Jane Groenewegen

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. Chairman. With respect to the fire marshal’s report and the deficiencies that need to be corrected in the building to bring it up to code which constitute this over $3.5 million, have you had any discussion with the fire marshal as to the absolute outside limit date on occupancy and the undertaking of those corrections? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Just a brief point to the motion, Mr. Chairman, and following up with what Mr. Braden said, we would like to pride ourselves on making good decisions and having good judgment as Members of this House. This is taking away our ability to do that and I can’t believe that anybody feels good about this decision. I can’t believe that anybody on this side of the House feels good about it. Nobody on this side can feel good about it. I bet you even the folks at Public Works and Services don’t feel good about this, or at Education, Culture and Employment. I think anybody who had to be part of bringing...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, I will look forward to seeing that. I think we are allowed to ask hypothetical questions in Committee of the Whole. If you were building a building just for your government client departments, would these amounts remain consistent? Are they just taking up large amounts because they are in an old building with big rooms or under the standards of space that would be allowable to them, how does that compare with what they have now versus what they would mean under PWS standards for allowable sizes for offices and common areas, et cetera? Thank you.

Well, that’s good to know, Mr. Chairman, because I still think that there is readily available land which is already zoned for the purposes of a building like this in Fort Simpson in a very prime location and I think that answer says that there is at least a small window of opportunity to have some more discussion on this. I think that’s what we should do. I mean, what you have to do is show a plan and maybe your plan is that everybody’s moving out anyway. Because you’re going to move into leased premises. I haven’t given up on that idea that that could be provided and delivered by a private...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When we left here last night, we had a few questions that we were looking for some answers to. Some of the ones that come to mind I wanted to know. I wanted to know the existing square footage of the Deh Cho Hall, the amount of that square footage which is now occupied by client departments of the GNWT and the amount of square footage occupied by non-government organizations who are co-habitants with government departments. That’s my first question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I need time to add up these numbers here, but, Mr. Chairman, I’d like to ask the Minister, did PWS consider what their costs would be, what their lease costs would be if they went out to tender for this space to be provided by a private developer? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From that answer it sounds like we haven’t decided what type of facility we’re at, so I’d like to know where we’re at in terms of the RFP. How far away are we on the RFP? And the other thing is, how can you have a transparent, competitive process that the Minister is talking about in regard to the RFP if he already knows that the seniors are going to own the facility? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That was a pretty fast list there but I was trying to do the math here. Could the Minister pass something out with this on it and maybe even has the GNWT client departments added up and maybe the NGOs added up, so that we could get a sense? Draw us a picture; this is the whole building, this is the government part, this is the NGO part and this is the vacant part. That’s what I am looking for.

Also, Mr. Chairman, while we are getting that…Are we getting that? Mr. Chairman, are we going to get that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just in follow-up to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation, I had a couple of questions that flow from the questions that I asked before. So when the Minister says that the social housing need is there in Hay River for seniors, is he effectively talking about the replacement of the Riverview Lodge, which now accommodates I believe 12 or 14 seniors who are in social seniors' housing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.