Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. I would like to ask the Minister: what was the issue that we had with the meters on the units that were built before Christmas in Aklavik and Fort McPherson? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do understand that the buildings that were in Fort McPherson, as well as Aklavik, when we did those multi-family buildings, are designed to have individual meters on each of the units. In this case, the units that we did have only had one meter.
It was brought forward to us when we went on the tour with the Member to Aklavik and opened up, I'll put a plug in here, our Northern Pathways to Housing, and we did hear those concerns. We are looking at addressing them, and the Member said it in his statement, the sooner that we can do it, then the sooner that we can get families into those units and address the waiting list for public housing and our families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That leads me to my next question: how long will it take to install meters on each unit, and when can people expect to move in?
As I mentioned, once we did hear the concerns that were brought forward to us by members of the community and the MLA, we started working on them, getting them addressed. We are hoping to have them done by the end of the fiscal year, March 31st. Once they are completed, passed inspections, and everything is good to go, we will start working on getting people into those units as soon as we can.
Instead of waiting a few months with the four-plex in Aklavik, can we simply let more people move and divide the power bill into four instead of letting people wait three to four months? These people could move in right away and share the cost of the power bill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Obviously, that is a good solution. I will have to consult with our LHOs as well as our regional office to look at that, and how we can. Obviously, you might have one unit that is using more power and somebody trying to conserve their energy. We are going to have to find a way that suits all people who are in the units. Obviously, the best solution would have a meter on all the units, so that you know what each of the tenants is paying. It would not be fair for somebody who is trying to conserve energy when somebody else is using a lot of energy. That is something that we need to consider moving forward, but it is a very good suggestion. We can take a look at it, and I will make sure that I get back to the Member.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on future units, will the Minister ensure each unit has its own meter so we never have this issue again? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Like I said, when we do the multi-family buildings, we want to make sure that meters are put on each of the units. We have to have better communication with our contractors and anyone who does work for the NWT Housing Corporation, we do have to make sure that they understand what our building codes are, national building codes. In terms of multi-family buildings, it needs to be just, and we will make sure that our contractors do understand that moving forward so that this doesn't happen again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
