David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been working with the community of Fort Liard. The leadership in the community is in the process of establishing a community housing board to deal with these housing issues, and that will establish an officer to work with the community to take on more of that responsibility. Right now, it is administered pretty well out of Fort Simpson. By doing that, we will devolve more of that authority to that community and allow them to make decisions with housing. We are working with the community leaders, the hamlet, the band council, and also proceeding...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to Fort Liard, we have had a problem with the Kotaneelee units. We have put $1 million in there to do renovations of the units. We have completed four. We have had meetings with the municipality, the hamlet and the band council for them to conclude the remaining six units. But in this year’s budget, we are looking at allocating five more units into Fort Liard. With that and ongoing funding, we hope to address the housing needs in Fort Liard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a constituent of mine, Mr. Donnie Roberts, who is also a regional vice-president of the UNW in Fort McPherson. I would like to welcome you, Donnie.

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Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Lafferty on October 25, 2005, regarding the rent scale used by the NWT Housing Corporation for public housing.

Specifically, Mr. Lafferty asked how the rent scale is determined.

The rental amount is derived from a household's monthly income. This is the same in all communities. The cost of living and unit condition reductions are then subtracted from this. The cost of living reduction is a variable number and is dependent on the community and the number of people in the household.

The rent scale embodies the principle that residents of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will commit to look at my schedule, and see how we can fit in one or two days in November. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do believe that Hay River does have a lot to offer with regard to this project, regarding lands and also being the transportation link for the North through barging. The key transportation of these structures will be by barge that will go up the Mackenzie River and drop these facilities in different locations up and down the valley. So the crucial components are ensuring there is land availability, and having the workforce and the transportation link to ensure we are able to access the barges required to transfer these infrastructures. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we have staff in our department who deal with the business community in regard to proposals, tenders and whatnot. Right now, we are talking to the individual about the project that we're doing in Norman Wells, with the Metis local in Norman Wells, through the development corporation, and the company she's talking about is part of that proposal. Our people have been talking to them regarding that proposal. So it's not that we haven't been talking to them. If anything, we've been talking with them in the last two weeks, making sure that that proposal is sound and going forward...

Mr. Speaker, just to clear up the Member's issue regarding the $20 million, we have made no investment in this project. The only time there will be a financial investment will be at the end of the pipeline project, when we will consider looking at acquiring these facilities. So there is no investment by way of dollars switching hands here. It is not going to happen for the next five years.

Right now, it's basically a concept that's being put forward, which is unique in regard to the possibility of having a way of solving our housing crises up and down the valley. I think, in order to do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I will commit to that. I think it’s important that we do move on this very quickly. With the announcement of the pipeline, there will be a decision made on who will get the contract to build workforce camps for this project that will be purchased through the Mackenzie pipeline project itself. So they will have to make that decision. I am committed to that, but we do have to move on this.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did have an opportunity at the Far North Oil and Gas Conference where there were some members of the Hay River council. We offered them a tour of the ATCO Novel facility. We also put them in contact with the people who work for ATCO with regard to this project. The issue of the possibility came up of developing some sort of plant facility in the North. There are certain components of these facilities that can be built in the North by these portable plants. They have plants all around the world and there is no reason why we can’t do that. Through those...