Robert C. McLeod

We appreciate the Member’s comments before about noticing a lot of the newer units going up in the communities. We appreciate that and it’s a good idea for some of the work that we’re trying to do in addressing some of the issues with housing.

The solar panels, we’re looking forward to seeing how they work. Biomass is not one that is slated for these particular projects, but it is something that we are exploring when we are putting up our other infrastructure. We’ll be looking at that. Of course, with the declining CMHC funding, we’ll have to find ways to try and cut back on our expenses and...

Oh, right. The situation in Hay River with the panels. So, Mr. Chair, I will turn it over to Mr. Stewart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right I have Mr. David Stewart, president of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation; to my left I have Mr. Jeff Anderson, vice-president of finance and infrastructure of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member’s comments on the work that the NWT Housing Corporation is doing. I heard her say she is pleased with the work we are doing. We appreciate that. Again, we work with the committee very closely.

The Member was talking about singles units. It is a challenge and that’s a direction that we are going to have to go, is give more towards singles. In some of the larger communities, especially the market communities, if we were to come and put 20 or 30 units on the ground, I think we would hear from the business community, and we don’t want to do that.

One of...

Thank you. As long as I’ve been Minister of MACA we’ve had these questions, and I think one of the reasons that we had originally said at the time was our lack of telecommunication infrastructure across the Northwest Territories. I think we’ve seen in the last four or five years that has improved dramatically where you’re getting service in a lot of the small communities. One of the things we want to make sure of before we implement, and it could be a partial, I mean, that’s one of the options they’re looking at to implementation, we want to be sure that all our communities have the capability...

Mr. Chair, not at the present time. He is spending a lot of his time dealing with the deficit and trying to find ways to alleviate some of the pressures. As things settle down a bit, then we can have a discussion with him as to getting someone in there and working with the community to start the plans for a new facility.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, we appreciate the Member’s comments on the work that the NWT Housing Corporation is doing, and his committee is actually the one that we report to, so we’ve had a lot of interaction with the Social Programs committee. We appreciate the comments.

The Member was talking about the units for seniors and people with disabilities. We have a visible design that we incorporate into all our new units now that we build. So that is there.

The bachelor units in Inuvik, those are actually being replaced. We have a contract that’s been let and work was supposed to be underway. So...

We did the survey during the last one. I’m not sure of the results yet, but I will follow up on that and once the results are known then we will share them with committee. I do know that the communities are fairly supportive of the feasibility study that we were doing on the implementation, or the partial implementation of 911. So again, once I have the results of that, then I will share them with the Members across and all Members of the Assembly. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we have, I believe, an engineer going into Fort McPherson next week. We will work with the community, identify some of the issues that might be taking place with the hockey rink, not only the hockey rink but the curling rink. Once we receive that report, we will work with the community to see if there are ways that we can deal with that and if there are ways so these facilities can be kept open. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This issue with the Hay River Reserve has been ongoing for some time. We’ve been trying to find some resolution. We’ve been working on trying to get leases to those properties so we can make them available through some of our programs. I think we worked out an arrangement with the Hay River Reserve and we’re happy with the lease. I believe they are okay with it. We’re just waiting to hear back from the AANDC Minister because, apparently, it’s they’re reserve, they had to go through the AANDC Minister, so we’re just waiting to hear back. If we don’t hear back soon, then through what channels...