Michael McLeod

Yes, Mr. Chairman, that has been looked at in various manners including with the Auditor General, so we totally agree that the finance recommendation is correct.

Mr. Chairman, no, it doesn’t. There is still $60 million earmarked for this coming year that is carried over.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We had anticipated that we would be part of the process for next year, so that is what we are working towards.

Mr. Chairman, most of the Members’ communities exceed 90 percent, some are close to 100 percent. We have one community that is having some challenges and we will be working with them.

Mr. Speaker, we did have a sit down meeting with the Gwich’in leadership and one of the chiefs did raise some concern with a staff position and comments made. We will look into the situation and we will take the advice of the Member and provide the guidelines to all our staff. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I think as this is my second go-round as Housing Corporation Minister and I have raised it every year with the finance people of our government. The response is that we are legally obligated to recognize it in our books as a debt and we don’t have a lot of room to change that.

Mr. Chairman, I think this is my first time in front of committee as Housing Minister. I take his issues very seriously. We intend to deal with the repairs and also replacement of some units that are too old to be repaired. The difference is, Mr. Chairman, that we are intending to focus a good portion of our budget of new monies, once we get it sorted out, towards upgrade of our public housing stock. That includes repairs in his riding and replacing some of the units in his riding that cannot be repaired. I think it is going to be a breath of fresh air for all the communities across the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I’d like to say thank you for the comments Members have made, the suggestions, observations. Certainly I think everybody is very interested in the new federal funding that was highlighted in the budget. We still have to firm that up. We have a number that has been given to us as an indication of what the dollars are going to be flowing to the NWT. We expect to have those signed off in a couple of weeks and have that presentation to the standing committee, along with a number of other initiatives that were raised today that we are looking at making some changes...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, again, I certainly agree with the Member. We have heard and we recognize that there is a need for probably a new type of housing design; a very basic facility, a very basic unit. Possibly something that could be built in the community. We are looking at ways to use this as an economic stimulus, whether it is log -- that is a question that we haven’t quite figured out yet -- stick built, and the other option that we are looking at for consideration is a modular. We have some communities that are saying we need units right now, so we are looking at all fronts, all angles. We will...