Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Now I’m confused. Whose money is it? Is it the Health and Social Services’ budget for this short-term and long-term relative homelessness, or is this money for the Housing Corporation? How much does the Housing Corporation put into hard to house, and I’ve got to tell you hard to house is not a short-term problem. Hard to house are people who have issues with their lifestyle perhaps, some have problems with mental illness, some have cognitive impairments, adults with FAS. Hard to house is not a short-term problem in the Northwest Territories, let me assure you....

I am going to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We have in front of us Bill 18 and in the order of departments, the first one we want to deal with is the NWT Housing Corporation. At this time, I would like to ask Minister Krutko if he would like to please provide the general comments for the NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. A technical issue. If Members take the full 10 minutes and the Minister takes another five or six minutes for questions, in fact, somebody who is waiting in line to speak, we are not going to be revolving, going to another Member every 10 minutes here. I am not sure how committee wants to deal with that, but it is just something to think about. I don’t see a quorum in the House, and this is Committee of the Whole, so I am going to use my prerogative as Chair to ring the bells to get more people in here.

---Applause

---Ringing of the Bells

Okay. Just a small mystery...

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have a lot of concerns with respect to the operations of the NWT Housing Corporation, and these are general comments so I will try to keep my comments general, but I'll probably take up the whole 10 minutes. It's a subject once I start talking about, I can't stop.

Mr. Chairman, the Housing Corporation's mandate is askew, as far as I'm concerned. I look at the mandate, as I understand it, as being to address those in need. When we talk about housing crises in the Northwest Territories, I surely hope we're talking about people who are in need. I think...

We have a number of items before us in Committee of the Whole today. I would suggest that we take a break now and resume with opening comments for the NWT Housing Corporation immediately after the break. Is the committee agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Next I have Ms. Lee.