Robert C. McLeod

Every community has an allotment of public housing, and as we take the units out of stock, we have a disposal plan. We try to sell off the unit if we can. Those that we dispose of, with the new WSCC regulations we have to do a hazardous material assessment and abatement before we’re able to dispose of those units. So it’s added on a tremendous cost to our ability to dispose of many of these units. The Member and I were having a conversation where, back in the day, they’d just come in with a backhoe, take the unit down and haul it off to the garbage dump. We don’t have that ability anymore. So...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize my wife of 36 years and, Lord willing, another 36. I’m glad you’re able to join us in the Assembly. My wife, Judy. Thank you.

The eight-plex that’s in Fort Good Hope, I’ll get the update on that and share it with the Member. I’m not sure where we’re at with that.

As far as the other units go, I’d have to get an update on those. If there are some there that we deem are write-offs, we will sell them if people want to take them on and try to do some renovations themselves. We’ve had that done in the past. I’ll get an update on all of the units that are in Fort Good Hope and the status and where we’re at with those.

Again, we’re challenged by the fact that we have to do an assessment and remediate a lot of these units...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is we have an eight-plex in Fort Good Hope. I believe this is what he’s referring to. That is empty. I think we’re in the process of selling that particular unit. I think we have another eight units that we might be in talks with the local government about taking on these units.

Mr. Speaker, community governments are critical partners in building a strong and independent North. As we near the end of our term, it is a good time to look back at the work we have done to support community governments and the challenges that still remain.

In 2013 the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs launched the Accountability Framework for community governments. This tool is used to measure the performance of community governments based on 14 defined indicators. MACA is currently collecting and analyzing the 2014-2015 data that will be used to create a unique work plan with...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister of MACA; and to my right, Ms. Eleanor Young, who is the assistant deputy minister of MACA.

Mr. Chair, I believe we just signed it off today, the breakdown, and we will provide it to all the Members.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s a direction that we’re going in the future. If you notice, a lot of communities there are a lot of detached, very large houses, and as we’re taking those out of stock we’re going to more of a multi-unit type of configuration. I think we have up to 68 percent of our units that we have now are multi-unit type of configuration. We find there are many benefits to that. We find that we’re needing smaller units now instead of the big five-bedroom Webers we used to have. So, that’s the direction the Housing Corporation is taking in the future and there’s a trickle-down...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. With me I have to my right, Mr. Mark Warren, deputy minister of Lands; and to my left, Brenda Hilderman. She is the director of corporate services.

Yes, we’ll continue to work with the groups that are involved and see if there are some ways that we can be a part of the process. Thank you.