David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe it is important that we continue the dialogue from the first meeting held with the federal Minister. All the issues we raise here in the House he is aware of. He comes from a part of northern Ontario where they have a lot of housing issues; I think also because of being a former co-chair of the Liberal Caucus committee who looked at housing back in the '70s, along with the chair at the time who was Mr. Paul Martin. So because Paul Martin is now the Prime Minister of Canada and Mr. Fontana is now the Minister of Housing, hopefully the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know the question of the treaties has always been out there. I think one of the problems we have is that there was no written text with regard to that statement. It’s always been a verbal commitment that was stated. Until someone is able to prove that was one of the obligations in the treaty…You look at the treaties and the obligations that were made by Canada in the treaties, there was nothing in writing that refers to housing. Again, it comes down to interpretation.

For me growing up in Fort McPherson, before the Housing Corporation came around, everybody was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regard to the Member’s question, I do not know. We can’t dictate to the private sector how they run their business. Again, we are a segment of the corporation in the Government of the Northwest Territories to provide social housing in the Northwest Territories, but when you start dictating to the private sector in regard to how they can run their business, we have to ensure that we are following national building guidelines by ensuring that they are able to operate their business without us totally interfering in how they do that. So, again, I will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m glad the Member is raising these questions, because I believe as a corporation we have the opportunity to look into it now. We are reviewing our mandate, we are going to look at the programs and services we do deliver. More importantly, we have to be more economically-efficient in regards to how these units operate and bring down the cost of operating these units by endorsing more environmentally-friendly means of generating energy and also being able to use less energy than we are using right now.

One of the biggest cost drivers to the corporation is...

Mr. Speaker, at this time I can’t commit to that because I’m not aware of exactly what standard you’re talking about. I don’t believe that we do have programs and services to assist people with disabilities and ensure that we make them one of our high priorities when they come forward to access public housing. I cannot commit for the private sector or commit for any other agency that’s out there until we know exactly what the cost is of implementing this policy. I’m not aware of that policy, so I’ll have to look into it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I would just like to reference my earlier comment. With our giving more authority to communities, that means if what they want is co-op funding arrangements with those local authorities to deliver programs by way of helping more of their clients, that is something that we are willing to look at. We are working towards empowering communities, especially the local housing authorities, to give them more responsibilities and give them more resources so they can do the jobs that they are there for. You don’t just set them up to manage something that...

Mr. Speaker, I hope to have the report concluded before we go to Fort Liard. We are scheduled to go to Fort Liard the 4th and 5th of November. So at that time when we have our public meeting, we should be able to inform the residents in Fort Liard exactly how we’re going to deal with this problem and, at that time, present them with aspects of that report. So we should have that report and have a briefing for the community at that public meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we are doing is working closer with the local housing authorities. We are working with the band corporations through universal partnership agreements to implement these programs closer to the communities so they don’t have to apply out of Yellowknife, out of Inuvik, or out of the regional centres. They can go directly to the local housing authority and let them make the final decision at the community level, and also ensure that the resources are there so that those dollars are expended for the programs we deliver. We are working...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have raised this with my colleagues on this side of the House to make them aware that the mould problem is a health problem and I think with the dollars that we do get from Ottawa with regard to health, this has to be considered as a health issue where it’s having an effect on people’s breathing problems, asthma and also probably with regard to the whole family. When you have overcrowding and mould, that’s a bad mix. I think it is definitely a housing problem. Also we have to work with the other colleagues on this side, especially the Minister of Health...

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of doing that because we realize that we have to start identifying units that we have to dispose of, to have them replaced with other units. Right now, the way the local housing authorities receive the money, it is based on O and M dollars for their unit. They don’t get any new O and M dollars for replacing those units until they actually physically replace those units. So if you are carrying those units, you don’t get extra dollars for those new units until you replace that unit. Because of that, it is something that we are looking at. We have now...