Robert C. McLeod

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me, to my left, Mr. Jeff Polakoff, president of the NWT Housing Corporation, and I have, to my right, Mr. Jeff Anderson, vice-president of Finance with the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation’s main estimates for the fiscal year 2010-2011, which requests a total GNWT contribution of $37.122 million. This is a decrease of 1.8 percent from the 2009-2010 Main Estimates.

Including revenue sources such as client rent, public housing subsidy, CMHC cost-shared funds and lease and mortgage payments from clients, the Housing Corporation will have approximately $138 million available to spend on housing in the Northwest Territories in 2010-2011.

Federal funding for housing programs in the Northwest...

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to learn as we go along here and identifying housing issues that could have potential impact across the Northwest Territories, especially if, as the Member says, the pipeline goes ahead. There will be quite a crunch. It is always an ongoing issue with the Housing Corporation to always update our information and make sure we are prepared for any future expansion of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; housing did take part. They were a part of the financing of the report that came out that was being worked on. Housing will continue to be at the table through this whole process and see it through in identifying housing solutions for the city of Yellowknife. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to provide Members with details on the Active After School Program which is part of the GNWT’s Healthy Choices Framework.

As you know, the Healthy Choices Framework is an interdepartmental initiative that includes the departments of Health and Social Services; Education, Culture and Employment; Justice; Transportation; and MACA.

The government is raising awareness of the direct link between good health and positive lifestyle choices, through the collaboration and the integration of healthy choices programs across these departments.

Through the Healthy Choices...

Mr. Chairman, I would be willing to wait if Mr. Krutko had some more general comments and I will respond to them all at once. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the Member is right.; there was an effort to promote the sale of some of the existing public housing stock. We have managed to move a few. We have identified I think it is another 63 that could be sold. He is also correct that there was some concern with the cost of some of these units. We just have to make sure that a lot of the folks that maybe would buy these units would be able to maintain them. Some of them are older units. It is a concern there.

The vacant units is one that we hear obviously quite a bit about. In some communities we hear from folks there that have had units...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. With a lot of the money that we’ve gotten from the Canada Economic Action Plan, a lot of it was going more towards the multi-family-type units where there would be a cost savings to maintain and operate. We’re starting to see a lot more of that within the Housing Corporation, but a good portion of the money that we did receive was to go towards doing the multi. Also, a lot of it was going towards some of the repairs needed in the community and we’ve had some communities say that they’ve never had so much work before from the Housing Corporation. A lot of that is...

Yes, I will, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.