Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A strategic plan will be developed from the needs surveys in that it will be communitybased. Each community, 33 communities within our region, within our territory, will be identified individually, and then the longterm plan will be to address the needs individually within that community. It’s not a strategic plan that lumps all into one because I don’t believe in onesizefitsall. It will be a strategic plan that identifies within each community what are their goals and then strategically how do we address the goals within those communities. There will be community focus...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have about 150 people actually taking advantage of the Transitional Rent Supplement Program at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently there’s 37 public housing units with seniors residing in them in the Nahendeh communities. Of those 37 units, 29 of them are actually senior designated, meaning that they are specifically designed with accessibility features and these include the eight new units in the seniors independent housing complex that was just recently completed in Fort Liard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Specific to the Hay River Reserve, we have been working hard within that to support the Aboriginal government on the reserve. There were 16 units actually that we built and put up and actually ended up being boarded up because of land tenure issues. We have dealt with negotiating with the federal government, which took a long process, and I have to give credit to the Minister before my time actually for starting that, but we now have ten of those 16 units that we actually have negotiated with the federal government and we have land tenure. We are still continuing to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m not going to say it’s a really good question, but it is a really good question because I didn’t have any idea either. The first time that an Aboriginal government came to me and said we want culturally appropriate housing in our community, I kind of thought in my head and I said well, I’m sure that doesn’t mean tents and igloos, because we’ve kind of passed that. I asked them what does culturally appropriate mean to you, and examples were given. For example, the IRC had said that within their community, culturally appropriate, they’re hunters, and within their...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Marketing preventive maintenance is preventive maintenance services that we provide to people, such as seniors, et cetera. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To actually set down a timeline would be difficult because the survey has to be completed first. I have committed to working with providing a survey to some of the local selfgovernments to be able to look at the survey questions. I have committed to actually providing it to the MLAs to get their input on the questions. Once we get the questions down, then we have to distribute the survey to every staff member, every LHO, every person that’s using it, so to nail down a definite date would be difficult at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This model also will be by consumer choice. Anyone that does not want to take those units does not need to. It is an option for people. Everyone in the community, based on my experience with managing homeless shelters, is not mandated to stay in the shelter. They have an option if they want to get into other accommodations within the community. The reality is, who will open up their doors to these people? The semi-independent living will be by choice, not by force. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am a bit confused with the question. As stated again previously in the House, I am more than interested in working with the Aboriginal governments so that they can take ownership with their own housing needs. I am really conscious that we need to make sure that they are not set up to fail. It would be sitting down with them and actually defining what they want and moving forward in that way. Our interest is in working with governments that are looking at self-governing and taking on housing. We will look at providing the supports and skills they need to be able to take...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As stated before, we’re not throwing away one tool to recook another. They’re kind of two different tools. The core needs are actually addressed within the needs survey that are done nationally, so those would still be there. They will still be our priorities. However, we will be asking the communities what they want us to focus on. if, for example, if the federal government, say, gave us $300,000 to address CARE Major, then we would look at that $300,000 and say which communities out of the 33 communities have identified CARE Major as their priority, and then we would...