Caroline Cochrane

At this point, no, we don’t know what their plans are, but we can inquire and we can get back to the Member on that.

The priority for the RCMP housing would be non-market communities where there are no landlords that provide it. Those would be the first ones that we would be looking at.

Mr. Speaker, increasing the availability of safe affordable housing and building stronger relationships with community governments and other stakeholders are two of the priorities agreed to by Members of the Legislative Assembly. I am pleased to report that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is working on both of these priorities by creating new local housing organizations in Fort Liard, Gameti, and Whati. Not only will this create jobs in the community and increase economic development, it'll also greatly improve service to community members. Residents who previously had questions...

 Part of the process that we will be looking for consultation from the communities on changes to the Housing Corporation will include a summary of all of the programs, a two-page summary, very basic, very plain. Within that, we are looking to help people understand what we have and what we need to change. After we get award from the federal government, at that point we will be looking at doing a communication strategy so that people understand what programs are available.

 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, actually. The NWT Housing Corporation is actually looking at all of our programs to see if we can make access to the programs easier, to assist in things such as land tenure. That's been an issue within the communities, so we are looking to see if we can take that out. As well, just to give notification that the NWT Housing Corporation will be sending out, in April, a survey to all of the LHOs, to all community workers, or to people that are using public housing to see what programs are working well and what we need to change, and then we will develop a plan going...

 At this point, yes, the Northern Pathways to Housing is putting in seniors' facilities into Behchoko, Fort Simpson, and Aklavik. Actually, Fort Providence is the next community on the table. I can't guarantee whether they will be able to put homeless shelters into every community, but we will be looking at putting a homeless shelter into every region. That would be the goal at this point. 

November 2016.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The selection for the seniors' facility was done in June 2013. We met the Fort McPherson Hamlet Council during their meeting to discuss the building and the location. In July 2013, we met with the Gwich'in Tribal Council and provided information on the building. In September 2013, we had a community consultation in the community. The location of the building was discussed at that point as well. December 2013 was the only time that we had an issue brought forward that talked about the location and we were asked if we could move it to the river. At that time, we looked at...

Absolutely. Yes, there have been discussions on aging in place. The GNWT is really supportive of our seniors and supportive of them living within their communities and within their homes and families as long as possible. That is a priority for us. We have talked many times about the incidence of seniors increasing, and so we will be developing a plan to be able to support aging in place as long as possible.

 On March 10th, I will be meeting with the federal housing Minister to talk about the social infrastructure money that may be coming to the Territories. Once the federal budget is defined, then we will be able to put forward cases to look at that issue.