David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity to travel back to my riding this weekend and I would like to congratulate the 20 graduates from the Chief Julius School in Fort McPherson.

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I would like to encourage each and every one to continue on with their education and that path and also take on the concept of lifetime learning. I think it’s important that they all take advantage of the many opportunities we have in the Northwest Territories and especially what we have to offer.

Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, I travelled to Aklavik to see firsthand the effects of the flood...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like I said earlier in my comments, this is one chance that we’re looking at. It’s an ambition that’s looked on by CMHC, ourselves, the federal government are involved, we’re involved. Where we can see a 40 percent saving in regards to delivering housing in the Northwest Territories, we will definitely look at it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there’s probably a million options out there for $200 million, but the option that Novel provides is one chance in a lifetime to take advantage of a major activity, which is happening in the Northwest Territories via construction of a pipeline, which will leave behind a legacy, which basically that often only comes by once in a lifetime. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, we do have a lot of housing authorities, especially in Yellowknife. We have the YK Housing Authority. We have the North Slave Housing Authority. We are working with those agencies in which they have come to us with their needs. They identified these areas that they need to continue to build on for their residents in Yellowknife. I think, because of the housing demands also in Yellowknife, especially for social housing, because these are for social housing clients that we want to address those people in Yellowknife and not to compete against the...

Mr. Speaker, if anything, this is going to add to the existing investment that we are making for the 500 houses over the next three years going forward. It’s a perfect opportunity for the industries in the Northwest Territories, the manufacturing industry, the contracting business and also for the residents of the Northwest Territories to realize there are real job opportunities going forward with the investment and the efforts we are putting into housing in the Northwest Territories over the next 10 years. With regard to all these efforts we are putting forward, if anything, it’s going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now, with regard to the process, we do have FMBS, which is responsible for the financial…(inaudible)...from this government ensuring that any expenditures made by this government are aboveboard and within cost. CMHC, which is a federal agency, is also involved in this and they also want to ensure that accountability is there and that it is within the investment that they make and the cost they provide. So we are already doing that through the reviews and also the committees that have been established to oversee the project, which includes CMHC...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe we did that already through the market housing initiative. Basically, it’s an initiative that’s been in place. We’ve put out calls for bids and proposals. We know what that cost is. So we’ve already done it and regardless of what we did with market housing, it still wasn’t good enough for the Member on the other side. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we’re already in the process of doing that. That information is being compiled. We are making sure that all logistic costs, the total cost of the project will be financially sound and that we are not going forward until we have that information in front of us. The information is being compiled today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, we are just completing a census in regards to the Northwest Territories. I think, once we have the final census done, it will give us an idea exactly what the needs are for here in Yellowknife, what the different classes of need we are looking at. Again, it was based on surveys that we did. It has been identified by the Yellowknife authorities to say exactly where they want to see us invest this money. Again, it is something that we will have to look at. By reviewing the existing surveys, we will be able to see where that need is. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the investment we are looking at making in Yellowknife over the next number of years is to replace a lot of our public housing in Yellowknife and be able to put more seniors’ housing on the ground by way of seniors' facilities for Yellowknife. That is the area that we are looking at. Again, the housing for Yellowknife is basically to replace the existing housing stock we have here in Yellowknife.