Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Prairie Creek operation is a fairly complex operation as I believe some of the land is still on land that is retained by the federal government, so we’re in the process of trying to iron out the details to make sure that… We’re still in negotiations with these folks as to the security that is being required of them.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t know, we’ve got a couple of major M and I’s that are slated for Tsiigehtchic. I don’t have the exact, but this year we have two major M and I’s that are slated for Tsiigehtchic. As to the details of which units those are, I don’t have that right now. It may or may not include the unit that the Member is speaking about. So, we’ll get the details as to what two units they’re planning on doing major retrofits on. I think over the next couple of years we have four major M and I’s that are going into Tsiigehtchic. So whether that includes the burned unit or not, I’m...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We plan on having a briefing with committee, I think next week, on the latest findings and Community Needs Survey. So we are looking forward to having that discussion with them that I think is taking place next week. Again, we appreciate the Member’s comments on commending the corporation on the work that they are doing.

As far as the income threshold, when they are applying for the PATH program, the pathway to homeownership, we increased the threshold because we heard the concern that there were a lot of people that were just over SNIP and not being able to qualify for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all recognize that housing is a big concern across the Northwest Territories, and in working with the Legislative Assembly, I think the Housing Corporation has done a fairly good job in trying to address all the concerns that are out there.

To the Member’s question, we have… Well, this past year alone we have 46 public housing units, replacement units; we have six new housing units; we have a couple of seniors units – three, actually, seniors units that are being built – then we have 29 new market housing initiatives where we are putting 29 units into communities...

We would like nothing more than to have all our fire departments trained and adequately equipped to deal with fires so we don’t have situations like we just recently had in Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. However, if we were to come in and say we are running a course here and we want you, you and you to volunteer, then we’re basically dictating to them how their community is run. If they come forward and say we have some volunteers, we are interested in this training, we would love to come into the community to ensure that the community is trained and are aware of what types of equipment...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have our assistant fire marshals that are stationed in every region, and part of their duties is to go out to the communities to ensure that they have adequate training. If the community requires training or requests training, then our folks can go in there and assist them with that. They can help them identify the types of equipment that they may need. All the communities are funded so that they are able to purchase equipment if they have a need for it.

It’s actually 1.15, not one, as the Member pointed out before. But we’ve made significant investment in the last number of years, and I would like the Northwest Territories to be the judge of the work that the NWT Housing Corporation is doing, because they’re seeing it on the front lines. They’re seeing with the new rent scale how you go from a $4,600 full economic rent to no more than $1,600, and somebody’s rent goes from $1,200, because they’re working, to $564. I challenge anybody to say that the NWT Housing Corporation is not addressing the needs of housing across the Northwest Territories...

Mr. Speaker, I feel we’re providing more than one house per community. We looked at the community needs survey that was done. We tried to identify some of the highest needs in regions and communities, and we target our investment into those communities. Also, with the market housing initiatives, we’ve had meetings with the NWT Teachers’ Association that identified some of their more challenged communities, so we have tried to target some of our units into those communities.

We have 100 units over the next three years that are going to the communities. That’s just market housing communities...

Mr. Speaker, that’s something we can work on. We can work with the communities and say that we would like to come in at a certain time, offer some education on fighting fires and potentially a course. So, we will work with the communities and see if we can make that happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We would like to see a good, strong volunteer fire department in every community, and the key word is “volunteer.” In every community they have to rely on the volunteers. Most communities have a fairly healthy volunteer fire department.

Once they have the volunteers or the volunteers identified, then we can work with the community as far as training goes and help them identify some of the equipment that they may need. So, we would like the communities to take the initiative to get their volunteers out, and then will work with them to ensure that there is some training that’s available to them...