Louis Sebert

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, in January, the corporation made the determination that they had to terminate the contract because of the non-delivery of the two generators. There was a set-off for some of the costs. I would expect that overall, however, our costs will be more than anticipated because of the necessity of re-contracting for the final two generators. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Of the 139 non-subsidized public housing applications that were filed in 2016-2017, 51 of them involved individual landlords as applicants or as respondents to a tenant application. I would assume the rest were corporate.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department, of course, did review the recommendation, and the act has been amended several times in the last few years. There were significant amendments made in 2015. In the last 10 years, there have been amendments in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2017, so there have been significant amendments, often in response to suggested amendments from the office. Some of the amendments that we have made this year is to permit the filing of rental officer orders in the Supreme Court registry and the authority to rental officers to correct minor errors in their...

The Power Corporation participated actively in the drafting of the energy strategy, so I expect that our corporation, the Power Corporation, will be developing alternative renewable energy solutions for the communities of the Northwest Territories. If I could just outline some of the things that we are hoping to do, one of the things that clearly is a priority or a concern of the corporation and all of the communities is to reduce costs, so we are looking at LNG in Fort Simpson and Tuktoyaktuk; reducing emissions; wind, we are looking at possible wind projects in Inuvik, Norman Wells, and...

Yes, there is set-off for some of the costs that we have incurred as a result of the late delivery, in fact, non-delivery of the last two generators. It is expected that overall, however, that the $8 million budget that was anticipated for this will be exceeded by about $500,000. I think the only way of collecting the extra money would be to commence litigation against Virdi. There was a set-off on some of the payments to Virdi, but I don't know whether it will be worthwhile to litigate this in California.

Certain emergency matters can be fast-tracked, but apart from that, it is first come, first served. Corporate applicants or respondents are not given priority over anybody else, and tenant applications are not given priority over landlord applications. We do realize that there is a problem, which was identified in the report that has been referenced. Hopefully, the improvements that we are putting forward, in particular the hiring of a part-time officer to assist, will reduce the wait time, because we do realize this is a very serious matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As was mentioned in the question and the response to earlier inquiries, we have noted that the complexity of applications has increased over the last few years. I understand that much of that is driven by the increased amount of paperwork that is filed with the applications, dealing such issues as rental arrears, arrears repairs, and other matters, so the applications have become lengthier and therefore more complex. This has of course put pressure on the office administrators' workload, and, in response to this concern about the workload, the position has been reviewed and formalized...

Mr. Goldney does.

It could be something such as a child protection matter or something like that that would require urgent intervention by the courts. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table to following two documents entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 84-18(3): Historical Case Unit within the RCMP" and "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 96-18(3): Gangs in Correctional Centres in the NWT." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.