Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Chair, we’ll be a part of the group there and if there are opportunities for us to provide some input and be a part of the process, and even if there was a cash contribution then it would be part of future Housing Corporation’s capital plan.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, to my right I have Mr. Jeff Anderson, who’s the president of the NWT Housing Corporation. To my left I have Mr. Jim Martin, who is the vice-president of finance and infrastructure for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

I believe we had a meeting with them it might have been just over two years ago, but they talked about their desire to expand Aven Manor. Again, I think we had some preliminary discussions with them. I will have to confirm that and I will commit to getting the information back to the Member before the end of session.

Thank you. We have capital planning folks and we actually have capital plans from all the communities for what they identified, some of their priorities for the future years. Our capital planning group will work with communities and help them with their capital plans, but as far as I know, I think we have a capital plan from pretty well every community for the next five years. So they’ve identified some of their priorities and we’ll work with them as to how they can see those hit the ground.

Thank you. We will start looking at it immediately and the work has already begun. We do recognize there are some challenges that the disabled and seniors are facing, those who are on fixed income, with the co-pay portion of it. So we have begun looking at that and we will see how soon we can get that work completed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I commit to providing the Member a list of the doors. We don’t have that information with us right now and I’m not even going to guess. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What the community needs is not our decision to make and that was the beauty of the New Deal, is it gave the community responsibility to make the decisions based in their priorities. So if an enclosed rink was one of their priorities then they would find ways to make it work. With the money that we give them through CPI and that, they can access bank financing and we’ve had communities do that where they’ve accessed bank financing, knowing they’re getting their CPI funding every year to help pay down the loan.

Again, the beauty of the New Deal is that the decision-making...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have the new co-pay program and a lot of folks have done very well with it. However, we do recognize the Member’s concern with some of the challenges that are faced with our seniors and those with disabilities. So I will commit to the Member that we will go back and do an assessment and revisit and maybe make some adjustments to the seniors and those who are disabled, people who are living on fixed incomes. Thank you.

I believe that’s what I said. We are challenged and we have the 19 doors now, the 55 we got through the Income Support Program, and other than that, that is where we are at right now. Thank you.