Robert C. McLeod

In a lot of the market communities, a lot of these are driven by what the actual owners of these gas stations pay for the product that they bring in. I’m sure if they bring product in at a lower price, then that price will also be reflected at the pump. I’ve seen it firsthand where our supplier got some gasoline a little cheaper and our prices actually had gone down by a few cents. My understanding is the prices here in the capital have been fairly level for the last 18 months.

---Interjection

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member’s comments about the work that the NWT Housing Corporation is doing and some of the direction that we are learning. The Member is correct; I have replied to a number of these issues, but there is a couple that I won’t touch on again.

CMHC funding does decline to zero in 2038. I think this year alone our net loss on that was $1.2 million, I believe, or $768,000. It is one of the two numbers. I think all of the deputies in the country have a meeting with the new president of the CMHC in early November. We are co-chairing the meeting. We are actually...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do.

Mr. Chair, that is a fair comment. It is one that we have heard in our dealings with the communities. With the funding review committee that we had, that is one of the areas that they have identified. Once we have the findings of that, the final findings, we may have to consider how we go forward.

The Member is absolutely correct; I think it has been $28.002 million for the last four or five years. On top of that, we still try and access any federal funding we can that we can pass on to the communities to help with that. It is something that is on our radar. We will have to see where it goes...

Thank you. The pilings, and we’re always looking at new ways of building and putting buildings up. So if there’s an opportunity for us to take advantage of some of the new technology and new ways of doing things, then we have folks within the Housing Corporation that explore all these options and if they are feasible, then we apply it to some of the work that we do. Thank you.

Thank you. Something I always tell the department, when Wendy is asking questions, or when Ms. Bisaro is asking questions, question number four is always when. Yeah, this is three, yeah. So anyway, my understanding is this winter is going to stretch right into July. So it’s going to be a long winter.

---Laughter

No, I will follow up and I will see how we’re moving along on this and if we happen to be done earlier, then of course I will be glad to share that information with the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, the planning work can still be undertaken even while they are under municipal administration. We will work with them, obviously, to make sure that they have financing or the finances to help deal with it. As far as the planning goes, that doesn’t stop because they are under municipal administration. Thank you.

As far as the accessible units, through our CARE program, if we have seniors who are living in their own homes and have application, there might be some opportunities there to get that work done.

In our public housing units, I know in a few communities they have a couple of units that are earmarked for accessibility, and if they’re not and they realize that somebody needs an accessible unit, then I think the local housing authority would take the necessary steps to ensure they make the home as accessible as possible for the resident living in there.

We’ve heard on a number of occasions about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll give the Member an answer to her study question as soon as I’ve had an opportunity to study the question and reply to it.

The working group has been doing a lot of work on this and it’s an issue that we’ve heard for a number of years in this Assembly. We’re anticipating the work to be done during this winter and we will, of course, be sharing that information with committee and this Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I have with me Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.