what they want and moving forward in that way. Our interest is in working with governments that are looking at self-governing and taking on housing. We will look at providing the supports and skills they need to be able to take...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As stated before, we’re not throwing away one tool to recook another. They’re kind of two different tools. The core needs are actually addressed within the needs survey that are done nationally, so those would still be there. They will still be our priorities. However, we will be asking the communities what they want us to focus on. if, for example, if the federal government, say, gave us $300,000 to address CARE Major, then we would look at that $300,000 and say which communities out of the 33 communities have identified CARE Major as their priority, and then we would...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2016-2017 main estimates for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. The main estimates propose a budget of $146,907,000, an increase of 2.6 per cent or $3,780,000 from the 2015-16 main estimates. The budget includes a contribution of $81,702,000 from the Government of the Northwest Territories for 2016-17. These estimates continue to support the objectives of limiting expenditure growth in order to sustain the long-term sustainability of the fiscal framework.

Highlights of the proposed estimates includes the addition of $16.6 million in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’ll be doing some research, not only nationally but also internationally, to kind of see what initiatives are out there for energy conservation, so we will commit to that. We also really have to be careful that we’re not going to give it all out because part of the savings that we will be taking from the transferring the cost of the power over will actually be used to address our declining CMHC funding because we need to make sure that we have revenues to deal with the operating and maintenance costs that will be coming up, which are declining every year. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The difference in the budget items are because the $150,000 for the Housing First model will be sustainable monies that will be provided year-in-year. That number is based on that because the mandate of the Housing Corporation is to really focus on housing. That money will be utilized for example, supplementary rent, if there is damages to the units, et cetera, so it has to be used for housing need. The reality is the City of Yellowknife, within this fiscal year, are looking at one person, perhaps up to five or six, but I haven’t got confirmation on that from the city. I...