Robert C. McLeod

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...

Sixty-four percent of the repair programs are taken up by seniors. As I said before, we are challenged again by our limited financial resources. We are trying to put together a plan to deal with a lot of the houses.

In some of the larger market areas we’re a little more challenged because we have our territorial Rent Supplement Program that provides some relief and we have a number of programs that are designed specifically for seniors and trying to help with their housing needs. Thank you.

The contract has been awarded for the construction of the seniors centre in Fort McPherson. We have planned for completion in December of this year. So, they would be doing a lot of the construction this summer, and if it goes according to plan, it should be completed by December of this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. We’re very pleased with the progress on the new Joe Greenland Centre in Aklavik, and I can report to the Member that it is on schedule and they’re looking at planned completion of June of this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, today I am very proud to rise and recognize that two of our very own have been elected to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

I am, of course, speaking about Sharon Firth and Shirley Firth-Larsson, who will become the first Northwest Territories residents to be inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony later this fall in Calgary.

Sharon and Shirley captivated the North and Canada from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s with their incredible sporting exploits. They first entered the national scene in 1968 when they won medals at the Canadian Junior Cross Country Ski...

As I said, we plan for completion in June of this year. There would always have to be some work done as to inspections and making sure that it’s ready for the elders to move in. But, again, the completion date is in June and I’m assuming it would be shortly after that that the elders can start moving in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.