Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think at the GNWT level that the Ministers and the Premier have addressed, have identified that communication within all of our departments is an area that we need to work further on. I have given direction to the Housing Corporation to develop a communication plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again, as stated, we are trying to support northern businesses. The next round that came in are all northern businesses that have applied. We didn't get any southern people that have applied for them, so you will see a change within this fiscal year.

The NWT Housing Corporation is well aware of the issues of the one barge going into some of the northern communities, and so we are really being proactive and trying to get all of our material for this year actually ready and to be shipped on the next NTCL boat that's going out.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I would really love to be able to say that there would be a goal within a short period that says that people would not stay in emergency shelters for five years. However, like we had stated, we are working in partnership with the City of Yellowknife. Within three years, they plan to have 20 people housed, within the shelter format, we're looking to have 30 people, that's only 50 people. Even after those people are housed, we will still have a huge population of people that are homeless, so I think that the goal of five days within a shelter is still a ways off...

That's actually a very difficult question because I recognize that the term of the government is only four years, which doesn't give us a lot of time and really hard to evaluate during that period of time. I am hoping that the next Legislative Assembly will carry forward the work and to move forward within the Housing First model and to get people more independently housed. There will always be a need for emergency shelters though, and that's just the reality of shelters throughout the world, and especially within the Northwest Territories because this community of Yellowknife is a very...

We do have a program currently, called the PATH program that is providing assistance to territorial homeownership programs, that people can actually purchase homes within the communities. There’s different rates depending on the community. We do an assessment of the building, based on the community and then the… I mean, sometimes actually the units are actually given just for the land costs. We’re revisiting that as well because we do recognize that very soon the operating and maintenance money, CMHC funding, will be expiring. We need to come up with a plan. We’re kind of looking at ideas...

At this point, the strategic plan is actually expired, so we’re looking to do the new plan and then of course the surveys will be utilized to develop our new plan.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the follow document entitled “North Slave Resiliency Study Final Report.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, the senior management within the NWT Housing Corp. also recognizes the aging-in-place for seniors issue is huge and that we need to address it. We are taking a really proactive approach to actually providing housing so that people can age in place.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Selfgovernance is an aspect that I actually take personally, and that I do respect and honour and believe it is the right way to support First Nations people and give them back ownership of their people and all of their culture, et cetera. I am committed to working closely with the First Nations communities and seeing what we can do to provide them, because at some point within selfgovernance, there will come a time, maybe not in this government, but soon, that they will need to take ownership of all of their services, housing, child protection, income support, all of...