Joe Handley

Mr. Speaker, I can’t say that I am really sure, really.

---Laughter

But my information is that they are reviewing the applications now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, while the concept of a housing manufacturing plant has been debated and discussed for a long time, some community corporations have looked at it. Without a steady confirmed market, it's very difficult to set up such a factory. We have to look at the benefits of doing it that way and moving modular homes or houses that are pre-built into communities versus building in the communities and building up the capacity of the development corporations. Up to now, the Housing Corporation has received more pressure to work with communities to build up the corporations in each community so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven't heard that Imperial and other proponents have dismissed the idea of using Novel housing. They've not told us that. They are reconsidering how they'll build the pipeline, where camps will be located and where they won't. They may use less, but they have not said they will not. So that still remains a viable option. Mr. Speaker, the pipeline is scheduled to begin construction as early as 2010; no earlier, possibly later. We continue to work with ATCO on some technical issues. We still have not received a commitment from the federal government, so it has...

Mr. Speaker, there are only so many good things I can tuck under my belt.

---Laughter

I will certainly endeavour to make this one of them. The original schedule was to have people move into this unit in October of this year. We are working towards that. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I would say we are ahead of schedule on this one, so I am quite proud of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there have been some delays since the ribbon cutting. Some inspections had to be completed. The units had to be furnished. That is pretty much behind us now. Applications have been taken. I understand those applications are currently being reviewed and there should be a decision on who gets to move into that unit very quickly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again I want to assure Members that the Novel housing concept is very much on the books. We're working on it; we haven't dismissed it. It may be less houses than what was originally contemplated; I don't know for sure yet because I don't think Imperial have really made a final decision on how they're going to manage the construction of this, but we'll keep it there. In the meantime, the only other major initiative we have is the affordable housing initiative. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to say that out of the estimated 530 or so houses over the next couple of years...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will consult with the aboriginal leaders who signed on to make sure they don’t have any difficulty with the agreement we signed with them. But the details of our negotiations involving the federal government, we would not want to make that public except in a very general sense until those negotiations are completed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First let me clarify, we don’t have any dollars yet. What we have is a framework that sets out some of the guidelines to how the money will be spent. Assuming that there are no difficulties with the framework, then I would think that this will move fairly quickly. The federal government will be getting back to business soon from their summer recess. So I expect early this fall, but we have no way of knowing how fast they will work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Until l see the clarification on the roles, I will not make assumptions about who has what responsibility. Mr. Speaker, I am told that Minister Prentice, for example, is the lead Minister for the pipeline. That pipeline is in the North, so I don’t know what else may be in terms of division of responsibilities between these two Ministers, so I can’t make assumptions. But we will continue to work hard on trying to achieve an agreement-in-principle in the meantime. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the best of my knowledge in a negotiation and in any discussions, the fact that only four out of seven aboriginal organizations have signed on has never been an issue with the federal government. They have not raised that at all. They are satisfied with the four that we have been working with us. Thank you.