David Krutko

Mr. Speaker, if it’s okay with the Member, I would make an attempt to go into Behchoko with the Member and have an official opening of the power plant in Behchoko to show that we have a new power plant. It is up and running and it is going to work this time, so we don’t have the situation that we had last time where we had the hydro system go down and also a backup system go down. I commit to the Member that as soon as we have this system up and running, we will make an official visit to unveil it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, since the Member raised this question in this House, we are looking at all our seniors’ facilities to ensure we have a system in place where they are going to be required and the extent of the emergencies that we can respond. Like I mentioned earlier, we are working with the emergency measures people, through MACA and the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, to ensure that when the power does go down in those communities, what is the backup plan to deal with these emergencies. So we are looking at it. I have not received the final report on it, so, for the Member’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize the new president of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Jeff Polakoff.

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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Polakoff has experience in the Northwest Territories. He worked for the Housing Corporation in the '70s and '80s in Inuvik and here in Yellowknife. Mr. Polakoff comes from Manitoba where he served as the executive director of the Manitoba Housing Renewable Corporation and also he’s a director of housing for long-term care with the Inuvik Regional Health Authority. So with that, I’d like to welcome Jeff...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, the Minister can’t unilaterally make a policy decision that has to be ratified by Cabinet. In this case, I have to take it back to Cabinet to ensure that Cabinet agrees that I can suspend the policy or change a policy that is going to have an affect on the government by way of expenditures. We have to go through that process. As we all know, I committed to that to the Member from Yellowknife that I will suspend the policy. We are going to be having a Cabinet meeting on the 22nd. I will bring it to Cabinet at that time and see what the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to inform this House that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation have reached agreement on an extension of the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program, better known as RRAP, for another year. Through RRAP, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is able to repair northerner's homes to meet acceptable levels of health and safety.

Through this partnership, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation will complete $460,000 in home repairs during 2006-2007. Through RRAP, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are still in discussions with the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline Group with regard to the social impact benefits that we are trying to get as a government. More importantly, we also have to include the federal government by way of CMHC and see how we can get federal contributions to this project in order to make it viable. We also need the federal commitment. Those discussions are ongoing. There is a meeting coming up next week. At some point we will have to sit down and evaluate where we are at, making sure we have parties onside before we can proceed. Right...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in light of the situation, we do have to look at this policy. If that’s what the Member would like is for us to suspend this policy over the period of time…I think you have to realize that this is only unique to market. We are not seeing this problem in non-market communities. To be fair to those communities that are non-market communities, I will agree to suspend the policy in market communities to ensure that this practice does not go on.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the existing process we’re going through now, the Housing Corporation is now responsible for basically collecting rent for the units based on a cost recovery basis. The subsidy portion now comes to Education, Culture and Employment in regards to how people will be subsidized for the portion of those rents that they will have to either pay themselves or receive a subsidy to top off what that rent is going to be. Now it’s our responsibility, as a corporation, to get full cost recovery for the cost to operate those units from the clients that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the responsibility that we have, which basically has been shifted in regards to the subsidy that we now provide to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to cover off the O and M costs of those seniors' facilities. So right now we’re basically charging Education, Culture and Employment for the cost of those seniors’ facilities for units, but before we used to be covered off by way of a subsidy. So the cost of that subsidy, basically the arrangement has changed, as everybody knows, that basically the Department of Education, Culture and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, having the facilities identified in our communities as a central emergency facilities that do have backup systems, again, it’s worked into our emergency measures plan with MACA, ourselves and other agencies. Again, because the situation happened in Behchoko, we have to see exactly the recommendations that come forward from the emergency measures report, review those recommendations and act on them. Thank you.