David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my commitment here today, I will have to go back to Cabinet and get direction. Once direction is given, I will take it back to the Social Programs committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the policy was put in place in the 12th Assembly. The 12th Assembly to where we are today in the 15th, a lot of circumstances have changed. In the 12th Assembly, we were part of Nunavut. The whole intention of this policy was to ensure that seniors in social housing were not to pay rent. The majority of our clients at that time were in the smaller communities, which made up the majority of the Members in this House. I think we also have to realize that the policy was there with good intentions, but the cause of some circumstances of the changing economy in...

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize the new president of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Jeff Polakoff.

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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Polakoff has experience in the Northwest Territories. He worked for the Housing Corporation in the '70s and '80s in Inuvik and here in Yellowknife. Mr. Polakoff comes from Manitoba where he served as the executive director of the Manitoba Housing Renewable Corporation and also he’s a director of housing for long-term care with the Inuvik Regional Health Authority. So with that, I’d like to welcome Jeff...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, the Minister can’t unilaterally make a policy decision that has to be ratified by Cabinet. In this case, I have to take it back to Cabinet to ensure that Cabinet agrees that I can suspend the policy or change a policy that is going to have an affect on the government by way of expenditures. We have to go through that process. As we all know, I committed to that to the Member from Yellowknife that I will suspend the policy. We are going to be having a Cabinet meeting on the 22nd. I will bring it to Cabinet at that time and see what the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to inform this House that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation have reached agreement on an extension of the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program, better known as RRAP, for another year. Through RRAP, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is able to repair northerner's homes to meet acceptable levels of health and safety.

Through this partnership, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation will complete $460,000 in home repairs during 2006-2007. Through RRAP, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are still in discussions with the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline Group with regard to the social impact benefits that we are trying to get as a government. More importantly, we also have to include the federal government by way of CMHC and see how we can get federal contributions to this project in order to make it viable. We also need the federal commitment. Those discussions are ongoing. There is a meeting coming up next week. At some point we will have to sit down and evaluate where we are at, making sure we have parties onside before we can proceed. Right...