Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a very comprehensive and thick report on this subject has already come out. Why is it going to take to the fall for this government to respond? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my information is that Public Works and Services in fact has not undertaken a review of the condition of the Diamond Jenness Secondary School, and given our very extensive debate in this House yesterday over leaving these things to the last minute and then being forced into stop-gap measures at a very high price, I would think that it would be prudent of the Minister to follow up with the Minister of PWS again and ensure that this review gets taken, gets undertaken forthwith. Will the Minister commit to that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would also like to mention my husband, Rick, who is also a wonderful father to my children. He was good with the kids when they were little and that's why I know he'll make a super grandfather, but we'll have to keep you posted on that front.

---Laughter

No pressure, kids. To you, Mr. Speaker, to my colleagues who are fathers and grandfathers here in this House, to the fathers of Hay River and to the fathers of the Northwest Territories, Happy Father's Day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

We still don’t know what the Minister is going to suspend. We’re going to be in suspense wondering.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of seniors currently living in public housing, I need to know if the Minister in the next few weeks is going to go to Cabinet and ask them for some kind of moratorium on the existing current Seniors’ Rent Subsidy Program. I need to know what context that that request is going to be made. We can’t do this open ended. Do seniors know by now that the government is considering a change in the policy for assessing rent? Yes, I think they do. Between the work of ECE and the Housing Corporation, I think they do. But Mr. Braden asked for...

Mr. Speaker, I was really happy there for a minute. I thought we actually got an answer from the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation on something to do with the seniors’ rent. First I heard we were going to suspend the rent policy that’s in place now. Then I heard we were going to suspend it in market communities. Then I heard we were just going to take it back to Cabinet to see if we can suspend it in market communities. I just think this has created so much lack of clarity now that if I was a senior living in a housing unit right now, I would not be getting any sleep this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Minister didn't tell me how many units were going to be built, he didn't tell me who the units are going to be for, so I'd like to ask the Minister again -- I hope this doesn't count as a question -- who are the units being built for and isn't the NWT Housing Corporation, in fact, going to buy these units? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, who is going to own this social housing facility for seniors, either at the outset of this RFP or at the conclusion or at the end of a period of time? Who is the owner? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I said I was going to ask about the transportation contract for the construction of winter roads, but in fact the Minister had already given us a pretty good commitment in a meeting this morning so I'm not pursuing that. So I'm going to go to Mr. Krutko instead, the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Mr. Speaker, there has been a project in the works in Hay River for many months related to seniors' housing. It has been called the Whispering Willows Seniors Complex, and as of late we haven't heard much of a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know if the Minister, at some point, could provide us with some kind of documentation that shows this project in a capital plan anywhere. The other thing, Mr. Speaker, if the Housing Corporation's going to own them, they're low income units for seniors, have they done a market study to identify if there is a demand for them or not? Because I'll tell you something, Mr. Speaker, everyone knows, as my colleague referred to today, that most of the people who moved into the duplexes, whether they were low income or not low income or whatever they...