Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think another area where there's quite a great divide is open beverage. And I think it's no surprise that many people, they drink their beer at a softball game in Yellowknife but when the police come we all run and we throw our beer cans away so as not to get arrested, yet then when you go downtown it's no surprise to see a bunch of people drinking in public already. And I mentioned in my statement that, you know, we mandate beer gardens presently. You can't ever have alcohol being drank around minors such as at festivals and events. I'm wondering when we go out for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My hope in getting that change made is that in Yellowknife presently there's two liquor stores. The licence to that is in 2025, and I was hoping that in place by for 2025 when we go out to some sort of competitive process, I had some issues with the last one that well, it would be a competitive process that would allow, you know, some different options of who would run the liquor store possibly, and I was also wondering if in 2025, when we put that out under possibly a new Liquor Act, whether the possibility of an additional store in Yellowknife would be considered...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Can I get an explanation of I see that the regional offices are responsible for maintenance, but I know that the LHOs are also responsible for maintenance. And, you know, if I'm in a housing unit and I want something want some maintenance, which one of those two should I go to in which scenarios? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a lot of changes I would like to make to the Liquor Act, too numerous to list in one Member's statement, but the short form would be "see Europe", Mr. Speaker. I dream of allowing minors in pubs and, you know, perhaps being able to share some wine in the park. However, I don't think that those ideas have majority support in this House so my next compromise, Mr. Speaker, would be "see BC" where you have private liquor stores. God, how I dream, Mr. Speaker, of ending the monopoly on liquor and getting rid of the liquor commission.

Additionally, perhaps the Brew...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I appreciate the Minister's comments there. But I know at times there have been different public numbers kind of reported. I was hoping to just get some updated figures. I know with the 90 housing unit delivery, the vast majority are modulars is my understanding; in fact I think that was a requirement of the federal rapid rehousing program. So I'm just wondering if we could get you know, if we build something modular, how much does it cost versus stickbuilt, a figure. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess before I leave, I just want to get a bit into this problem of, you know, we go out, we design a house for homeownership; it comes in far above the budget and a problem that is likely not getting better. I was hoping I could have the department speak to whether that design process was modular or stickbuilt and perhaps just generally whether we are heading in the direction of doing all modular building. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I I think I'll probably ask some more questions about the potential of the Housing Corp taking out mortgages. I'll also note that they're different than any other government debt because if we build a building and a bank will mortgage it and we decide we don't want it, we could sell it. You know, the bank's not going to give us a mortgage if the asset we build is not worth something. It seems like a different category of debt that we should be leveraging, in my mind.

But I wanted to get one question in about 2038. Can I just get an update on my understanding is...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess I want to get into a bit of a debt debate. Can I you know, we had spoke to the Power Corp today. They sure have a lot of debt. They like to take on debt to build all their infrastructure, and they have, you know, a relatively comparable revenue stream to the Housing Corp. I'm just curious why, you know, this crown corporation, which has $100 million a year in revenue, does not go leverage that and get a bunch of financing. I'm kind of curious, is there is that something we shouldn't do, or the reasoning for that? I just think of the way the private...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just get a bit of an explanation of how this all works? We get $20 million a year from CMHC but then we pay them back a million a year because we owe them 30 million, and I get they're just different agreements. I guess that's why that's happening. But how does this number have any relation to 2038? I guess I'll start with that question. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see that there's $955,000 here for debt repayment. I believe can I just get an explanation of what that is? Thank you.