Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I have two or three comments here. That is good news that CMHC has halted its declining capital infusion. That is very good news, but that is not an excuse for us not to be spending more money on our housing, period.

Lastly, I know that our Cabinet spends a lot of time talking about federal projects, federal funding. Most of it is around big capital projects such as dams and roads, and I want at least as much emphasis on the social side. The Minister knows my views on this very well, and I have expressed them in the House. You have to be expending at least as much...

Merci, Monsieur le President. The creation of a universal system of affordable childcare is one of the biggest promises of this Assembly, something we all agreed to work on at the beginning of our term. Collectively, we agreed to "develop an action plan for universal daycare within the next two years, including a timeline for implementation." This does not mean we have to implement universal childcare by 2019, but to at least develop an action plan to do so within an appropriate timeline.

Universal childcare is no pieinthesky hallucination. It is a matter of priorities and making choices. The...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I recognize this is some sort of balancing act between maintaining your units and trying to build new ones, but if we have got the capital for new ones or even maintenance and so on capped for a long time, that is probably not where we should be in terms of housing.

When I look at the list of projects on pages 73 through 75, I do not think there is actually any new construction. We have a list of, like, 35 projects here, and they are all retrofits or replacements. There is not one new unit being constructed by the Housing Corporation in this year. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, in giving us that written update, if you can talk about the transition from the court library to the resource centre as well, that would be great. Any idea when we might be able to get that update? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that answer. How long has the Housing Corporation's capital been capped at $15 million? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I'm not sure that was actually an answer. Are we talking about 2019, 2020, 2023, that people are going to have to wait to see what this resource centre is going to look like and have access to it without having to call somebody and arrange for someone to come down and open up a door? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I would like to start with page 72, where it looks like the spending by the Housing Corporation might be in decline. Maybe I can start with that. Has the spending on capital by the Housing Corporation declined now over a series of years? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think it's been almost a year and a half now that we have the proud distinction of being the only jurisdiction in Canada without a court library and without any public access to it. The money in this portion of the justice budget for the courthouse structural upgrade, is any of that for this legendary public resource centre? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I thought I was long-winded. Sorry, I appreciate the complete answer from the Minister.

Where I was trying to go with this is I want to understand how the decision was made within the South Slave to locate at Hay River versus, say, Fort Smith.

As I understand it, the demand in the South Slave is going to be 45 beds; Hay River, 31; Fort Smith, 14. When I look at the long-term care program review, I see that now there are 28 beds in Fort Smith and there are 25 in Hay River. If this 48-bed facility in Hay River goes ahead, what happens to the people in Fort Smith who need long...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. I know that we have moved the finance department along because they do provide that information now in the public accounts, but that is a retrospective look at how we have actually done with the Fiscal Responsibility Act. I think that it would be good financial practice and good public policy to actually include it in future capital plans. We are having the debate and discussion, and that is good, so we have moved the department along a little bit.

I do have one other particular question about something that is not in the capital budget. It goes back to the...