Michael McLeod

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 have not had the opportunity to do an evaluation on a MIC or the housing programs and compare which is more applicable. Right now we have programs that are geared towards social housing, we have programs that are geared towards home ownership, we have programs that are geared towards lending and providing mortgages. All these programs are very important. We are not putting any priority on any one given area. So I believe we will continue to provide those programs, and then make them available to all the residents in the NWT. Thank you.

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...

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. 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, I am trying to recall if I ran across a mould policy…

---Laughter

I don’t believe we have a policy specifically dealing with mould. We do, however, deal with deficiencies in our units. There is a problem and we recognize that there is a problem in the Nahendeh riding. At this point we believe it's in Fort Liard. There are a number of units there that are causing concern, and we totally agree that there are health issues surrounding the problem with the mould in the units. We are looking at them and we have reviewed the situation in all the different units that are there. We...

Yes, Mr. Speaker. There is that issue. There are other issues that are a concern regarding security, and the issue of drivers' licences and the issue of using drivers' licences as identification documents. We are looking at it. We intend to proceed with the development of a new format. We’d like to have that in place at least within the next year. It is something that we tamperproof, bulletproof, digitize, and we will have something to present to the committee fairly soon, as we’d like to have this document in the works and out in the next year or so. Thank you.