Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs 2011-2012 main estimates and the activities MACA is planning to undertake in 2011-2012 that supports the visions and goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly.

MACA has a very broad mandate which focuses on community governments but also provides a range of programs and services to individual and other sectors such as sport and recreation, youth and volunteers.

The department’s 2011-2012 main estimates total is $93.3 million in operations expenses. Of this funding, approximately 78...

Mr. Chairman, we are always wanting to do what we can to support the cultural activities of the youth across the Northwest Territories. In this particular one, it would either go on a youth contributions, youth corps, but I caution the Member that we support the cultural aspect of it. But when it comes to competing for prize money, then MACA is very hesitant in supporting groups that go on a competition for prize money. We have had requests for some hockey teams to contribute to them, but they are going to play for prize money. The cultural part of it, where they just go and showcase their...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have targeted secondary intakes in a few of the communities where we didn’t get as many applicants as we wanted to for some of the units that we have on the ground. So with some of the vacant HELP units, for example, if we had one community where there may be four or five left even after the first intake, we’re trying to have a secondary intake for those particular communities so we can allocate those houses and then, failing that, we go into converting them into public housing units. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the building which the Member speaks of, the folks that are leasing the building do have quite a good rate right now. They’re about $7.45 a square foot where the market is around $23. There’s still a fair amount of money that’s owing on the actual mortgage itself. This is one of the first times that I’ve had the opportunity to review this. I’ve just been getting an update on my briefing and my briefing notes. So it’s something that I’ll commit to the Member that I’ll have a discussion with my senior officials about. We’re looking at probably a half a million yet left owing on...

Mr. Chairman, if materials and packages arriving in the community were ordered by the NWT Housing Corporation, then it would be our responsibility to ensure that we have the replacement material in there as quick as possible. The contractors would have an opportunity to be reimbursed or compensated by the Housing Corporation, especially if it is our fault the material is not there in time. However, if it was a supply ship direct and the contractor was responsible for getting material, then it would be the contractor’s responsibility. If it is the Housing Corporation’s responsibility, then we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me today, to my right, Mr. Jeff Polakoff, president and CEO of the NWT Housing Corporation, and Mr. Jeff Anderson, vice-president of finance with the NWT Housing Corporation. Thank you.

There was a community liaison position that was piloted a couple of years ago and I’m not sure if it still exists, but now they’re having the single-window service centres that they’re trying, and maybe this is one area where they can be of assistance to the NWT Housing Corp.

It’s awfully hard to take folks out of the regional office and maybe move them into the communities. I think we might be better served if we were able to utilize the folks in the communities and be in contact with folks in the regional office.

I mean, we’ve seen a perfect example in one of the other jurisdictions of where...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’m pleased to share with Members the infrastructure achievements of community governments in the Northwest Territories. Community governments are important partners for the Government of the Northwest Territories as we work towards achieving our goals of this Assembly.

Beginning in 2005 with the federal New Deal for Cities and Communities and then in 2007 with the GNWT’s New Deal for NWT Community Governments, community governments began receiving funding to invest in their own infrastructure priorities. While not all community governments have advanced at the...

Mr. Chairman, the Member is correct when he talks about the senior and I will respond to Mr. Yakeleya’s concern about the seniors and how I feel we go to great lengths to make sure our seniors are well taken care of. We do run into some cases. We do hear a case here and there. I think for the most part within our seniors we have across the Northwest Territories, a lot of those are living in their own homes. I think we look after them quite well.

The Member mentioned the preventative maintenance program and talking about all the number of programs that a particular individual had access to over...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To give the Member some comfort, we do plan on allocating resources to all those who have been approved. If somebody is approved, they won’t have to worry about us telling them that we have no money.