Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, after the March 31st deadline, the Advisory Committee will review all the input that is received from across the Northwest Territories. They will then come up with a set of regulations. As far as the time frame, I am not even sure the exact date when I would be getting it in my office, but I do know shortly after the March 31st deadline the Safety Advisory Committee will be meeting to review all the input that they have had from across the Northwest Territories and putting together their final product and then it will reach my office. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Our Third Year 2011 - Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission 2009-2011 Corporate Plan.

Thank you. We are working with those LHOs that find themselves in deficit and we’ll continue to work with them. With the support of this government and this committee, we have identified funds that go towards alleviating some of the LHOs’ deficits and that’s something that was just recently approved and we have identified more funds in future years, because we recognize that there are some uncontrollables that we have to work with that the LHOs are trying to overcome and we recognize the responsibility that we have as the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to help these LHOs. Again, we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation recognize our obligations to provide public housing to residents across the Northwest Territories. We have over 2,400 public housing units in our stock and with all the other units that we have, we have over 4,500 units that we have been responsible for getting on the ground to provide housing. So obviously this government, our Housing Corp in particular, recognizes its obligation to provide housing to residents in the Northwest Territories.

We look forward to any opportunity to brief committee on some of the initiatives that we’re working on. Also in the course of our business here, we have private meetings where we can inform the Members, especially in their constituencies, some of the initiatives that we’re working on. I will commit to keeping all Members informed and up to date on all the progress that we’ve made with working with the LHOs and their deficit recovery plans.

Thank you. We can work closely with some of our LHOs that have found themselves in a bit of a deficit and we have a Deficit Recovery Plan we’re working on with the LHOs. We do ask the LHOs to collect 90 percent in rental arrears or rent revenue up to 90 percent. The accumulated deficit of all our LHOs across the Northwest Territories at this particular time is $2.4 million. The accumulated arrears of all tenants of LHOs across the Northwest Territories at this particular moment are $13 million. So we have $11.6 million that these LHOs could be using to put towards their deficits and put back...

Mr. Speaker, the government recognizes that improving the quality and cost of housing will reduce the cost of living in communities across the Northwest Territories. Today I would like to update Members and the public on the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation’s -- NWTHC -- Vacant Housing Unit Strategy.

Concerns have been raised with the number of vacant units the NWT Housing Corp has in its portfolio in certain communities. Primarily, these vacant units resulted from our aggressive capital infrastructure construction and repair program to deliver housing within the time frames set out...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can assure the Member and all Members that MACA will take all necessary steps to deal with illegal squatters. The uptake on suspending the strategy has been very good. We have had a lot of folks come forward to legitimize their leases, not only in the Yellowknife area but in other areas in the Northwest Territories. We actually had 100 percent uptake in the other communities, so the message is out there. I can assure the Member that all illegal squatters will be dealt with. Thank you.

Thank you. I would grade that question B or B plus.

---Laughter

We’re starting to grade everything here and I’ll work on improving mine for the next report card.

We’ll continue to work with the federal government. I mean, obviously there’s a lot at stake here. I mean, there are devolution talks, which you know would speed up the whole process because we’d have more authority over the lands in the Northwest Territories. But I mean, I can assure the Member and all Members that it is our intent to constantly work and put pressure on the federal government to realize that they have some...

Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of finalizing the density study and it is our intent to meet with the Cassidy Point-Prosperous Lake Association and hold a stakeholders forum, and the intent is to hold that in June of this year where we will be able to get input from all interested stakeholders and members of the public. Thank you.