Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform Members about changes to how the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation calculates rent for public housing tenants.

In the coming months, Canada Child Tax Benefit payments and payments to foster parents will no longer be included as sources of income for the purpose of calculating public housing rents. I believe this change properly reflects the values of our people by supporting families who fulfill their responsibility to care and raise our children. In order to implement this change, I have directed the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to...

Sixty-four percent of the repair programs are taken up by seniors. As I said before, we are challenged again by our limited financial resources. We are trying to put together a plan to deal with a lot of the houses.

In some of the larger market areas we’re a little more challenged because we have our territorial Rent Supplement Program that provides some relief and we have a number of programs that are designed specifically for seniors and trying to help with their housing needs. Thank you.

As I said before, we have given $150,000 to help with the planning, and part of that planning, I’m assuming, is going to be a business plan coming forward with a dollar figure attached. So, we’ll look forward to seeing what they come up with.

As far as the Member’s numbers, the Member’s numbers are correct. You know, we do recognize that there is going to be a larger population of seniors down the road and we at the Housing Corporation are coming up with some innovative ways to try and address that. One of those ways is working with the City of Yellowknife on their Canada Winter Games proposal...

We’re always looking for opportunities to secure more money from not only our government. We’ve been very fortunate in the last couple of years that this government has stepped forward and I think we’ve put almost $20 million into affordable housing units to try and address some of the challenges we face in the small communities, and also this government has stepped up in providing, I think, an additional $1.2 million to try and offset some of the loss that we’re facing with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s declining funding. This government has stepped up and, again, any...

We have a number of programs to assist homeowners especially in upgrading some of their houses, and I think in the Member’s riding we’ve had some fairly good uptake on that. A lot of them do live in private homes.

We did hear from a number of the Member’s communities, when we did our tour, that they felt there was a need for public housing. We had a number of units that we had put there on speculation that we would have suitable clients for and that didn’t pan out. So our plan is to convert whatever units we have there into public housing.

Again, we will look at the numbers and plan it as we go...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Gerry Wood. Gerry is an MLA from the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in Australia, representing the riding of Nelson. He’s been the MLA since 2001. He’s been visiting, sharing some of his stories, and we had an opportunity yesterday to visit and tell him about how we conduct business here in this Legislative Assembly. So, welcome to Canada and welcome to the Legislative Assembly.

I’d also like to recognize Mayor Mark Heyck. Welcome, Mark.

The contract has been awarded for the construction of the seniors centre in Fort McPherson. We have planned for completion in December of this year. So, they would be doing a lot of the construction this summer, and if it goes according to plan, it should be completed by December of this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. We’re very pleased with the progress on the new Joe Greenland Centre in Aklavik, and I can report to the Member that it is on schedule and they’re looking at planned completion of June of this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, today I am very proud to rise and recognize that two of our very own have been elected to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

I am, of course, speaking about Sharon Firth and Shirley Firth-Larsson, who will become the first Northwest Territories residents to be inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony later this fall in Calgary.

Sharon and Shirley captivated the North and Canada from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s with their incredible sporting exploits. They first entered the national scene in 1968 when they won medals at the Canadian Junior Cross Country Ski...

As I said, we plan for completion in June of this year. There would always have to be some work done as to inspections and making sure that it’s ready for the elders to move in. But, again, the completion date is in June and I’m assuming it would be shortly after that that the elders can start moving in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.