Robert C. McLeod

Madam Chair, as far as biomass goes for this coming fiscal year, we don’t have it identified anywhere but we do have… It’s in the notes that we provided. There are some solar panel initiatives that are being undertaken this year that identifies a location. That could take place during 2014-15. Thank you.

Yes I would. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We look forward to getting the project underway in Aklavik for the seniors. We also have, as the Member knows, earmarked seniors for Fort McPherson.

As far as the public housing portfolio goes, I mean, we’re always looking at our communities with the most need, and when we do our allocation of public housing replacement units we tend to target those that are in most need. Right now, the two communities, I mean, there is a need in every community and we have to weigh that against the other communities, and that will help us determine where some of our replacement units go...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member is correct; these 159, we call them modernization and improvement projects, they are to upgrade our energy in a lot of these units because a lot of them are older units, so there’s a lot of good work done on them there.

As far as the number, we will have to pull that information together for committee and then I will make a commitment here that we will provide them with that information as to the number of units that we’ve had over the last few years that we’ve gone through the NMI process. So we’ll provide that to the Members. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have no opening remarks, Madam Chair, but I will bring in witnesses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We work with the Arctic Energy Alliance and they’ve done an assessment and even go into feasibility, and if there are opportunities, and once the supply increased, we have to play a role in that, then that’s something we would have to consider. We can convert these over to biomass quite easily. We thought with the solar panels it would be a bit of a start and then as supply improves, they can be converted over. So we haven’t ruled out all our options. We are still looking at the feasibility right now. We have until next summer. Construction will start in the next fiscal...

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to update the Legislative Assembly on changes to homeownership programs offered through the NWT Housing Corporation.

When we developed our strategic plan, Building for the Future, residents told us that we needed to examine our homeownership programs. They wanted us to recognize the different roles that homeownership plays in non-market and market communities. They told us we need to make these programs more effective.

Mr. Speaker, following our strategic plan, we have made significant changes to Providing Assistance for Territorial Homeownership, our main...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Kyla Larocque. Mr. Beaulieu just recognized her. Kyla just got married in April. Welcome to the gallery. I wish you and your colleagues best of luck as you pursue your nursing careers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Accountability Framework for Community Governments is now complete. This framework will be an important tool that will allow MACA and community government stakeholders to better coordinate our working relationship based on defined indicators that measure the health and success of community governments.

It builds on the New Deal and emphasizes the importance of responsible and responsive community governments. It provides tools, in the form of standardized key indicators and checklists to ensure they are being met, that community governments can use to assess their performance...

Mr. Speaker, I do know that for the month of January of 2012 the local housing authority spent approximately $84,000 for natural gas. A year later, January 2013, that cost went up to $181,000 and that is just for the month of January, and you multiply that over 12 months, we spent over $1 million. I think it is $572,000 more than we would normally spend because of the conversion to SNG. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.