Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Municipal governments are actually responsible for evacuation plans. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs works with them to develop their emergency evacuation plans and also to review them. If the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs asked residents to leave because we have deemed a need for an evacuation, then we will cover the costs. If the community takes it upon themselves to ask people to leave, then it is up to the community to deal with those costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Every five years, the government of the Northwest Territories does a statistical analysis of all the residents in the Northwest Territories. Part of that actually addresses the housing needs within the territories, and that gives us our core need report. The last one was done in 2014; so I am expecting that fairly soon another full report will be done. At that time, it will break down exactly where the core needs are, if it is suitability, adequacy, or affordability. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I do have to say that I am the Minister for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I do not run the Department of Infrastructure, and I do hope the Department of Infrastructure is also working on winter roads because winter is right around the corner. I can say that we have 700 seniors currently in public housing units. We have 374 public housing units that are designated for seniors and/or disabled people. We built seniors' complexes within the last couple of years in Fort McPherson, Fort Good Hope, Fort Liard, Whati, and Aklavik.

We have increased programs for seniors. We have a...

As stated earlier, this is an exceptional agreement that we made. This was a negotiated contract. We do set budget amounts when we put buildings out to tender. If we had gone with the normal contract procurement process where the bids are open to the public, then we would expect that the bids would have come in at a more reasonable figure, closer to our projected budget. We did make the exceptions because of the negotiated contract, and so therefore, because of the great discrepancy between the estimated amount and the amount brought forward to us, we had to look at ways that we could actually...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The nine-plex in Fort McPherson was an interesting process, actually. We did have a contractor originally scheduled to complete it. There were some issues. We had to dissolve that contract. Then I entered into a negotiated contract with a local company, which fit the true definition of negotiated contracts in that it was about building capacity for the contractor and providing in the community, so we were really eager to actually begin that process.

The difficulty was that, in trying to do that negotiated contract, the contractor actually came back at more than double...

My understanding is that the Hay River hospital actually went through the same process and therefore did have to stop construction over the winter months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As stated, the projected budget that the Housing Corporation had estimated for the construction of that building was not based on a low bid. It was actually based on a cost analysis that is done for a building within each community that takes that into account. We are hoping that the building will start up again in April and that it will be done as soon as the contractor can do that. However, if the contractor wishes to build over the winter and can promise me that he will be able to do that contract within the negotiated contract price, then I am willing to allow the contractor to move...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, they can use their surpluses to replace public housing units or to do major M and I to units that are in their communities. Or if they have a new project, then they would have to work in partnership with us to get the okay to do that.

For example, they couldn't say that we're going to build a complex that is going to address the highest income earners within the Northwest Territories; they would have to fit within the mandate of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation does try to support northern businesses taking care of northern housing, and so we are working with the contractor still, to this date, to push those units forward. We actually were supposed to meet with him today, but I believe that will now be tomorrow because of staffing. It was to build 45 units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have been working diligently with the local housing organizations to address the surpluses. In my personal opinion, I don't think it's appropriate that Housing has surpluses when we have such dire need for housing within the Northwest Territories.

To date, the only one that we actually came to a firm agreement on was with the Yellowknife Housing Association, who had a surplus of $600,000, and they will be working in partnership with us to develop single units within the community, and we are still working with the other ones. Thank you, Mr. Chair.