Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the efforts of the Minister, and as I recall, of the $300 million that was given to the three territories, our portion was rather miniscule; all we got was $30 million.

If the Minister could share a portion of the tri-territorial submission, the letter that was given, that would help convince me that we've actually got a plan or something to give to the federal Ministers to show what we need in terms of social infrastructure investment. We seem to have all of these projects and proposals off the shelf that we can give for roads, whether it's Slave Geological...

I'd like to thank the Minister for his statement in the House about childcare. Unfortunately, he didn't answer my question about whether he would make the study available on his department's website, but maybe I'll give him a chance to answer that with my next question.

The proposed changes to the mandate were brought forward to this House by Cabinet. What is the position of the Minister on universal childcare for the Northwest Territories and when will that happen?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I have two or three comments here. That is good news that CMHC has halted its declining capital infusion. That is very good news, but that is not an excuse for us not to be spending more money on our housing, period.

Lastly, I know that our Cabinet spends a lot of time talking about federal projects, federal funding. Most of it is around big capital projects such as dams and roads, and I want at least as much emphasis on the social side. The Minister knows my views on this very well, and I have expressed them in the House. You have to be expending at least as much...

Merci, Monsieur le President. The creation of a universal system of affordable childcare is one of the biggest promises of this Assembly, something we all agreed to work on at the beginning of our term. Collectively, we agreed to "develop an action plan for universal daycare within the next two years, including a timeline for implementation." This does not mean we have to implement universal childcare by 2019, but to at least develop an action plan to do so within an appropriate timeline.

Universal childcare is no pieinthesky hallucination. It is a matter of priorities and making choices. The...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I recognize this is some sort of balancing act between maintaining your units and trying to build new ones, but if we have got the capital for new ones or even maintenance and so on capped for a long time, that is probably not where we should be in terms of housing.

When I look at the list of projects on pages 73 through 75, I do not think there is actually any new construction. We have a list of, like, 35 projects here, and they are all retrofits or replacements. There is not one new unit being constructed by the Housing Corporation in this year. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, in giving us that written update, if you can talk about the transition from the court library to the resource centre as well, that would be great. Any idea when we might be able to get that update? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that answer. How long has the Housing Corporation's capital been capped at $15 million? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I'm not sure that was actually an answer. Are we talking about 2019, 2020, 2023, that people are going to have to wait to see what this resource centre is going to look like and have access to it without having to call somebody and arrange for someone to come down and open up a door? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I would like to start with page 72, where it looks like the spending by the Housing Corporation might be in decline. Maybe I can start with that. Has the spending on capital by the Housing Corporation declined now over a series of years? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think it's been almost a year and a half now that we have the proud distinction of being the only jurisdiction in Canada without a court library and without any public access to it. The money in this portion of the justice budget for the courthouse structural upgrade, is any of that for this legendary public resource centre? Thanks, Mr. Chair.