David Krutko

Mr. Speaker, as we know, a majority of the houses were constructed under federal aboriginal housing or, basically, federal housing programs in the past. The criteria for those housing dollars are that we do receive a subsidy for housing by way of $30 million. The $30 million are for the 2,300 units that we have in place to pay for the O and M costs of those units. So the Member is correct; those units are presently being funded under the federal social housing subsidy that we presently received. But I think the Members also have to realize that the subsidy is now presently declining. In...

Mr. Speaker, as we know, a majority of the houses were constructed under federal aboriginal housing or, basically, federal housing programs in the past. The criteria for those housing dollars are that we do receive a subsidy for housing by way of $30 million. The $30 million are for the 2,300 units that we have in place to pay for the O and M costs of those units. So the Member is correct; those units are presently being funded under the federal social housing subsidy that we presently received. But I think the Members also have to realize that the subsidy is now presently declining. In...

Mr. Speaker, I do admit we do have housing packages in our communities, we do have boarded up units, but the fundamental reason in the majority of the cases is we are having a challenge by way of land allocation, getting the appropriate leases to acquire land to build on. The other situation is that we are presently in the process of replacing the majority of our public housing units in regards to the boarded up housing units that we are presently…Through the Affordable Housing Strategy, 50 percent of those units will be replacing existing public housing units by way of making more energy...

Mr. Speaker, I do admit we do have housing packages in our communities, we do have boarded up units, but the fundamental reason in the majority of the cases is we are having a challenge by way of land allocation, getting the appropriate leases to acquire land to build on. The other situation is that we are presently in the process of replacing the majority of our public housing units in regards to the boarded up housing units that we are presently…Through the Affordable Housing Strategy, 50 percent of those units will be replacing existing public housing units by way of making more energy...

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, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, presented 12 aboriginal youth from across Canada with the National Aboriginal Role Model Award during a ceremony at Rideau Hall yesterday.

Each year, the National Aboriginal Role Model Program celebrates the accomplishment of 12 aboriginal role models aged 13 to 30 from across Canada, the First Nations communities, Inuit and Metis communities. The role models are nominated by their parents and also selected for their accomplishment under leadership skills initiative through...

Mr. Speaker, we are, in the questions asked yesterday by the Member from Hay River, we are looking at putting out a request for proposals on the Hay River project. In regards to the other seniors’ independent housing units, those are laid out in regards to the proposal we put forth for the 185 units we’re going to be putting in communities. There are seniors’ independent housing units going to be delivered this summer. But in regards to facilities to provide seniors accommodation by way of large facilities, those decisions haven’t been made yet. We are talking with YACCS and other groups...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now the process we are using is we’re consulting the NWT Seniors’ Society, local senior committees and councils in the communities. We were working with those organizations. So for the Member to tell us not to proceed, we are already consulting seniors who these houses are earmarked for. So I would just like to make the Member aware we are consulting. The Members of this House, they basically know what the strategy is for affordable housing that’s going to be left this summer, we already know where those units are going to go, but the projects we...

Mr. Speaker, if it’s okay with the Member, I would make an attempt to go into Behchoko with the Member and have an official opening of the power plant in Behchoko to show that we have a new power plant. It is up and running and it is going to work this time, so we don’t have the situation that we had last time where we had the hydro system go down and also a backup system go down. I commit to the Member that as soon as we have this system up and running, we will make an official visit to unveil it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, since the Member raised this question in this House, we are looking at all our seniors’ facilities to ensure we have a system in place where they are going to be required and the extent of the emergencies that we can respond. Like I mentioned earlier, we are working with the emergency measures people, through MACA and the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, to ensure that when the power does go down in those communities, what is the backup plan to deal with these emergencies. So we are looking at it. I have not received the final report on it, so, for the Member’s...