Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, the longer-term solution is we are working with the Refocusing Government committee. We are in the process of speaking to a lot of the development corporations in the community. We have had some excellent buy-in. There has been a lot of interest expressed by the development corporations in accessing some of the programs. We do have some incentives that we are proposing to them. Also, one of the incentives is using some of our existing houses and see if we could turn those into housing for staff, if there is a surplus in some of the communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I would make the commitment to the Member that we will have a serious look at this and we’ll make sure that it’s well thought out before we attempt to put it on the ground. We’ll seek some input from a lot of the Members, because a lot of them do represent the small communities. We’ll get as much input as we can before we attempt to roll this out. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we would like to see the local communities put more input into the houses that go into their communities. We are, for the basic shelter, just redoing that right now. We’re hoping to be able to roll that out pretty soon and we’re looking to get some input.

As far as the log homes go, there were a couple of pilot projects done in the past. At this point in time, it doesn’t make economic sense. If we can do it a lot cheaper than the pilot projects were done, then it’s something that we’re willing to have a look at. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t expect to be thanked for an answer that is not what the Members are looking for, but sometimes we have to give those answers whether they are popular or needed or not. If it opens me up for criticism as to the position I am taking focussing on the youth of the Northwest Territories who will become adults, who will become seniors and they will be able to function better and be a better person for going to these games. I am not willing to make a commitment to fund the seniors multisport games out of the multisport game budget, because that mandate is for the youth and that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish that were true that the buck stops at my desk and I would be able to dole out the money to all those that asked, because we do get a lot of requests for funding. We do try and tend to look after the youth and try and get them out there and take part in a lot of these games. If there is a desire to fund adult games, I am not sure if that is where we want to go to, because the requests will start coming in from other adults.

We are always willing to have a list and see if there are ways that we can support all games. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are hoping to have something together very shortly here to share with committee before we go into the next session that would help address a lot of the concerns expressed by some of the MLAs from the small communities, especially the non-market communities. We are hoping to have something very shortly here put together. We will be able to share that with committee and get some feedback and input from committee too. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is an issue that continues to plague the small communities as having adequate housing for some of the professionals that go in there. I could inform the Member that in his community, through the good work of the North Slave Housing district housing office, they have come up with a solution to take care of the needs of two of the teachers. They have agreed to rent them an NWT Housing Corporation house, so that would take care of the issue. That will go on until the end of this school year and then we will look for a longer-term solution. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the appeals mechanism was implemented just recently and we really haven’t had time to evaluate it yet. Once we do, though, we will be providing that information to the Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re currently working on our strategic plan and we’re looking to have that released very early, and this will identify some of the progress that we’ve made to date on some of the recommendations from the Auditor General. Once we have that done, we will be sharing it with Members of this Assembly. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, the housing needs survey will go a long way in determining the needs of some of the communities in the Member’s riding, and we use this as an opportunity to adjust our programs and services and concentrate on some of the priority communities. Thank you.