Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to report that, actually, we will be looking at the Sahtu to build a homeless shelter within the next coming fiscal year. Both proposals, we were actually excited to receive and we were able to accommodate. One of the proposals was only for more of a dropin day shelter idea, so they can access some food security funding to accommodate that. The other proposal actually will be an overnight shelter, so it's really exciting to say that, within the next fiscal year, we will have a homeless shelter in every single region within the Northwest Territories and to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we are investing in energy-efficiency things that will actually help save money. For example, replacing fuel tanks, hot water tanks, putting LED lightbulbs in every single public housing unit. So we are expecting that there may be an increased cost until people learn to close their windows and to conserve energy. What we have decided not to do is that we will not be increasing our rent. I need to point out that the Northwest Territories, between 4 and 14.5 per cent of income goes to public housing. The standard across Canada is 30 per cent. So even though...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize. I should have actually done an update. As soon as we hear more from the RCMP, we will do a Minister's statement to keep the Members informed of what is happening with the RCMP initiative. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I do want to address it even though it was just brought up as a comment. The Transitional Rent Supplement Program would not be one that I would look at to address with seniors in its current form, in that it is only a two-year program and it is one of the policies that I do want to change. I do not believe that a twoyear program is the most effective use of that funding. I also state that, when it comes to the till, to the money for housing, we are strong advocates federally. We have been knocking on the federal door. Our Prime Minister has promised us that there will be exciting news in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just on affordability, within the market communities, we try not to compete with them when it comes to public housing units, so we are not going to flood the market and build a whole bunch of new public housing units when we actually have vacancies within communities. Like I said, I am not a fan of the transitional rent supplement program. It was not, in my opinion, an effective program. We did not give people the training that they needed to be able to get off after two years. So, instead of a transitional rent supplement program, perhaps we need to look at a rent...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the Government of the Northwest Territories did actually acknowledge that seniors aging in place is a priority and so, therefore, we agreed to do the $500,000 increase to the SAFE program on page 362. So we actually have an extra $500,000 that we are putting into assist seniors to age in place, so it's not that we're not working with you. Then again, like I say, we are expecting the federal government to come with substantial -- in fact, when Prime Minister Trudeau was in Yellowknife he said that there would be billions of dollars for housing provided, so we are...

During the current fiscal year, actually, we are building fourplex shelters within the communities of Aklavik, Behchoko, and Fort Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, we have positions for 10 to 15 apprenticeships. At this point, nine of them are filled, but it will be an area that we will be looking going within our program renewal because providing capacity within the communities is part of the answer. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The program renewal is the biggest priority of the corporation this fiscal year coming up, and so I see that the rent supplement program will be like I said, there are easy, medium, and hard ones to do; it is one of the easier ones. It is not something that we have to go crossdepartmental or crossjurisdictional, so I see it as happening within the first six months from today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although I do not want to be known as the Minister who always says yes, in this case I will say yes that we will consider that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.