Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Housing Corporation currently provides lending and corporate assistance through an allowance under the NWT Housing Corporation Act. We provide personal loan guarantees, corporate loan guarantees, and in some cases construction of bridge financing. Our lending ceiling on that pot is at $30 million. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great honour that I inform this House of an important milestone that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has reached. On October 1st of this year, the corporation will celebrate its 30th anniversary. Thirty years ago, the goal of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation was to create innovative housing programs based on need and environment and make available the best possible standards of housing to all residents of the NWT. Thirty years later our goal is still the same and we have made significant strides in improving and supplying housing in the NWT...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, have given a considerable amount of thought to this issue, as Members have stated here. It’s a difficult one to deal with. It could be so easy to ignore this whole circumstance and not say anything. However, over the weekend, I have had some discussions with my constituents. I have had some calls and e-mails. I have really done some soul searching on this issue. Again, I say it’s difficult because it forces us to do a number of things. First if all, it forces us to look internally at our own conduct, look at the circle of friends that we associate with, places...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our affordable housing program receives $7.5 million, 1.1 percent of the government’s budget of $320 million, which was announced some time ago. This program was started in 2002-2003, and our investment under this program is geared towards the independent housing program, or the IHP, and also our public housing units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our current programs are already providing the mortgage and lending requirements for the people of the North, and we are quite satisfied our programs are working. We are not looking at setting up an arm's length organization at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess there are a number of different questions that the Member raised. Mr. Speaker, we have programs in place. We are looking at affordable housing. Our strategy is still there and is continuing from the 14th Assembly. We still provide funding to developers. We have our corporate loan guarantees. We also provide our social programs. In terms of what we are doing for converting, I think the word the Member used was economic projects and using those facilities; we have not developed that any further. It’s not something we are currently looking at. Thank you, Mr...

Mr. Speaker, we are engaged in discussions throughout the North with developers, with the development corporations, with the private industry. We are talking to a number of people who are interested in new concepts. I am not clear what the Member is referring to, but I would be wiling to take any proposals or any contact names that the Member is referring to and take it under advisement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of homelessness is a very large, broad issue across the board. We share responsibility through a number of different departments, including ECE, Health and the Housing Corporation. We have set up a social Ministers’ committee to work more as a team, to talk about the issues that we have across the North. We also have a Minister responsible for homelessness. Having said that, the NWT Housing Corporation plays a large role when it comes to addressing homelessness. There are two categories as part of that definition: the relative homelessness and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We certainly will commit to that. The environmental concerns are always issues that we take very seriously. We also are looking at what environmental issues come about as a result of any bypass or any alternate routes that we build. So as with any other project, we would certainly keep the environmental concerns in the forefront. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now our priorities are to ensure that there is still access to the airport, and getting the bridge repaired or a solution to some of the damage that was done to the structure. We do recognize that there are additional costs because of this issue, and we encourage the community to keep track of the costs, and we work with all of the other departments involved to see how we can accommodate some of these additional costs, unforeseen costs, that this bridge has caused. Thank you.