Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Madam Chair. We’ll be sending a letter out here to all the communities soon. What we would like to do is we would like to work with the community organizations, because we need to have somebody in the communities to oversee the operation of the pilot projects in the community. We will be sending a letter out soon, explaining some of the criteria. As long as we’re able to find a partner in the community, I think that improves their chances.

I know with only four, the need is high across the Northwest Territories with only four. We’ll have to spread those out quite evenly all across...

We see our role now as support to the communities. We work with them closely in identifying best practices, and if there’s a need to try and identify some financing that they have to go and borrow to see their projects come on stream, then we work with them. We point out some of the challenges they might face. Then, at the end of the day, after we provide them all the advice, the ultimate decision is theirs.

Again, I give a lot of credit to the communities. Through the NWT Association of Communities and Local Government Administrators of the Northwest Territories they’ve done a pretty good job...

Thank you, Madam Chair. As far as the vacant units go, we’ve got 75 public housing units that are vacant and I think we’ve got a number of them that are under repair in addition to the 75. So those are ready to be allocated.

On the affordable housing side, we’ve got 58 units that are ready to be occupied and we have a number that are under repair in addition to the 58. So as you can recall, from a number of years ago, we were up to, like, 135 vacant units. So the number has gone down quite a bit.

I share the Member’s concern. We’re challenged with adding on to our public housing stock because...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a full formula review underway right now including the infrastructure dollars, and we’re targeting ’16-17 as probably the earliest we can make the increases. Then we try and access any other monies that we’re able to through the Building Canada Plan and any other monies, the gas tax money. I mean, if there is any opportunity for us as a government – and we’re getting quite good at it – trying to access any pots of money so we can pull it into the Territories and distribute it to the communities, they’ve done a pretty good job with that. The review is underway...

I will assure the Member that we won’t rest on our laurels. We’ll continue to explore all new types of technology out there and see how we can incorporate that into the design of our units. Then we will realize quite a savings because the costs of utilities aren’t going down. I think we see that every year. I think last year we had to come to the Assembly for an additional $1.2 million to help our LHOs with utility costs. We have, through our Modernization and Improvement Program, been able to identify some of the units and do some major energy retrofits on those, and I think in the long run...

The earliest that there would be an increase to the budget is 2017. Thank you.

Madam Chair, first of all, we appreciate the Member’s comments. I think the good work that is being done at the Housing Corporation is reflected in the budgets that we bring forward and how our funding is spread evenly across the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife, being one of the largest centres, in the last couple of years we have a few major projects here in Yellowknife. In the last seven years, I believe it is, we spent approximately $28 million in the capital. We spent $167 million in the smaller communities and about $66 million in some of the large communities, Inuvik, Hay River, Fort...

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left I have Mr. Tom Williams, the deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. To my right I have Ms. Eleanor Young, who is the assistant deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.

Madam Chair, we have a couple that are underway right now. One is in Detah. It is a stand-alone system that is connected to the seniors five-plex. The other is in Ndilo. That is a stand-alone system connected to a seniors five-plex. We do have some money identified for some more initiatives across the Northwest Territories. I think we are early in the stages, or we are in the feasibility study part of it right now. We do have a couple that are on the go. We look forward to getting more on the ground here within the next couple of years. Thank you, Madam Chair.

We’ve got about $340,000 earmarked for Detah/Ndilo. That’s mostly in the homeownership side of it to help homeowners improve their programs. I think we still have some vacant units out there that we’re needing to deal with right quick here too. So $340,000 that we have earmarked for Detah/Ndilo in this upcoming year. Thank you.