Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we know a lot more about this project today than we did coming into question period. The Minister has told us that a lot of this is contingent on the project going ahead, but still there are certain commitments that are to be expected. This is a big project and a very innovative one. We may have to change the way we do some of our business. Are we going to have to make some upfront commitments, potentially years in advance of delivery of these units, in order to live up to our end of this hypothetical deal here? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are getting a bit more information. Now we know that we have about 1,400 units with some $121 million potentially from the GNWT, and $90 million from the Government of Canada, plus land development costs. So that gives us some idea of the scale and the scope. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister has pointed out, the pipeline is not yet a given, as much as we all hope that it will be. What we know now is that things are a little on the hypothetical side. When could we anticipate that these units would begin to be made available and put on site? What is the time frame...

Okay, so the Minister doesn’t have information for us or can’t go back to really what the original objective was and say that it has been satisfied; the program has changed to accommodate other people. Mr. Speaker, one part of this program was also that the units will not be subsidized and the Housing Corporation has been directed -- I’m reading from the business plan of last year -- to ensure a lease rate that is based on a full cost recovery basis. Can the Minister assure the House that the cost of renting and the sale of some of these units have indeed been at full cost recovery? Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to focus on the original objective of this, which was to get employees into units that were appropriate for them and affordable. The uptake on this in the first year was not all that great. I wanted to ask the Minister, of the 42 units that are either on site or in the process of being finalized, how may of them are being occupied by those essential workers, the initial target group of tenants? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So, Mr. Speaker, what I guess we can anticipate here is another piece of paper that Cabinet is going to approve -- I heard the word “approve” -- then it’s going to be passed over here for rubberstamping, I guess. To what degree is Cabinet going to control the overall review and acceptance of the Housing Corporation’s new mandate, or is this just another rubberstamp exercise? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve all been aware for some time now, in fact in the business plans that we looked at in the budget session earlier this year, that this review was underway. I haven’t heard very much about it. Housing is one of the most essential parts of our infrastructure here in the NWT. For the Housing Corporation to undertake a fundamental review of its mandate, I would like to think that they might have been talking to a few people. I haven’t heard very much about it though. So what kinds of consultations and stakeholder groups have been contacted about this mandate, and to what extent...

The costs of providing childcare in the North are clearly higher than in other parts of the country. The Government of the NWT has been working closely with other territories to hammer out a deal with Canada that would provide adequate base funding to make a real difference in providing this critically needed programming in the North. We have seen the federal government recognize our unique health challenges, such as with the Health Care Accord reached last fall. The Early Learning and Childcare Agreement that has been in place in this government since 2001 serves as a framework for the...

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. When we recognized the clock, I was seeking just a bit more information on one aspect of administration, when it comes to unpaid bills, how and whether these bills -- they could be for services like unpaid water bills or even library fines or parking tickets -- would be put onto my tax bill. I wanted to know that before this transfer to my tax account happened, as a municipal taxpayer/resident, that I would have a chance to address any discrepancy in some kind of organized process. The question that I had is, whose job is it to ensure the taxpayer has a way to get...

So 2010 and out. So, arguably, that is at least five years from now. That’s fine. It gives us a time frame now, so we have some ideas about cost, quantity and time frame.

Mr. Speaker, just about any other major infrastructure project that we hear about anywhere else in Canada or the world, one of the things that goes along with it is the investment in our own backyard if we are getting maximum benefit from this. Now, ATCO doesn’t have a manufacturing centre here in the North, at least at this time. Is it a safe assumption here that this proposal will include big time investment here in the...

Mr. Speaker, to continue with this line of questioning to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation on the ATCO Novel housing proposal here, it is indeed, on the surface from a conceptual point of view, one of the kinds of legacy projects that we all anticipate could come out of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project. It has great potential. It is one that we should be looking at with all seriousness but, to date, as my colleagues have pointed out, there are some very major gaps in the business planning approach.

Mr. Speaker, I can tell that we are going to have to wear out a few...