David Krutko

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, I don’t have that information in front of me, so I will have to get back to the Member with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if someone can buy a home these days for $130,000, I think they got themselves a good deal. The majority of the costs associated with Novel, $77 million of that is land development costs which, again, is not associated with the affordable housing program. The biggest cost associated is land development. These lots and whatnot have to be developed in communities. We have to ensure that the infrastructure is there to handle it by way of power poles, roads and the other infrastructure it needs, but, more importantly, there is going to be a project...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do allow the members to sit down with the people within the communities in regards to our housing authorities. If they have a discretion in regards to the amount that they are being paid, there is a process that they can go through in regards to working out a payment plan and also bringing in the verification on what their incomes were when that income was assessed. I think the problem that we are running into is because people work in the diamond industry and are moving in and out of the community where people are being hindered, especially our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t have that information in front of me, so I will have to get back to the Member with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if someone can buy a home these days for $130,000, I think they got themselves a good deal. The majority of the costs associated with Novel, $77 million of that is land development costs which, again, is not associated with the affordable housing program. The biggest cost associated is land development. These lots and whatnot have to be developed in communities. We have to ensure that the infrastructure is there to handle it by way of power poles, roads and the other infrastructure it needs, but, more importantly, there is going to be a project...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, we do have a different arrangement now by way of how we do our collections because of the subsidy going to Education. I think we also have included them. So I am open to sitting down with my colleague, Mr. Dent, and yourself to see if there is a process that we can use here and try to find an arrangement that we all can move forward with. I do believe that it is a process that is being phased in. I think people are having some problems understanding exactly the differences between what we are doing now in housing and what is under the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to the collection of rent, we all know it is a problem in most of our communities, but especially in Behchoko we had a problem over the last number of years where we had a contract that was out where very little collections were done. There was a mandate given to our housing authorities which they have to collect 90 percent of their income by way of collections. We are moving in that way. Some two years ago, the collection rate was somewhere in the range of nine percent. We are now in the process of being up to 75 percent. We have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the difference is the affordable housing will deliver 530 units, not 530 houses. Novel will deliver 830 houses. That is the difference. Thank you.