David Krutko

Do I get my three minutes back?

---Laughter

I was just stalling for time, but the issue I was talking about was in the area of elders programs in our communities, especially a lot of the elders need some maintenance of their dwellings. We talk about trying to keep elders in their homes. Especially it seems like a lot of times there are challenges to get people to do the work in the communities. I think that we as a government have to find a way that we can provide the service but also do it in a way that it is… If we can’t do one community, maybe look at bundling these programs.

I know the...

Minister of Housing.

Mr. Speaker, this issue is definitely in the public domain. There was a press release put out by the Minister this morning. The comments from my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen were about the situation that we had to deal with in the 13th Assembly and that reality is real. The issue of having a major deficit in this government has a major implication on all programs going forward. The press release clearly stipulates that this bridge is not going to cost us $165 million. It’s going to cost us $181 million and we don’t really know what the final price really is. Mr. Speaker, I think the question on...

Mr. Chairman, I move that the committee strongly recommends that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation amend its procurement practices by separating the labour and material components of the corporation construction contracts to ensure small community contractors have a better ability to submit bids on projects occurring in small communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, we’re on page 5-44, again, information item, active positions.

Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could give me a breakdown of exactly which communities received these federal dollars, what size the communities are and out of the 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, which ones weren’t able to take advantage of these programs. Can I have that in writing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, one of the areas you hear a lot of concerns about from the local contractors is that they’re building to take advantage of Housing Corporation contracts because the way that they design those contracts in which they don’t have the capacity to either bid or bond some of these contracts, especially the contracts which are basically supply, ship and erect. I think that a lot of them feel more comfortable dealing with the labour only aspect of contracts where the Housing Corporation provides the material, brings it into our communities and they construct them. That...

Agreed. Okay, in regard to moving on to page 5-44, active positions by regions, again, information item. Are there any questions? Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to my Member’s statement, one thing we continue to see is have and have-not communities in the Northwest Territories, especially the small and remote communities, which were the reason for a lot of communities not being able to take advantage of the stimulus funding in regards to Building Canada funds. The reason that we get this is because they have substantial deficits or they are unable to identify matching funds.

Mr. Speaker, I, for one, feel that this government should reach out to those communities and try to find ways to ensure that they are able to...

Thank you. Next on the list is Ms. Bisaro.