Caroline Cochrane

At this point, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is exploring all of the options that are available to us to ensure that all of the houses actually meet their needs within the communities. Our number one priority is to ensure that homes are in communities. That is why some of the units actually were pulled into Ulukhaktok and like I say, partially completed as the Honourable Member pointed out, because we were conscious that they needed to meet the barge. So we are working diligently. Our number one focus is to make sure that we have houses in communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 1, Western Canada Lottery Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, what we have is eight of the 19 buildings are now partially completed. We have three that are in Ulukhaktok, one in Inuvik destined for Fort McPherson, and four are now under construction in Concept's Hay River facility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am really glad that question came up because it is important to note that, although we have had some glitches with our manufacturing strategy for modular units, Energy Wall in Yellowknife did complete a successful unit and has received another contract, actually. We are looking forward to working with all northern business in the provision of northern homes for northern people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are many options that we can do at this point. We are looking at them. We can either work with supporting Concept Energy to do them. There are a variety of options. We can put them out to public tender. We can look at negotiated contracts within communities. There is a whole gamut of different options that we can consider. Again, my priority is getting these homes into communities, and we will be looking at the ways we can expedite that in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

The Housing Corporation was formed in 1974. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again, I'm going to apologize in advance. Some of the terminology that I'm going to use was terminology of the day; it is not politically correct at this time, but the answer that I have is that the housing programs actually incorporated Indian and Eskimo houses that were built from the early 1960s to about the mid-1960s. Recognizing that, again, that is not the terminology of the day, but at that time, that was the terminology used to name people.

If the MLA sends me an e-mail, I will actually address that to him and more to define exactly what he is looking for. Again, I must state that there are 12 of the 23 local housing organizations that are actually unionized, which in my impression is that it is really hard to tell unionized workers what to do because they are unionized. That does not itself state that they have autonomy over what they do with their funding, and like I say, each one is funded fairly. They are paid based on what we would pay government workers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I respect the intent of this and I just wish it would have gone a bit further. I found that the voter's list was really inappropriate during the campaign period and I kind of wish that this motion was made stronger and actually had a timeline that said that, when the voter's list had to be updated, how many years, et cetera, because that is an issue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to remind the Regular Member that, before I came into politics, I came from the non-profit sector, which didn't get paid for holidays as well based on if it is fair or not. The reality is that that is not our determination. We fund each local housing organization at a comparable rate to Government of the Northwest Territories levels. Each local housing organization has the ability to define their pay and their benefits and their compensations to their employees themselves. Those wages and benefits are determined by their board of directors. Some of the local housing organizations...