Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, when the review is started, I have committed to the Member that there will be public consultation. Obviously, we hear a lot of concerns out there with what they perceive to be the high rents that are charged. So we have to take that into consideration when we are doing the review of the rent scale and then we have to follow the recommendations or look at the recommendations and determine whether it is something that we want to implement sooner rather than later. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in undertaking the review, our intent is to have the review potentially completed into late 2010-11. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce the introduction of the Government of the Northwest Territories new youth website, proud2bnwt.ca.

The website offers a single window for NWT youth seeking information about GNWT programs and services to help them identify supportive programming options. The site showcases positive youth role models and increases two-way communications with program and service providers.

Mr. Speaker, proud2bnwt is designed by youth for youth. Through a series of focus groups with students from Aurora College and youth from across the NWT, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are 10 that are completed, 13 bringing them to their councils for approval in February, and the balance -- I believe it’s 13 and 10, I may have the numbers backwards -- will have them to their councils for approval in March. We anticipate that all communities will meet the deadline. In the event that they don’t, their funds will be held back until they have their plans completed and approved.

I’m not going to be able to provide the Member with the names of these 19 tenants. I can provide some of the regions that they’re in, but as far as names go with the information and everything, we have to be careful. We have to understand that maximum rent in the communities could be as high as $2,300, but that doesn’t mean that somebody who has a job is going to pay the $2,300. It’s based on the income that they’re making. I will commit to the Member that I’ll get him some information and sit down with him.

First of all I have to clarify. I said fiscal year, but it was the upcoming fiscal year and not the end of this particular fiscal year. So the 2010-2011 fiscal year. I apologize for that.

It is a concern that we have heard far and wide, is the rent people are being charged once they’ve gained employment. We always want to make sure that if we’re housing people, we try and work out the Homeownership Program so a lot of these people can graduate into the Homeownership Program. Housing tries very hard to make sure all the tenants are adequately housed and, with the review of the rent scale, we’re...

Mr. Speaker, we’ll look into it right away. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we haven’t had any concerns brought to our attention yet by the consumers, but we do have a consumer affairs person that monitors a lot of the goings-on out there. If this continues to be a practice or something that consumers need information on or just need reassurance that they are protected, then it’s something that, as a government, we have to do. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we’ll continue to work with the communities in identifying their energy needs and where they can make improvements so when the community decides what infrastructure that they’re going to build, then they’ll be able to incorporate a lot of the ideas. That’s why the Arctic Energy Alliance is playing a part in working with some of the communities in coming up with their community energy plans. So this would go a long way, and I’ve spoken to one community in particular that had some concerns about some of the energy costs and how they were doing some new work and they were going to...

MACA held five regional workshops to help community governments with their plans. They brought in SAOs, two elected officials from each community to take part in the workshops. As well, some of the communities have gone to the private sector to help with their sustainability plans. We will continue to track those communities that may be a little behind, but we still anticipate that all communities are going to be completed by the March 31st deadline.