Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Apprenticeships are really valued within the Housing Corp and also within the GNWT as a whole. Yes, we try to promote apprenticeships on their own. We also support the LHOs if they can identify someone within their community and they think that they are appropriate for an apprenticeship program, then we would consider their request for financing so that we can provide that support within their community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The surveys that will go out actually will be the exact same for each community. The questions will be the exact same. It will just be the answers that we’re looking at compiling and dividing that on communities. For example, if I asked Yellowknife and said what would be your priority for this year and they said… I’m just giving examples. If they said for our community, we want a seniors’ home, and I asked Whati on what their priority is and they said we want to have CARE Major expanded, then we would look at that within our needs assessment. We would be using both tools...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I accept that as a comment.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can provide that to the Member and to committee if they would like it, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we present to the federal government, we present as one entity, so within the tri-territorial business case, all of our issues are kind of in one. We looked at similarities. I will bring forward to the next tri-territorial meeting, the suggestion, if you are okay with it being a suggestion, from our territorial government asking that it would probably serve in the interest of all of us if we could actually do the costing and provide that in the report as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My deputy minister tried to joke and say no. But I am not accepting that. The reality is, yes, that we do try to train. We recognize that we need to build the capacity sometimes in the communities and so we provide training. There is no limit to the training in case you were wondering that. It is based on the needs of the workers. We will train and give them the support that they need until we figure and they figure that they can work on their own. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will not be asking in the survey what they think they would need to bring it up to core need. We will, however, be asking what their incomes are to assess whether they are in core need. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently in the Northwest Territories we have 356 units that are actually suitable for seniors, designed specifically and have the modifications. This current coming fiscal year we’re looking at adding another 63 with the modifications designed specifically for seniors, so that will bring us up to 459 units in the Northwest Territories that have the seniors’ capacity. We are really actively working towards providing services for seniors so that they can age in place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Housing Corporation has really taken energy conservation really seriously, and so we have a number of measures. That goes back to the multi-units that we’re looking at doing, the four-plexes, in communities where they have one boiler system that serves all four units. We also support the Arctic Energy Alliance, who provides, for example, light bulbs to all community members. As well, we have solar on quite a few of our larger units that we have in the communities. Energy is a huge issue for all of us, and the Housing Corporation is trying make our units as energy...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As committed, we will provide a copy of the document that we’re working from and that actually provided the $35 million. What do we talk about? What are we working on together? We talk about the high cost of food within the Territories. We talk about the inappropriateness that our small numbers within the territory or all three territories, our population base and the vast territory that we cover. We talk about because of the small population and the vast territory we talk about the high cost of infrastructure to be able to build houses, for example. To be able to...