Robert C. McLeod

Well, our budget has gone up each year, recognizing the fact, again, that the money is declining and, as I pointed out to the Member in response to the first question, we are taking steps to try and cut back on the O and M part of it by improving the quality of our units, so we’d have less O and M funding. As far as the resources go, we are seeing a small increase just about every year, but it’s not quite enough to deal with the money we will be losing. I mean, to date, I think we’ve been out $5.8 million, but by the time the money actually declines I think we’re going to be out $348 million...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recognizing the fact that we are losing money every year through the CMHC declining funding, Housing has started the process of identifying ways that we could cut back in our O and M and that’s part of the strategy. We are working on a 20-year capital needs assessment and we’re looking at retrofitting a lot of the units so that they are, we can get a longer life span out of them and we’re also looking at going to a lot of multiplex-type designs, which are less costly to maintain. We recognize the fact that we are declining and it is a great concern to the...

Mr. Speaker, we’re always engaging with the local housing organizations and listening to what they have, because a lot of them know best what goes on in their community. I mean, they’ve identified some units that they can move and also improving the operation and maintenance of each unit, trying to cut back on the costs. So we are working quite closely with a lot of the LHOs and the district offices to identify ways where we can make some savings, again recognizing the fact that unless we get a change of heart from the federal government, we’re going to continue to have declining funding each...

Mr. Speaker, we’re always looking at ways to sell some of the units to clientele. Over the years I think we’ve sold probably in the neighbourhood of 49. We have 63 that we’ve identified that could be for sale. However, we need to make sure that they have the means to maintain these units, because the last thing that we would like to see is transferring some of these units over to clients who are unable to maintain them and then they in turn would come back to the corporation for funding. That’s what we need to make sure we get away from and not set them up for failure. Thank you.

We can always open up a dialogue, but if it’s not a deal that makes sense for the ratepayers of the Northwest Territories and employers of the Northwest Territories and Yukon, then this is something we won’t even consider. It has to make sense for us. There would be a whole lot more to it than just asking them to partner up. There would be a reorganization of staff and everything. It would be quite a complicated process. Bottom line is that is has to make good business sense for us to even consider partnering up with the Yukon.

Mr. Speaker, we are always looking for ways to improve policies and update them to meet the needs of residents. Some of the feedback we get from the Member goes a long way to bring some of these policies forward. That is something that we can do to improve the service to the clients, is to incorporate some of the changes mentioned by the Member, then we will take that into consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as I know there is not an actual policy in place, but the Member is right, there are times when some common sense decisions need to be made. As a corporation, we are going to have to take steps to ensure that the LHOs have the authority to make decisions like this when the need arises and not make it as widespread as the Member mentioned. Thank you.

I’ll commit to the Member that I’ll have a discussion with my counterpart in the Yukon and see if there’s any interest on their part. Maybe they think it’s not a very good idea, otherwise I’m sure the discussions would have happened a long time ago. I will commit to the Member that I will at least raise it with the Minister and see if there’s any appetite for it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware of any discussions that have ever happened before about combining WSCC with the Yukon. We have a good arrangement with Nunavut and, obviously, this is going to have to be a venture that works well for us and Nunavut before we even think about entering into any kind of discussion.

Mr. Speaker, that is something that we will have to try to put together so the authorities… And I hear the Member’s point, because we do get a lot of calls in our office, folks across the Territories that aren’t happy sometimes with some of the decisions that are made. You can’t fault the LHOs, because they are following policy that is set out by us. If there are opportunities to make small changes to policy that will give them that ability to have some flexibility in some of the decisions they make, then maybe appeal to headquarters or appeal to the Minister too, in certain cases, then that...