Robert C. McLeod

The earliest that there would be an increase to the budget is 2017. Thank you.

Madam Chair, first of all, we appreciate the Member’s comments. I think the good work that is being done at the Housing Corporation is reflected in the budgets that we bring forward and how our funding is spread evenly across the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife, being one of the largest centres, in the last couple of years we have a few major projects here in Yellowknife. In the last seven years, I believe it is, we spent approximately $28 million in the capital. We spent $167 million in the smaller communities and about $66 million in some of the large communities, Inuvik, Hay River, Fort...

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left I have Mr. Tom Williams, the deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. To my right I have Ms. Eleanor Young, who is the assistant deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.

Madam Chair, we have a couple that are underway right now. One is in Detah. It is a stand-alone system that is connected to the seniors five-plex. The other is in Ndilo. That is a stand-alone system connected to a seniors five-plex. We do have some money identified for some more initiatives across the Northwest Territories. I think we are early in the stages, or we are in the feasibility study part of it right now. We do have a couple that are on the go. We look forward to getting more on the ground here within the next couple of years. Thank you, Madam Chair.

We’ve got about $340,000 earmarked for Detah/Ndilo. That’s mostly in the homeownership side of it to help homeowners improve their programs. I think we still have some vacant units out there that we’re needing to deal with right quick here too. So $340,000 that we have earmarked for Detah/Ndilo in this upcoming year. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right I have Mr. David Stewart, president and CEO of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. To my left I have Mr. Jeff Anderson, vice-president of finance and infrastructure, NWT Housing Corporation.

Not in this present budget. There’s none of the small units the Member is talking about for seniors.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will commit to the Member and all Members that we will provide them with a briefing as to some of the steps that we’re taking.

The president said that I am the chair of the P/T Ministers of Housing. We had a quick meeting in the spring and there was a concern from all the Ministers from across the country on the declining CMHC funding. What happened is we are losing. Last year I think we lost close to $1 million. They weren’t feeling it as much down south as we were up here because it’s a big portion of ours, but they’re starting to feel it now, so you’re getting the...

We’ll look at all the communities that don’t have an option there right now. If there is a need in Fort Simpson, obviously, in our opinion, they would be an eligible community. Again, the major piece of this is finding a good community partner to work with. But to answer the Member’s question, Fort Simpson would be eligible. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member’s first point there on the hot water tanks, I think we’ve got about 1,234 units in the thermal communities and about 90 of them are still on electric hot water, so we’re looking at opportunities to convert the rest of those. That’s 7.3 percent of the ones in the thermal communities. In the hydro communities we have 22 percent of our units that are still on electric. For the number of units we have, I think the fact that we have quite a number of them on oil fired and, again, always looking forward for opportunities to improve that.

The Member spoke on the K...