Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The survey is targeted to the communities. By “communities,” I mean the government if it’s selfgovernment and also the residents within each community. The needs assessments that we currently give is a breakdown and it’s an opinion survey, of course. It gives a breakdown on what basically people think are the core needs within their communities. It gives us something that’s statistical that says: this is what we should be basing our programs off. We’ve used it for many years, but it doesn’t really address what the community says. If the community is saying that, for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Transitional Rent Supplement Program is based the same as public housing. It depends on the region that you do. We have to recognize that, although we do provide as many programs as we can to accommodate the needs of many people within the territories, we do have to prioritize. We have huge core needs. We have to prioritize on the lower income families within our territories. We do provide supports, not only to middle income earners, but also to higher incomes, programs that anyone can access. But addressing our core need is our priority. I hate to say it, often lower...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to take a moment to recognize the NWT Seniors’ Society. These are the people who built the North and I have huge respect for them. I’d also like to point out Merlyn Williams, who is a personal friend of my father, my late father and it’s always an honour to hear him tell stories, especially when he talks about the UFOs and the encounters with my father. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, that was just actually mentioned in our opening remarks. We don’t have a budget line on it. Currently, what we are doing though is we are providing presentations to Aboriginal governments on housing activities currently. We are looking at things like the land designation on the Hay River Reserve. We are working with Aboriginal governments so that they can meet their needs above and beyond what we normally do within our activities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, really want to focus that the advocacy to the federal government is based on the core need assessment, the 2014 core needs assessment. The federal government does not need to know, in my opinion, what each community has prioritized. They need to know that core need within the whole NWT is substantial. Then as well, remembering that we have agreed to a partnership triterritorial that we are going to be advocating to the federal government, so it would be really disrespectful, in my opinion, once we have agreed to that partnership, that we would be looking...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the right hand I have Mr. Jeff Anderson, he’s the president and CEO for the NWT Housing Corporation. On the left Mr. Jim Martin; he’s the vice-president of finance and infrastructure services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the Member’s comment, yes we can commit to actually providing a report back to committee on that within this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

That is the $600,000 is just for the semi-independent units that we will be renovating. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Housing Corp actually fully funds for the apprenticeships, so the LHOs do not have the extra expense on them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the costs of doing this work will actually be on the NWT Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.