David Krutko

Mr. Speaker, again, Mr. Speaker, we have not made a decision to basically have seniors in public housing pay rent at this time. But the reason I’m saying at this time is because presently we are doing a review in regards to the income security review that’s going on in the programs we have in the Northwest Territories. Right now there’s about $100 million that’s being given out by way of some subsidy or another. Again, right now those dollars are being allocated to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in which we’re going to ensure that we have a system in place that is fair to...

Mr. Speaker, we are presently at the process of developing the request for proposal and when I have that, I will give it to the Member, inform the Member from Hay River exactly where we’re at with this, and also make sure you’re fully briefed on exactly where this project is going and also how we’re proceeding forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the seniors and public housing initiative will continue on at the present time. It’s a policy of the government. Again, the policy clearly states that people who live in public housing will not have to pay rent. There is another process that is going on with regard to reviewing the income security review. That now falls within the domain of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We have decided to centralize our social funding responsibilities and try to ensure that it is a fair distribution of money. Right now the policy is there and the...

Mr. Speaker, we are hoping that at some point in time it will be owned and managed by the Seniors' Society in Hay River, but, again, we are working in conjunction with the Housing Corporation and the Seniors' Society to basically work out the arrangement of exactly who will take ownership of this facility once we basically have made a decision on what type of facility we’re looking at. 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.

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

---Applause