Bob Bromley

Thanks to the deputy minister for that. My understanding was the latest was $12 million and came in at $30 million, but either way obviously a substantial increase, but on the other hand there is a significant demand for both heat and power in that community to which we subsidize probably over $1 million per year, and there’s also a mine being proposed not far from the community, the NICO Mine, Fortune Minerals. I think I’m just not convinced that we are doing the strategic thinking we need to do to enable these projects to actually go forward beyond feasibility studies. Partly I understand...

I appreciate that. I suspect the next question might be the same response. How many millions of dollars have we now spent on Whati project feasibility studies without ever having actually done a project there? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. That’s good to hear.

The next item there, the biomass boiler in the Deninu School in Fort Resolution, I’m very happy to see that going to that community. I think it will help establish a bit of a biomass market there and it’s also very much in line with their forest management agreements and some of the jobs they are contemplating and activities they are contemplating. So I am supportive of that.

I am wondering what the source of the $300,000 is for that project.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate my colleague’s questions and the Minister’s responses on this issue. This is, in fact, at least the second step that I know of. I believe that right in the 16th Assembly we did spend about $88,000 to do the first round of this. This is overdue. I’m very happy to see it going forward and I’m sure my colleagues will join me in supporting this.

The participation of people with disabilities is really a fundamental concept I think we all subscribe to and that has not been enabled with the current accessibility, even though we meet standards and we’ve made some...

The Minister didn’t answer the question. I’ll just give him the question again here. Given the sliding scale and relative stability of public housing, why aren’t we going with that while making the public productive choices that we encourage? It’s much more effective to have that than a situation where monthly rent can jump from zero to thousands of dollars through the Income Support Program. That was the question. The Minister didn’t even touch on that. I will grant you that I’m dense and I didn’t understand something, if that helps.

Would the Minister agree that private landlords, such as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of the Social Envelope Committee. Like many social issues, the housing crisis I mentioned in my statement cuts across several departments.

Could the Minister provide some background on how we got here? Why is it that the Housing Corporation has a limit on public housing units while at the same time ECE is paying sky high market rents to house over 100 families? I believe it’s 130 here in Yellowknife. Mahsi.

That’s the only question I had. I assume from that response that there was no consideration given to using that product here. That’s all I had. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we know that our housing system is unsustainable. We have imposed a limit on the number of housing units in all communities, but there is a clear need for more public housing in Yellowknife. With a 4 percent vacancy rate, apartments are sitting empty here while people in treatment programs are being evicted. Renting market housing through the Income Support Program does not work for the landlords, does not work for the GNWT or the people who we are trying to help. Why not rent these vacant apartments through the Housing Corporation and make them available as public housing under a...

Thanks for that. I guess I’m hoping that we’ll be kept apprised of how that’s going and have the opportunity to contribute to those discussions. That’s all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate that comment from the Minister. I’m wondering: how proactive are we right now at working with Fortune Minerals, NICO Mine to help them ensure that the project goes forward based on renewable energy? Thank you.