Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome, from Aklavik, Mr. Charlie Furlong. I know she’s been recognized a couple of times before, but I also want to point out that Shirley was born in Aklavik, raised in Inuvik, a good Delta girl. Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are increasing the amount of incentive we’re offering to local developers. As well, I think we’re going to be building some of these units ourselves. We’re working very closely – we just had a meeting recently – with the NWTTA. They’re doing, I think, a survey on the communities and what their needs are. So we’re working very closely with them so we can identify the communities that they may identify and we may identify as those in most need. Thank you.

We were working on a plan while this tragedy happened in the Yukon. Unfortunately, a tragedy like this brings the issue to the forefront, therefore, it gets a lot more publicity, but we didn’t wait until this report came out to do the work.

As I said, all 2,400 of our public housing units have working carbon monoxide detectors, so we’ve been proactive. We haven’t been reacting to the issues that happened in the Yukon and we will continue to be proactive on this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Collection is probably one of the biggest ones because you find that the communities that have the lower collections are the ones that are having some trouble financially. Utilities might play a part in that because sometimes what you actually budget them for and what the utilities actually come in at, utility rates might rise. So that’s an issue. But collection, again, is one of the biggest ones. Thank you.

I wanted the last word. Part of these hundred units would be some of those that would be getting retrofitted. But I can assure the Member that every opportunity we have to replace the electric hot water heaters with oil-fired, we will take advantage of it. If it’s just a matter of bringing in a few to replace them, then we will do that, too. We do realize that there is a significant cost-savings and that will bode well for the local housing authority. Thank you.

Through our fire marshal’s office under the review of the building plans. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I was hoping somebody would ask the question on collection rates because it is something that we’re quite proud of, not only for ourselves but the tenants out there. The collection rates have been doing really well. We have one region in particular, the Sahtu. I think their collection rate there is over 100 percent. It is 122 percent collection rate in the Sahtu. That indicates that folks are keeping up with their assessments and they are also putting money on what arrears that they may have. So the collection rates across the Northwest Territories have been going really well.

We...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have about 100 of them in our thermal communities and we’re compiling a list to provide to the Members because, I believe, in a briefing we had the other day, I committed to providing the information to the Members. So we’re compiling that information now.

Mr. Speaker, since the implementation of the New Deal for NWT Community Governments in 2007, community governments have been in control of their own infrastructure priorities. MACA has worked closely with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and the local government administrators of the NWT to develop an accountability framework that emphasizes and reinforces the goals of the New Deal initiative and supports the Legislative Assembly’s goal of a strong North built on partnerships.

The framework is based on the five core areas of community government responsibility supported by...

Mr. Chair, that is in capital now. That’s why it’s not reflected here.