David Krutko

Yes, Mr. Speaker. We are in the process of having to do a major retrofit of that facility within the next couple years. Because of that, we will have to basically relocate those residents and also ensure that we have enough housing facilities for seniors in Hay River going forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before we proceed with anything, we will ensure that we do consult the seniors, seniors’ society, the seniors in our community and, more importantly, that through this legislative process that we have in front of us, we will be able to bring it forward by way of committees, but also have that debate here in the House. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, these units are for seniors in Hay River who basically have low incomes. This is going to be similar to public housing that we provide the seniors at the present time. I know there were concerns in regard to condos and whatnot that were in the mix. That is no longer part of this scenario, so we are only focussing on low income seniors to provide social housing for seniors in Hay River. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, everyone knows that this land has been designated for seniors' housing in Hay River for years. It's nothing new to the Town of Hay River, and we have no plans of changing that at this time. Also in regards to the clients that we are looking at, we have done needs surveys, we have a lot of facilities we have in Hay River we're going to have to replace at some point, and we're looking at possibly moving those residents into this unit while we have to either replace the existing seniors' units in Hay River and move those residents into this new facility, because we do have to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been in discussions with the Hay River Seniors' Society and also with CMHC who is also providing funding to this program. We are in the process of putting out a request for proposals for construction of units in Hay River, working in conjunction with the Seniors' Society, CMHC and ourselves. So we're presently in the process of preparing a request for proposal on that project.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the thing I am afraid of is unless we find a new mechanism to deliver housing in the Northwest Territories over the next 10 years, we will always have a housing crisis that basically people in our communities will be crying for more housing. I think it’s responsible for ourselves as government to ensure that we are finding new ways and new arrangements of putting houses on the ground in the future and this is one of them. I think that CMHC and ourselves as a Government of the Northwest Territories are looking at alternatives. This is not unique only to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if we are able to put someone into a homeownership package for $130,000 and someone is buying a home here in Yellowknife for $330,000, I think that alone should tell the people then what they’re paying here in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are basically working to ensure that we are putting housing on the ground with the dollars we can afford. I think the Member is basically not really revealing the facts. We are not paying any company $200 million. The $200 million investment that the federal government and ourselves is going to make is get these units after the pipeline is concluded, move them into the communities where there’s a cost associated with that, have the individual communities do the conversion and the dollars will remain in the Northwest Territories for those communities...

Mr. Speaker, I’ve gone to committee time and time again, which the Member is a chair of, which basically made presentations which show them the difference between what it costed for stick built, which is roughly about $195 a square foot compared to about $100 a square foot for Novel, which is 1,400 square foot home in regards to what it’s costing with stick built. We’ve given that presentation to committee and basically have updated committee every time there’s been a change, basically new information being provided. Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day this is a project that’s moving forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize constituents of mine, Winnie Greenland from Fort McPherson, who is the CHR based out of Fort McPherson. I would like to congratulate her on her success in achieving her credits for today. But more importantly, I would like to recognize her daughter, who is also accommodating her, Joyce. Along with her is her mother, Mary Effie Snowshoe. Welcome to the House

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