Caroline Cochrane

As stated, we do have the different regions for the income thresholds, so we take into account the cost of living, et cetera. They are also separated by the amounts of bedrooms, the counts with two bedrooms or less, three bedrooms or more, et cetera. Again, we will be doing a new threshold needs assessment within the 2017 fiscal year. There are programs in place such as the PATH which does give 55 per cent, again, for a down payment, versus in Yellowknife where it's only 5 per cent. We are trying to recognize the communities' needs and work within the communities. Our survey that will be going...

Yes, so the income thresholds will be reviewed in 2017. We do that every two years. As well, like I had said when I first started here, I am committed to being very community-focused and we are sending out a survey probably towards the end of this month that is asking each specific community what their needs are and what their priorities are. We will be developing a plan, a community-based plan, from that that identifies what the communities' issues are and what they see as needs within each separate community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to take a moment to recognize Marie Buchanan. Marie is a constituent of Range Lake, but she is also a nurse practitioner and spent many years within the North travelling to different communities and is a real value to the Northwest Territories. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The deferred maintenance actually that is on the H.H. Williams Hospital is over actually $38 million at this point. Currently, we're spending $632,000 annually on utilities and about $400,000 on regular maintenance. It's a very expensive building to operate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's really kind of hard at this point to kind of determine how that will affect it. There's a few things that are impacting the cost of fuel at this stage. I mean, diesel is a little bit lower because of the fluctuating global markets, but there's also an interruption in the supply because of the Fort McMurray fires. It's a little bit too soon to determine what the fuel price changes we'll need to come into to what will affect the cost. If there is a cost differential we know that none of those changes will take place until after the summer season is finished. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Public Works and Services has had a long-standing working relationship with NTCL and we recognize that they're going through some difficulties, but we have re-established a different contract with them to make sure that they're going to transport fuel into the communities during the summer of 2016. Based on the renewed contract and the decision within the legal case that they just recently had, we're not anticipating any interruption in fuel provision for this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Currently at this moment we are in talks, I am in talks, with the Housing Corporation. There is a cost to having crews, but I'm looking at more of a training program. When I recognize that the CMHC funding is going to disappear within the next 20 years or so, we need to have a better plan. I'm actually looking at more than just having crews go in and assist home owners, but actually looking at, is it possible for us to do some training of community members so that we can support self-governance and support the communities to take some ownership within their own communities. That's in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple of the issues that were brought by the community actually in Fort McPherson with the seniors facility, one was the location. We've done many, many consultations within the community and talked to them about the facility, the location, the site, and the community seemed to be in adherence to the proposed plan; then just a couple months ago we got some complaints saying they weren't. We went back actually on April 6th. We had another meeting in the community and again, we talked about the location. Within that meeting Chief William Koe confirmed that consultation...

The Department of Public Works and Services is always willing to negotiate with the federal government to see if there are resources that we can utilize to assist within the Northwest Territories. Specifically with Kakisa, we've had some positive work with looking at extending the transmission line from Enterprise to Kakisa and to Fort Providence. Of course that would take significant financial resources to do that. At this point we're actually trying to negotiate with the federal government to see if they would provide support for that project.