Caroline Cochrane

All lands are taxed, except there are some exemptions. So for a complete listing of the properties that are exempt, you would have to go into the PATA, but things such as land claims agreements would impact that, as well. So, there are exemptions to taxable properties, usually by land agreements, Aboriginal government agreements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Office of the Fire Marshal is not doing a general report and saying, "This is what we need everywhere." He is working closely with the communities to actually bring it forward. When that is done, when he does his assessment, we, the regional staff for Municipal and Community Affairs, work with the community governments to bring that information forward on a community-by-community basis.

Safety is a priority over all other things, so we bring that forward to the community, and we work with the community to define what their needs are and how we can support them. Again, we provide training...

The assessment of the properties is done by the value of the land and any assets that are located on the land as the MLA has stated that he has seen taxes go up without any improvements done. There are two types of property assessments. There is one that is done on an annual basis. That captures changes to the existing property, such as if there are renovations, additions, et cetera. Then there is a general assessment that is completed at least once every 10 years. That updates the value of the land and improvements from the date of the last general assessment.

Like I said, there are two...

As stated, the responsibility for fire departments is the municipalities', and we work closely with the communities to define what they see as their capital assets. Some communities are still working on water treatment plants. Some communities want recreation centres. Some communities want arenas. Some communities already want the fire department. So it would be inappropriate for me to go to every community in the Northwest Territories and say, "You need to put all your capital asset planning on hold because I'm telling you as the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs that you're going...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to report on the Government of the Northwest Territories' progress on its housing-related mandate commitments and on the strategic renewal process currently underway at the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

First, among the mandate commitments laid out by the Government of the Northwest Territories is a promise to address the cost of living, in part by continuing to implement northern solutions for northern housing and working to address homelessness.

Mr. Speaker, similar to the project that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation delivered in...

As stated in my first answer, I don't know the status today. If I had gotten notice, I would have actually looked that up to see what we are doing and where the situation is of today.

I do want to emphasize, though, that community members care about their communities. If I see my neighbour's house burning, I am not going to stand around and sit there and watch and clap. I'm going to do what I can to be able to provide that service. In communities, we have community members who care as well. They will not allow that to happen. They will do whatever the best they can. We have various services...

We try to support the community governments as best as possible. Some communities do have the funding, actually, tax income, market income, the money that we give to communities, that they can actually put it in their capital plans and have fire departments full-fledged with full-time fire chiefs. Some communities only have part-time fire chiefs. Some communities don't have any; they have volunteer fire departments.

Therefore, we provide a range of training for them. We specialize in our first responder training, actually, so we work with communities that don't have any fire departments to...

I don't know how many times I'm going to say today that the Member is right. Communications is an issue. Communications is something we need to work on. We recognize that within the Housing Corporation.

We have a lot of changes to the programs, and the public still isn't aware. We have sent out letters to the municipalities and to the Aboriginal governments. I went into the community of Fort Simpson the other day, and I looked on the bulletin board at the band office, I believe, and it wasn't there. I did give direction as soon as I got back. I said, "Send out more notices," like let people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct. The best solutions for communities are actually to have the services within the community. It's not the best service to be outside. Those in the community know the situations. They know the strengths and the challenges of community members, so I would like to see a board in Tsiigehtchic as well.

We do have a local housing organization in Tsiigehtchic with a manager. The difficulty has been the board. In 2013, actually, we met with the community and we talked about a board. Out of those people in attendance, only one person actually stated that they...

So, the allocating of these 19 units was at the beginning of my term a couple of years ago, and I do appreciate the Member saying: what lessons did I derive from that experience. It's important to look on the things that we do and to reflect and to make sure that we make better decisions in the future. I believe in northern houses for northern people, done by northern contractors, so my initial goal was to actually have those units as a manufacturing strategy. There are a lot of modular units that come from the south, especially in our community of Yellowknife, that are sold and the money is...