Robert C. McLeod

I kind of figured this question would be coming up. It’s a good question because it does seem like there is youth money all over the place here. But we have different criteria for each of these different pots of money and I suppose if we put it all into one pot and whoever comes forward with their applications for or puts together the best applications and they might be getting more than their share. As I said before, as I was doing my comments to the opening remarks, we are confident with the new website that’s being launched, that would answer a lot of these questions. It would be a good map...

We have significant investment in the Nahendeh riding for 2009-2010. Some of those projects are just being completed. There’s approximately $10 million being invested in the Nahendeh riding and then when we go to the 2010-2011 budget there’s an additional $5.2 million being invested into housing. That’s actually one of the lower investments across the Northwest Territories, but we’re believing that will go a long way towards addressing some of the Member’s concerns about adequate housing in Nahendeh. I think this will go a long way in determining and improving the condition and having more...

No, we haven’t.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, out of this $390,000, I think $50,000 is for the Arctic Energy Alliance, but we also have an additional $150,000 that we still contribute to the Arctic Energy Alliance to do their work required. We’re starting to see, I think they’re trying to put some people in the regions now. I know for a fact that there might be one in Inuvik and they did some work for the NWT Housing Corporation. So they’re very much still funded by MACA and by the different partners and they’re just continuing to carry on their work.

Mr. Chair, this has been a stable source of funding for a few years. We have not really had any indication from any of the sport and rec partners that they are underfunded. I am sure if they felt they were underfunded and came forward with requests, then we would have to have a look at it, but at this point they seem to be... I shouldn’t be speaking for them, but until you hear from them, you assume they are quite satisfied with the funds that they’re getting. Thank you.

There’s always been within the LHOs a high degree of skills. The LHO managers are very well qualified. We have tenant relations officers that have been with the LHO for years and so the capacity at the local level, which has always been very good, continues to get better. We continue to work with the LHOs to provide training for them and just assisting them in any way possible so that they’re able to do their job much better, but the LHOs are usually a long serving group and they’re usually within the organization for years. So they have good understanding of how the system works and they’re...

I am very familiar with the SHAG program where people harvested their own logs. At that time, the package I think was only $30,000 and that got you your windows, doors and everything else, but the bulk of the work and I know people that did all the work. The Member I think was also referring to the HAP program, which was a very successful program where materials were provided to individuals that qualified and then they supplied the labour. It started going to where everything was being supplied, but it was a very successful program.

One of the things that we are seeing today through the CARE...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The waiting list now, I think the Member quoted 149, it’s down to 109 currently. It’s down to 109. So some people have been accommodated. We do have a lot of lease commitments in the city. The public housing units, this is basically what we have now. Other than putting new houses on the ground or finding some new lease commitments this is going to be an issue. There’s a waiting list for pretty well all of the communities. This is one that we need to address and if it means... I think the city has new public housing units coming this year, so there will be some new...

We are working with MACA on a land development strategy, but we have made significant progress in the last little while. Communities where there was some land tied up are starting to make more and more land available to the Housing Corp, because they realize too that it’s beneficial to them. We’ve seen a couple of good examples of that. If that partnership continues to flourish then I think we’re going to see that we’ll be able to have more and more access to land. As the Member knows, there’s lots of band land in some of the communities. That’s an ongoing process and it’s one that we’re quite...

Mr. Chairman, we are aware of that. There have been some concerns with that. We have taken some steps to address that. Some of it is we send the list out there. We know everything that is needed for a particular project. Sometimes some of it doesn’t make it to the community. The folks that are responsible for that project will usually do a check. If there are pieces that are missing, they will then advise the supplier and they would have to make sure that the piece is there. It is something that I have heard about. It is not a huge issue as much as it used to be. Still, we were supposed to be...