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, 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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what this is going to do by the way of Novel conversions in the Northwest Territories. We are going to invest $150 million of this $200 million investment in the Northwest Territories; $150 million. It’s going to generate 660 person hours of work in the Northwest Territories. We are going to have people trained and employed to do the work in those communities. We are looking at building capacity in communities by allowing those communities to have more infrastructure in their communities and, at the end of the day, promote healthy living...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is an ongoing negotiating process and I think people are missing the boat here. The negotiations that are going on are between the Mackenzie Pipeline Group and the people who are going to provide the product for workforce housing. It will go through a tendering process. What we are suggesting is that they consider the ability to convert these workforce camps into housing at the end of the day. Right now, the only company in Canada that has a patent on that idea is ATCO. So we are asking the pipeline company or the Mackenzie Pipeline Group to...

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...