Caroline Cochrane

As a resident of the Northwest Territories myself, I have always felt that often people who are living in the South do not really recognize the needs of the Northwest Territories. We are often fit into models that "one size fits all." I do not believe in that model. I do not believe that one size fits all. I believe that every community, every territory, every province, has distinct needs and distinct strengths.

Within that philosophy, my own philosophy: every time I go down to meet with any federal Minister, I not only invite them, I almost beg them to come to the Northwest Territories to see...

For clarification, three of the units are currently occupied. They are not looking at it, so, out of those seven units that are looking at needing renovations, we are working with Chief Fabian. Because of capital plans, we have to make sure that we spread the wealth throughout all communities, all 33 communities, so, in this fiscal year we are looking at them working in partnership with the chief, with the band, to actually develop five units. Five of the remaining seven will be renovated. Like I said, we are hoping that the chief will come forward and provide us a proposal so that we are...

To divide down the actual monies from what we spend on actually supporting of youth and taking part in sports activities, and from what we pay staff, is a process that would take some time. If the Member would like, he can either present a written question or he can come to my office and I can provide him that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Basically, Mr. Speaker, why did I include the line in the bill, is my understanding of the question. So I'm going to try to state that without getting into trouble for talking about the bill. Basically, it's important that the -- I'm struggling to not talk about the bill.

It's important, Mr. Speaker, that all of the monies that are obtained through the Lottery Fund are protected and that we can actually use it for sports and recreation, which was the intent of that funding. So I am proposing that we would maintain that, as we have historically done, that we would do that in the future.

I agree. It's totally unreasonable that people who are homeowners are people who can't access services. I heard a story once when I first started that somebody had applied in one of the smaller communities, and it may have been the honourable MLA's communities, had applied for some repair programs, and we gave them a grant of $10,000. By the time they paid for their contractor to come in, stay, travel, stay in their community, they got a kitchen sink for $10,000, Mr. Speaker. That is not okay, and that is not reasonable. In order to address that in a reasonable way, I have changed the program...

The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation does try to work with communities. We do try to support local labour. Sometimes, though, the proposals that come in are just not doable; their bids are actually not reasonable. So sometimes we do have to go outside of the community. We do try to stay within the Northwest Territories, though, so again, we do try to support the communities as much as possible. We will look at negotiated contracts under the Negotiated Contracts Policy to actually help communities to build up their capacity; not for large corporations that have been in business for...

No, the department doesn't consider the Children and Youth Resiliency Program as part of its total for sports and recreation funding.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the money does differ between communities. In the budget, we had $825,000 in sports and recreation funding that we annually give to the community governments. Depending on the community size, et cetera, they range between $15,000 and $85,000 in sports and recreation funding annually. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To deal with each municipality, for me to reach out to each individual community government and ask them if they need my help would be very cumbersome, and I regret that I might forget one. There are 32 communities that we actually support. However, we work closely with the NWT Association of Communities. We are actually going down there, I believe, this weekend coming up. I am assuming, if they have issues, then that is where I am. They know me; they will come and approach me if they need help. My office is open. Municipal and Community Affairs is always willing to work with them.

The CTV Act that we're looking at changing will be for the hotel tax levy and for the energy retrofits that the Municipality of Yellowknife wanted to push forward. So I do appreciate the words of the honourable MLA that's stating that he doesn't project it would be taking long with standing committee. I'm not sure if he represents the voice of all the standing committee in the House here today, but if I could get that in writing that they have no issues, that they don't need to review it, that it can go as stated, then I will take that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.