Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said before, one of the challenges we’re facing is we are doing a lot of replacing of public housing, not so much new public housing. We are doing a 19-unit apartment in Niven Lake. As far as future goes, we are doing mostly replacement units. We have, I think, through the ECE transfer program, we have taken over I believe 55 units. The program went through ECE before. They transferred the money to us and then we, in turn, leased a unit from I think it was a private landlord and we put income support clients in those units. We turned them into public housing, so...

Thank you. It’s a 10-year program, so they can use those funds anytime within that 10 years. They have to find a project that matches the criteria and Canada has to also approve the project. So, they do have some time to make use of the funding that they do have. I think they’ve got up to 10 years.

Mr. Speaker, we had some land that was available. I believe we did some consultation with the community. There were no issues raised at the time, so we determined the location of the new seniors centre.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m sorry, Mr. Chair, I am going to have to ask the Member to repeat his question.

The Member is absolutely correct; they can use some of the money that they get to leverage the funding from the Building Canada Plan as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a constituent of Inuvik Twin Lakes and president of the Nihtat Gwich’in Council, Mr. Jozef Carnogursky. Welcome to the Chamber.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We were positive that we had Detah and Ndilo on the list here, but as the Chair pointed out, it is on page 69. Let me put my glasses on...six units major retrofit. I almost gave them an extra one there. We recognize some of the challenges the Member faces there. You can recall we had a couple, I think we had a triplex there that was vacant. Folks are moving into that triplex, so we recognize the Member has had some issues in his riding and he has brought them forward to us. We are glad to see that we have some work and some units being major retrofitted in Detah and Ndilo...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We agree with the Member. I think it’s a discussion that needs to happen early in the life of the 18th so there are opportunities to secure some funding for the communities which badly need it. I think that’s a debate that has to be taken up early in the life of the 18th, because we have done all the work through the formula funding review and I believe there was a capital deficit of about $24 million. So, we’ve identified it and I think we’ve flagged it. Then again, it’s a decision that’s going to have to be made early in the life of the 18th. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll respond to the first part of Ms. Bisaro’s concern and then I’ll have Mr. Anderson respond to the non-residential.

We hear the concern that we do need more public housing across the Northwest Territories, and again, we keep saying that we’re challenged by the CMHC declining funding, but I think there’s probably going to have to come a time where we can’t keep saying, well, we’re challenged by the CMHC declining funding. We have to think, or future government may have to make a decision as to whether we are just a public housing provider and use the money that we put...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is absolutely correct; funding has stayed at the same level for a while. We have been very fortunate to have been able to leverage some federal dollars to send the communities. We recognize there is a bit of a shortfall, and as far as the assessment, it was part of the formula funding review. Not only did we look at the O and M, we looked at the capital as well. That work has been completed. Thank you.