Robert C. McLeod

Thank you. The pilings, and we’re always looking at new ways of building and putting buildings up. So if there’s an opportunity for us to take advantage of some of the new technology and new ways of doing things, then we have folks within the Housing Corporation that explore all these options and if they are feasible, then we apply it to some of the work that we do. Thank you.

Thank you. Something I always tell the department, when Wendy is asking questions, or when Ms. Bisaro is asking questions, question number four is always when. Yeah, this is three, yeah. So anyway, my understanding is this winter is going to stretch right into July. So it’s going to be a long winter.

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No, I will follow up and I will see how we’re moving along on this and if we happen to be done earlier, then of course I will be glad to share that information with the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, the planning work can still be undertaken even while they are under municipal administration. We will work with them, obviously, to make sure that they have financing or the finances to help deal with it. As far as the planning goes, that doesn’t stop because they are under municipal administration. Thank you.

As far as the accessible units, through our CARE program, if we have seniors who are living in their own homes and have application, there might be some opportunities there to get that work done.

In our public housing units, I know in a few communities they have a couple of units that are earmarked for accessibility, and if they’re not and they realize that somebody needs an accessible unit, then I think the local housing authority would take the necessary steps to ensure they make the home as accessible as possible for the resident living in there.

We’ve heard on a number of occasions about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll give the Member an answer to her study question as soon as I’ve had an opportunity to study the question and reply to it.

The working group has been doing a lot of work on this and it’s an issue that we’ve heard for a number of years in this Assembly. We’re anticipating the work to be done during this winter and we will, of course, be sharing that information with committee and this Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I have with me Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think our track record has proven that we do try to assist people in getting into their own home, and I think it’s one of the reasons that we’re in a situation now where our focus has to be on more multi-unit type configurations for a lot of younger people. A lot of the families that are able to get into homeownership, I think in the last… Since homeownership started way back in the SHAG and HAP house days, I think we’ve got about 2,700 units that we help families get into through our homeownership program. We’ve raised our income threshold. On the access to...

Mr. Speaker, I will commit to watching over this. I think it’s a commitment that we made to committee when we were speaking to them. Again, it is fairly early in the game and we’re still getting our hands or our mind wrapped around the liabilities and all that we inherited and what we can and can’t do. But I will commit to the Member and to this Legislative Assembly that we will be watching these developments and the liabilities securities that are required like a hawk and make sure that any future cleanup, if there needs to be, is covered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Again, I’m not sure of that particular one. The bones in the unit itself are pretty good. So if there’s some work that needs to be done in there, I’m sure the LHO will identify it, but it’s about 20 years old, I believe, 20 or 25 years old. The structure itself is still pretty sound and if there is some major work that needs to be done in there, then the local housing organization will identify it, but I don’t know, again, the details for sure. We’ll find out exactly what the plan is for there.

Our numbers we have are pretty high level numbers, as far as the actual house numbers and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Vacancies play a large role in how we determine where we allocate our capital dollars. Obviously, you have got one community that has more vacancies and they can be vacant for a number of different reasons. I’m just trying to find the numbers here as to our vacancies across the Northwest Territories. Fifty public housing units that are vacant and available for occupancy, and again the local housing organization could be in the process of allocating them right now. We have approximately 135 units that are under repair, and once those are done they will be allocated.

The...