Robert C. McLeod

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.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet with this group and I saw first-hand their commitment and their passion. However, this area is within the focus area and I do not wish to consider making an exception to one group. If I do that, then I may have a number of applications coming forward saying, “You make an exception for one group or organization or person, you can make an exception for me.” What that would do is open the door and that will go against all the work we are trying to do.

So again, I saw their commitment and passion first-hand and I commend them for that, but this is work that we...

The rationale for the moratorium was to allow us time to do a proper density study and environmental studies of all the areas within the focus area. We had done some work previous to devolution, but with devolution we had a larger area that came over to the territorial government, so we expanded our time and we expanded the work that we had to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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...

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...

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.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform Members about changes to how the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation calculates rent for public housing tenants.

In the coming months, Canada Child Tax Benefit payments and payments to foster parents will no longer be included as sources of income for the purpose of calculating public housing rents. I believe this change properly reflects the values of our people by supporting families who fulfill their responsibility to care and raise our children. In order to implement this change, I have directed the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to...