Thank you, Mr. Chair. That was the one I assumed and so made the statement that, yes, every application can be considered and north is $15,000, southern communities are $10,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.
Nothing further, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to the Northern Pathways to Housing, there is enough money in there to do four projects, but three projects were approved. I notice that the same budget appears in last year’s revised mains and mains and also in this year’s mains. I am wondering if the money lapsed last year. Did we do three last year and doing three more this year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, it was just three in total. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That would be three from 2015-16 or is it three for 2016-17? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have had the money in place for over a year, but it has taken us time to actually work with the communities to get them to finish up. In fact, one of the communities just came in the other day to finish the process even though they expressed interest over a year ago. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you. My original question was: did the money from 2015-16, some of it or most of it, lapse?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Last question. That means there is enough money there for one more community to come forward to access their portion of the budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The request was sent out a couple of years ago, so when we only got the three, we stopped at that. We made a commitment that we would make sure that three communities were successful before we went any further with any more funding on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu is waving me off. Do we have any further comments or questions? Mr. Thompson.
Just a couple of clarifications with Northern Pathways to Housing. Is it $280,000 at $70,000 per project, or is it three divided by the $280,000? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. It is $70,000 a year for operating and maintenance. That will be continued. Then we have budgeted $400,000 per unit to be able to provide the units in the community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Minister. That is good to hear. I am just confused with the math though. It is $280,000. Why wouldn’t we budget $210,000? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, it was noted that there was the $70,000 left in from the operating and maintenance from the last tender. I will pass it over to my deputy minister if you would like to expand on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Anderson.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we’ve been working for quite a while with the communities to try to get this program up and running to deal with homelessness in our rural and remote communities. Our initial approach to it was to try and renovate a single house that we had in inventory in our communities. The cost of that was over and above the ability at that time we had to fund it, so what we’ve done with the new federal money, we’ve put these little fourplexes in place. We have designed a fourplex concept, pretty small, 320 square feet to address this population or try to address it. We think three is the right number to move forward at this time to see if we can get the proper supports in place, and that’s with the community groups, but also they’re partnering with the community services agencies as well to provide some of the clinical supports. If this model is successful, it’s something that we’ll look forward to expanding on in the future, but for now, we want to stay with the three and see how it works out. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Anderson. I’m not arguing about, or I totally understand the concept. I’m just trying to understand. The budget is $280,000, and you have three... It’s $70,000. You have three projects. It’s $210,000, so there’s a savings of $70,000, unless that… Is that $70,000 for over expenditures, or over cost runs for these communities so you make sure you don’t fall or they don’t, I guess, stop the success of the program? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Ms. Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn’t catch that. Yes, correct. We haven’t finished the project yet, so we want to actually leave the money where it is because sometimes projects do come in over expenditure. If the projects come in under costing, all of the savings will be re-profiled to stay within the homelessness initiatives that we have. Thank you, Mr. Chair
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that answer, well thought out. I have to congratulate the department on doing that in thinking, being proactive instead of, have to do supps afterwards. I like the idea where you’re going with the money. My last or my next question is, this seems to be one of the favourite topics, is where is RCMP housing in the scope of things? Is it in this area here or the maintenance and operation stuff or is it somewhere else? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll let the deputy minister answer that question.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Anderson.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, the RCMP project is one of the projects that will be identified in our revised capital estimates, because this year is the construction phase of that project, and also acquiring land in some of the other regional centers, so it won’t show up on the operating side until next year once we’ve got revenue flowing on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank Mr. Anderson for his answer. Just to clarify, so for next year, is this the area it’s going to be in or is there going to be another section in your guys’ business plan? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll let Jeff Anderson answer that again. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Anderson.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. It will show up in this area for sure under our non-residential building operations. Those are all of the projects and buildings that we lease out on to other agencies of government, and so we would include it in that line object as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Mr. Thompson.
No, I’m good. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. O’Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I know that we’ve started to talk a little bit about RCMP housing. I wanted to ask, so somewhere in the budget for this year, though, there must be some resources devoted to actually building or managing the construction of RCMP housing in 201617. Would that be right? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Minister Cochrane.
