Robert C. McLeod

If it’s set in a policy, and there was a bit of confusion there, once I review that and the policy says it’s supposed to be a certain time period, I will correct it. Thank you.

Surety bonds are an accepted form of security for many projects that are going on. Again, I think in the short time that we’ve had this responsibility we’ve done some work. The Member is correct; we do have a division that’s dedicated to this, and we will continue to do our due process and make sure that any work that does go on is adequately covered and that way we have the opportunity to do the remediation if need be. Thank you.

I know that the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, I think, had set their security at $30 million, and that was, I think, $27 million and $30 million was to be paid 90 days after the granting of the water licence. My understanding is, I think, the water licence is still in the process and I will find out as to the status of that from my counterpart over at ENR. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize and welcome to the gallery and to the House some representatives we have from Canadian Tire Corporation who took part in the announcement today. We are appreciative of the support that they have shown. We have Mr. Landon French, who is the vice-president of community relations for Canadian Tire Corporation and the executive director of Jump Start. We have Pierina De Carolis and Kim Desrochers, both from Canadian Tire Corporation. Welcome to the House.

We also have with them three hardworking members of MACA who put a lot of these programs into...

Mr. Speaker, as many Members will have seen earlier today in the Great Hall, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and Canadian Tire Corporation announced a new partnership to support physical activity and sport opportunities for NWT children and youth.

Canadian Tire Corporation has committed to providing up to $225,000 over three years for equipment, training and capacity building to support MACA’s After School Physical Activity Program.

As Members may recall, this program supports local programs that get school-aged children and youth more physically active in every NWT school.

On...

As I said before, we have four seniors units that are going up across the Northwest Territories. We have one that’s being replaced because of the age. So we have five in total and we continue to bring forward recommendations and we continue to have a look at where we can access money. As I said to the Member before, we are trying to come up with ways where we can deal with some of the issues of seniors housing here in the capital and I brought forward one of the things that we’re looking at. The Member talked about 11 years. I know the Games are a bit away, but we need to start the work and...

Housing does a good job of providing housing and programs, and as I said before, 64 percent of the uptake is from... Oh sorry, I thought you were…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In Yellowknife alone we’ve provided some money to the Aven’s Working Group to help with their new plan that they have going forward. Sixty-four percent of our homeownership projects in the last year have been utilized by seniors. So as far as the actual investment in seniors housing in Yellowknife itself, there hasn’t been much other than the programs that we have for repair, but across the Northwest Territories we have four seniors units that we’re building and one seniors unit that we’re replacing in some of the smaller communities. Thank you.

In the next couple of seasons I believe we have a couple of affordable housing units that are going into Wrigley. We would have to go in there and do a complete survey as to what the inventory is like in there. I think we have maybe eight public housing units in the whole community of Wrigley and I think we’ve got a couple of affordable housing units.

So, again, we will have to use the numbers from the community survey in assisting us as we plan our capital budget going forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We use the results of the survey to assist us as we plan our capital budget going forward. We do recognize that there is a need in a lot of smaller communities, especially in the Member’s riding. There has been a reluctance in the past for them to welcome public housing into the community, but we’re seeing that attitude start to change now and they realize that the best way to house a lot of their residents is to go through the public housing portfolio. So we needed those numbers to assist us with our planning. Thank you.