David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We also support the Salvation Army by way of a rent supp, and also we do fund the Yellowknife Women’s Centre and also homeless for basically transitional housing that is in Yellowknife. So we do fund different non-profit organizations, especially here in Yellowknife. So we do fund those organizations.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is essential we do have the federal funding to achieve the 185 units, but if not, we will deliver 118 units out of our own funding this fiscal year. I think it’s crucial and I think it’s important that…I mean, unless something drastic changes in Ottawa, the understanding we have from CMHC is the bill has been drafted, it is before the Treasury Board and the $50 million over the next two years is in that allocation, which has been approved by treasury. So again, I’d like to make it clear that Bill C-48 has passed in the House of Commons in July, and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, we haven’t proceeded with filling out the order for those units yet because the barging season is a bit down the road.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we have heard a lot of concerns over the years from Members in this House and people in the public about how programs have basically been delivered. You heard a concern here this morning about a person getting a once-in-a-lifetime application for clients for housing and how we are able to work around this, but, presently, I mentioned, we provide something like 14 to 19 different types of programs. We are trying to basically consolidate into five general areas. I think that, by doing that, it will simplify the process for one thing, but also allow more...

Yes, I believe we fund Turning Point out of Inuvik. I’m not too sure of anywhere else, but maybe the Minister of Health can help me out here, who is the Minister responsible for homelessness. We do, I believe, approve some $450,000 to go to NGOs for the homeless. If the Minister of Health would like to elaborate on the homelessness funding.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will refer this question to the Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in regards to the different housing programs that we do deliver, we do have to try to be fair to different people. Yes, there is a question about confidentiality, but I think it’s just like anything else. If you’re dealing with the banks, in which a large portion of these dollars we do give to the clients, through EDAP, is bank financing. Out of 600 clients, we’ve been able to access almost $46 million from the banks for these units by way of…and it’s another avenue for us to be able to get houses on the ground, but also be able to assist people in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we have ordered 33 packages for housing to get to the communities over the winter road. It’s 33.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, as we all know, we do have an aging public housing stock. We do have to replace it. As you know, the funding that we have will be transferring to Education. There is a declining amount over the next number of years which will climb to zero. We have really lost our O and M to operate a lot of our public housing units. The only way we feel that we can be able to continue that is to build more energy-efficient and multi-unit construction and phase out units that are not as energy-efficient and very expensive to operate.

Also, there is a question about...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is a business deal and individuals will have to go to the bank for a large portion of this money and he will have to have a business case to do it. As part of that business case, we will have to have the client or, basically, a customer base to provide these 25 units. I believe that we are looking at that in regards to other places, which we have done that through our Supported Lease Program. I think that through this, again, it is not a completed deal yet. There’s still a lot of legwork we have to go through and we have not signed off anything...