Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been a long budget process and, as I mentioned, one of the concerns that were brought up, talking to some people at the Skills for Success conference symposium that’s going on, were some of the barriers. One of them is housing. In Inuvik we do have a Blueberry Patch and I know it’s getting demolished, possibly this summer. I understand that that responsibility has shifted to the Housing Corporation from Public Works and Services.
I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation when he expects the demolition of the Blueberry Patch to start and finish. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan is to put a tender out and have the Blueberry Patch demolished this summer. Thank you.
I also understand that the Housing Corp will be taking over the responsibility for the land that the Blueberry Patch currently sits on. Has the Minister’s department decided or proposed what to build on that land?
As I mentioned, housing is a concern across all communities across the Northwest Territories, and if we are going to decentralize and start creating jobs and oil and gas kicks back up, we need some houses for residents and people who move up there.
I would like to ask the Minister what he is proposing to put on that land once the Blueberry Patch is demolished. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That is a fairly significant amount of land. As far as what the plans are for it, I don’t think there are any concrete plans right now. Just the option of having that land available to us as we plan for future development will be huge. So there are no concrete plans in place right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know, in the Housing Corporation, it’s always hard to house people who are single. That might be an option, is to have a single-unit facility or also multi-family units that can be built. Moving forward, I know there is a long list of people on the housing list, people who are in market rental units.
Would the Minister be open to having a community consultation with key stakeholders as well as concerned residents on what we should be putting on that land? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As always, we will have discussions with stakeholders. Again, we’ll come up with a plan of what we might like to see on that and then we’ll have some discussion with stakeholders, get input from them as well as some committee. Then we will determine the next steps after that. It’s a very significant amount of land and I think it will go a long way in helping us address some of our needs in Inuvik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Everybody knows the Blueberry Patch was used for family housing units for the Aurora College.
Has the Minister been speaking with the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment on creating family units to replace these ones being demolished? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That is another one of the discussions that we have had. There is some common ground here to house students who attend Aurora College in Inuvik. Many of them were living in the Blueberry Patch when it was determined that it was going to be demolished. They are all over town now in private market rentals. That’s another discussion that we will have. Again, once we formulate a plan, we will be sharing it with all stakeholders involved. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
