Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I take that question. I will respond to the Member’s question. That could be an option, and it’s a discussion that we have to have with NWTAC because they are huge stakeholders in this. We can have that discussion with them and see if there’s an appetite from them to have a phased-in approach or have it phased in at all. Thank you.

As always, we will have discussions with stakeholders. Again, we’ll come up with a plan of what we might like to see on that and then we’ll have some discussion with stakeholders, get input from them as well as some committee. Then we will determine the next steps after that. It’s a very significant amount of land and I think it will go a long way in helping us address some of our needs in Inuvik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan is to put a tender out and have the Blueberry Patch demolished this summer. Thank you.

We don’t put any more units in communities on speculation unless we know we have clients for them. One of the things the Member asked was what we had learned before. One of the things we did learn was, when we had the Affordable Housing Initiative, we put many units on the ground, assuming that we had people in the communities who would qualify for these units. Unfortunately, we didn’t get as much uptake as we thought. Many people didn’t qualify. We converted a lot of them over to public housing units, which was well received by most communities.

Our position now is we would like to make sure...

We make every effort to inform the public of some of the programs we offer. The forgivable part of it is just one component of the course, or one component of some of the services that we offer. So, we have it on our website, and once people put an application in and if they find out they qualify for X amount and that’s forgivable, then we explain to them how the forgivable portion of it works. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The report will be done during the life of the 17th Assembly. As to exact time, I’m not quite sure; I’d have to get that information. But it will be done during the life of the 17th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is another one of the discussions that we have had. There is some common ground here to house students who attend Aurora College in Inuvik. Many of them were living in the Blueberry Patch when it was determined that it was going to be demolished. They are all over town now in private market rentals. That’s another discussion that we will have. Again, once we formulate a plan, we will be sharing it with all stakeholders involved. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is a fairly significant amount of land. As far as what the plans are for it, I don’t think there are any concrete plans right now. Just the option of having that land available to us as we plan for future development will be huge. So there are no concrete plans in place right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It’s an ongoing evaluation, and one of the ways we find out if it’s working or not working is the number of houses that have been quitclaimed back to the NWT Housing Corporation. We put people into units, thinking that they have the ability to maintain these units. In some cases, many of them succeed, but for the ones who don’t, they quitclaim their units. They go back to the NWT Housing Corporation, and they realize they may be better suited as public housing clients.

We also have the HELP program, a two-year program that transitions them into homeownership. They’re responsible for all the...

I have not heard personally, but I haven’t had an opportunity to review some of the comments that came back. But I would assume it would be a concern of a lot of residents out there, especially with so many people getting out on the land now and the ability to make trails to these lands. I know, back where I’m from, we have a few trails out to some of the cabins out there. There aren’t as many as around here because of the higher usage here. But I will review that, and again, I will relay that information on to the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.