David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now, as a corporation, we are in the process of reviewing the mandate of this corporation. We are taking a look at the program services we do deliver. Also, we are looking at a 10-year plan to look forward on exactly where we go as a corporation and to take on the challenges that we’re facing. We have to find more unique ways of delivering housing in the Northwest Territories, especially with the number of houses that are going to be required. I know a couple of Members touched on the whole area of selling off public housing. That’s one area we’re...

Definitely I can’t commit for the Minister of Education, but I definitely will suggest that we sit down and talk about this. He’s heard the questions, so hopefully we can consider finding ways to implement such a program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a former Member of this House, the former Member for Mackenzie Delta and now the chief for the Inuvik Band Council, Mr. Richard Nerysoo.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now there is a program that we offer through our housing programs. It’s basically put forward for the individual or the client to go out of their way to get their logs, bring their logs into the community, get it on the site, and then the government will allow them the resources to purchase the material to construct the unit. But it is up to the individual to have sweat equity going into this program. So they have to go out of their way to ensure they get the logs, they peel them, they bring them onto the site, and then the government will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe there are several ways that we can work with the communities and with the Sahtu region. That’s to devolve more authority to those communities through universal partnership agreements and also ensuring that the needs surveys that we develop are able to meet the most needs of the communities that are out there. Definitely the Sahtu is one of them. I think once we put forward our business plans for next year, we will be focusing on those needs surveys to ensure that we are able to accommodate the communities that are in most critical need. So we...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to thank the Member for his comments. I believe that we do have to encourage more people, especially with our growing economy or seeing people with more dollars in their pockets with the diamond industry and oil and gas industry. I think we have to direct people who are presently in that high-income range to get out of social housing and get them into the private housing market by way of our programs. We have the EDAP program, we have the DAP program, we work with the banking industry to get these people into a mortgage so they can own their own homes and be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with regard to this contract, I think the contract that was let for the trailers was a tender process that was separate from the worksite phase of this project. But because the activity was going to take place in the communities, that’s where the tenders were let. So that’s basically where the benefit was. Mr. Speaker, out of this project, almost 59 percent of the total cost of the project stayed in the North and also benefited communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d just like to clarify the Member’s question. The waiver of the BIP was on the site development phase of the project, so it was for the set-up costs of the units in the communities and the transportation costs. The BIP was waived to ensure that portion of the contract would benefit the North. That decision was made in May. With regard to the construction, the labour, the equipment materials for site work setup, that portion was waived to ensure that we received as much benefit as we could for that aspect. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday, we have committed to do a report back to the House in regards to ensuring that we analyze the efforts to date and that we will put forward a report and carry on. We still have other communities that have the same problem. There is a market challenge in other communities in the Northwest Territories. These are some of the communities. There are still communities out there that have this problem of accommodating professionals in our communities. So it is a problem that won’t go away simply by removing this program, but we will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I tried to explain yesterday to Members, there have been problems in regards to logistics and in regards to damage to these units in transportation. The damage has been fixed, but that was one of the main delays of the project. It was because the trailers were damaged being unloaded off the barges in Lutselk'e and also in Fort Good Hope. Those are the two communities that have not been occupied today because they are behind on the schedule. The whole project has not been delayed in regards to the people that are applying. Right now, as of today, we...