David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Member raised this issue in the House before. We have completed our phase two report with regard to our needs survey. On page 7 of that report, it identifies that we do have 194 dwellings which have been modified for people with disabilities. So we do have that stock in house. Also, I’d just like to inform the Member that we also have programs for people in the private sector who can apply for a grant of up to $25,000 to renovate their units to make them accessible for people with disabilities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am sorry for confusing the Member, but what we are presently doing now, because we are looking at the mandate of the corporation, we are looking at our programs and services. One of the things we are doing is we are trying to ensure…Right now the programs we have are application-based. It is based on the number of applications that you’d get. Out of that, we determine allocation. So what we are trying to do is work with communities to determine how many clients they have in their homes that need these programs, and work with those people at the community level to...

Well, like I said, Mr. Speaker, we have hired someone to look at this problem and also make recommendations back to us. One of the problems that has been pinpointed to us is the flood that happened in Fort Liard a number of years ago, during which these units were flooded. Because of that, the basements underneath these units were flooded with water, which got into the structure and that is one of the things we’re focusing on. I know I heard a couple of other concerns about people’s basements flooding and whatnot. Again, moisture can cause mould. I think it’s important to try to avoid those...

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we are definitely willing to look at that, but just ensuring that the budget has to be passed through this House, so with that being something that we would look at because I believe we do have to look at housing by way of a long-term planning process. Hopefully, with the 10-year plan we develop that to ensure that we follow what we have in our need surveys and implement that into our 10-year business plan so that people can realize that we are confronting these problems over a 10-year period so people can see how we are fixing these problems and not having projects on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are taking this issue very seriously. Mould is a very big health problem that we see and it does have direct effects. I know this is more than just a housing problem; it’s also a health problem. We have hired an environmental company to look at the mould problem in the Fort Liard area and also look at a way that we can deal with that problem. We have put forward a report that we are looking at dealing with this problem with regard to Fort Liard. There is presently someone who has been hired who is doing a thorough review by way of a report to look at...

Again, Mr. Speaker, because we do have units that we maintain every other year, we put aside 10 to 12 units in a community so that we can renovate them over a period of time. We move our clients to different units. Because of the number of turnover that we have because of our maintenance programs, that number is inconsistent, so I can’t give the Member that information because it is a moving number. We do take units off of our system in order to meet our maintenance program. So because of that, those vacancies may not be…Again, I will make an attempt to get that information to the Member.

Mr. Speaker, that is one of the goals we are trying to meet but, based on the budget restraints we do have, in order to meet those goals there are certain things that have to happen. In order to do that we have to sell off units by way of almost 50 units a year to individuals who are either living in those units or to the private sector and replace those units with multi-plex units -- like I mentioned, the six-plex or eight-plex units -- to ensure that we’re able to fill that gap in order to meet that. The key to this is we have to change the way we do business, but to meet that goal we have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we received roughly $35 million from CMHC for social housing. As was mentioned in the House, those dollars are declining over the next 30 years. We are seeing it basically decline to zero. So because of that, we are having to refocus our efforts through looking at our mandate, but also instituting our business plans and working with communities through partnership agreements. I believe at the end of the day the people that make the difference are people in communities at the frontline through the local housing authorities, those organizations to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for that question. Presently we are in dialogue and talks with the people from the AFN -- Billy Erasmus -- with regards to aboriginal housing in Canada. Like I noted earlier, I had a meeting with the federal Minister in Vancouver a number of weeks ago and I believe that the national attention that is on housing and homelessness is out there. I think because of that we, in the North, also have to realize that with these declining funds from CMHC, we have to find new ways of facing our challenges.

We are working with other agencies out there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, as the Minister, am definitely open to proposals from any community if there are projects out there that they feel would really make a difference to the housing challenges they face in the communities. I’m willing to look at that. Thank you.