David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do look in regards to the type of housing that the community would like. We also look at our statistics of where the needs are. There’s the family dwellings, one bungalow or two-bedroom, three-bedroom or four-bedroom. What we’re finding in a lot of communities is that people are asking for three or four-bedroom units because there are no units for families with more than three or four kids. I think we have to realize that we have to sit down with communities and see exactly which type of housing they need in the communities, but also look at our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do use existing contracting guidelines. We follow the BIP process. We also follow the manufacturing directive that is in place for purchasing. I mentioned in my statement that we are working with communities to build capacity. The one thing I have been doing is trying to formulate that if they have capacity or need assistance to build capacity, through the contracting process we have, we have negotiated contracts in place, we have sole source contracts, we have means that people can build that capacity and I think it’s working with communities...

Mr. Speaker, the programs we have today are needs tested. They don't allow all residents to have access to our programs, and I think that's why we are looking at changing that. We are developing energy plans and whatnot that we're putting in place. But more importantly, we realize we do have to change the programs and services we do deliver, working with other departments to look at this by way of looking at the energy we use but, more importantly, by consolidating, changing the criteria we have in our program. So we are looking at that by the way of the consolidation of programs. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd just like to thank the Member for her question, because I think it's important that we do look at new initiatives and make sure we're able to assist residents to bring down the cost of operating and maintaining a home, but I think it's important we change the method. I think one of the best programs I've seen today, especially where people depend on the Fuel Subsidy Program, we have a program where we assist seniors by putting monitor heaters in their homes as a secondary heat source, which they're able to sustain the fuel that they do get through the subsidy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are looking at the whole area of who do we calculate rent from gross income versus another system that we use looking at the…I think it’s important that whatever we do we are going to have to…Any rent that we change we have to ensure that we follow the tenants act that is in place by notifying our clients that there is going to be a change, and also whatever we do here has to conform with how we are able to not only look at the policies that we have within the government, but also ensuring that we have a system that’s working in conjunction with other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department is looking at the rental rate review in which we are hoping to have something come forward in conjunction with what’s happening with the transfer of the social housing subsidy and also realizing that we do have to be open, transparent and fair to all our clients across the territory. So we are looking at it in conjunction of a universal review of the whole program throughout the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in conjunction with ECE and ourselves in regards to how we are laying out the whole idea of the household subsidy and also looking at the whole rental scale systems that we use, I think we are looking at arrangements that have been done in Nunavut, other places in the country, and also realizing that we are similar in nature to other jurisdictions. Seeing what’s happening in those other jurisdictions and ensuring that we have a system that is either consistent with other jurisdictions, but it’s fair to our tenants and the residents in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as all government departments usually use the stats Bureau of Statistics that we do collect every four years. It was collected two years ago, along with Stats Canada and the NWT Bureau of Statistics. That is the basis of the information that we have used in determining exactly where the core needs are. But also internally we have done core needs surveys in all the communities in the Northwest Territories, as we had a long debate in this House where a motion was passed to increase our core needs in some 20 communities throughout the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I commit to the Member that I will sit down with him and the community to review the emergency measures plan, what investment we made in the community by upgrading the existing power plant to ensure we avoid these situations. More importantly, we will assure the seniors that we do have a safe and secure power distribution system in the community so that we do not have the situation we had last year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, we have had a power outage with regard to the incident last winter because of the hydropower that caused the outage. Because of the old diesel generator backup system we had in the community, it was not functioning properly and we made the decision to replace the generator that is there, so we won’t have the situation we had last year. The idea of having two systems in the community is to ensure we have an adequate source of power, so that when the power does go out, you have a backup system. The system that is there now will serve the community for...