Nothing further from Ms. Green. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. In regards to Fort Liard, when is it going to be established? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, you will see that set up fairly soon. We are just trying to get office accommodation at this point, and then you will have three positions within the Fort Liard community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that answer. Are these three staff going to be reporting to Simpson or is it going to be just a LHO with a local board in Fort Liard? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To begin with, we will be reporting to the regional office until the LHO office is stabilized. Then we will look at getting a local board within that community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that answer. These three positions, what are the positions going to entail? Is it plumbers? Carpenters? Or is it office administration? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, the standard LHO setup within the community is one manager and two maintenance workers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is it going to be just general maintenance people? I know in Fort Simpson, they have plumbers and the like. Within Fort Liard, is it just going to be general maintenance and they will still have to bring in people from Fort Liard or businesses to do the other maintenance? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do strive to get housing maintainers for those positions. These are community positions and we try to work with the capacities within each community. It depends on what the abilities and the skills within the communities and who applies for the positions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that. In regards to these LHOs and these positions, will there be on-the-job training? Will they bring in somebody, say from Fort Simpson, or around the areas, to help get them better prepared? Kind of a mentoring process at the beginning. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My deputy minister tried to joke and say no. But I am not accepting that. The reality is, yes, that we do try to train. We recognize that we need to build the capacity sometimes in the communities and so we provide training. There is no limit to the training in case you were wondering that. It is based on the needs of the workers. We will train and give them the support that they need until we figure and they figure that they can work on their own. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that answer. It makes me very happy to hear that. We are building capacity, which is great. With this LHO, is it just strictly going to be Fort Liard, or is it going to have off-shoots to Nahanni Butte? Because right now Fort Simpson covers the whole region, so I am just trying to understand if they will have an off-shoot to one of the other smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we are just going to start with Fort Liard because we do have the other two communities that we also want to focus on. Then we will look at other communities that don’t have those provisions within the next fiscal budget to determine where we go next with that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to apprenticeships, I know I have been talking to the local one in Fort Simpson and they are still trying to figure out how to get apprenticeships in there. Has the department looked at getting the apprenticeships into the community or is this an LHO directive? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Apprenticeships are really valued within the Housing Corp and also within the GNWT as a whole. Yes, we try to promote apprenticeships on their own. We also support the LHOs if they can identify someone within their community and they think that they are appropriate for an apprenticeship program, then we would consider their request for financing so that we can provide that support within their community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that answer. Just a little bit more clarification in regards to this process. Is it 100-per-cent funded by the Housing Corp or is it 50-50 or cost-sharing arrangements to ensure success? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Housing Corp actually fully funds for the apprenticeships, so the LHOs do not have the extra expense on them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am good with this page. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister if we will be talking about the development of options to support Aboriginal and local governments in meeting housing aspirations of their residents further on into the main estimates.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am a bit confused with the question. As stated again previously in the House, I am more than interested in working with the Aboriginal governments so that they can take ownership with their own housing needs. I am really conscious that we need to make sure that they are not set up to fail. It would be sitting down with them and actually defining what they want and moving forward in that way. Our interest is in working with governments that are looking at self-governing and taking on housing. We will look at providing the supports and skills they need to be able to take that on if anybody has somebody interested at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is a budget session. In the opening remarks, the Minister indicates that they will be developing options to support Aboriginal local governments. My question: is it appropriate at this time to speak on that issue or is it actually a line item in there, in this main estimate somewhere where it is not completely apparent to me at this point. Asking that question: is it in the main estimates? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, that was just actually mentioned in our opening remarks. We don’t have a budget line on it. Currently, what we are doing though is we are providing presentations to Aboriginal governments on housing activities currently. We are looking at things like the land designation on the Hay River Reserve. We are working with Aboriginal governments so that they can meet their needs above and beyond what we normally do within our activities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is it for this line of questioning. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Any further questions on this page? Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question relates to an earlier statement that was made in the House in terms of the jurisdictional issues and red tape that stand in the way of taking the boards off a board of houses and making them available for residents to call their homes. Speaking specifically of the Hay River Reserve, can the Minister give me an update in terms of what type of arrangement has been made? Perhaps the offices from either Hay River district or else the South Slave district that perhaps will be involved in terms of working with the First Nations to ensure that those houses are made available for residents on the Hay River Reserve. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Specific to the Hay River Reserve, we have been working hard within that to support the Aboriginal government on the reserve. There were 16 units actually that we built and put up and actually ended up being boarded up because of land tenure issues. We have dealt with negotiating with the federal government, which took a long process, and I have to give credit to the Minister before my time actually for starting that, but we now have ten of those 16 units that we actually have negotiated with the federal government and we have land tenure. We are still continuing to negotiate with the federal government to get the other six units opened up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the idea in terms of the LHOs and their association with maintenance and communities… But I understand on the reserve they don’t really have an existing LHO. My question is where would the maintenance come from? Would it come from the Hay River district housing district? Would it come from the subsidy for housing district? Thank you.
