Robert C. McLeod

What’s that? I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman. I’m not paying attention. First of all, our intent is to have the assessments transferred in June. Then this is already here, so in the next budget there will be no line item to that effect.

We still want to put the units in the community. Land tenure is a very important issue and we can’t, as the Member actually pointed out as he was speaking, we can’t go to what he said, the day was where Housing...and I don’t think Housing just took anything, but maybe they worked out some agreements with people staying on those particular lands and I think we’re seeing more and more of that today where maybe there was some misinformation or misinterpretation or misunderstanding, but those things can be worked out.

The land tenure is the most important part, because we need to make sure we have...

The Member is correct; these two, the mortgage collection specialists will be part of our operations from this point on.

Thank you. We appreciate those comments. I just wanted to respond saying that we are looking at that right now, is having folks that are looking after their own houses as part of this program. Also, I think that there was a concern with elders and people that didn’t understand that were applying for a program, but there’s an opportunity there for somebody to attend the program on their behalf.

That is correct. We’re looking to make great improvement this year. As I mentioned before, we’re hiring some mortgage collection people. That should help. We’re having more and more people approaching us now to work out repayment plans and the message is getting out there that if you want to qualify for some of the programs, then it’s to your best interest to address your arrears issue and you’re usually able to qualify for some of the programs afterwards. So we are looking forward to a big improvement in the coming year and when the Housing Corporation is before this committee again next year...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of the positions are for implementing the Canada Economic Action Plan stimulus money. As we know, there’s more and more projects getting out the door and these are technical folks that we have on the ground to assist with that. Their positions will be lapsing once we’re through with the money, but at this point there was so much money being poured into the communities and into the regions we felt that we needed some extra help just to deal with this money.

The others are mortgage collection specialists. We’ve heard the discussion on arrears and we’re looking for some...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for the 2010-11 infrastructure budget there has been no decision as to… The Member is right; this is a budget that’s approved here in the Legislative Assembly. So there’s been no decision as to moving any of the projects around. If there is, once the budget is approved, if we have issues where there might be some projects moved around, then, obviously, the Member is correct, we’d let the Members know.

We’ll have to follow up on the Member’s concern about people in the communities getting phone calls. If the Member will allow us to follow up with that and see...

The 16 that I referred to are 16 signed agreements that we have in place right now. There are still a few more that are working on finalizing their plans and then we’ll sign an agreement with them and that will be part of that $1.5 million. This is the program that requires continued funding. We would have to add that into our budget for the coming year or make monies available, because there does seem to be a great interest in this particular initiative. I can commit to the Member that if the interest is out there and the communities are still involved, we’re always willing to do what we can...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me today Mr. Jeff Polakoff on my right, president of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, also I have Mr. Jeff Anderson. He is the vice-president of finance for the NWT Housing Corporation. Thank you.

The Member raises a good point and it’s a concern that’s shared across the Northwest Territories, especially in some of the smaller communities. A lot of the LHOs have zero tolerance, where if they know that you’re carrying out illegal activities, then it’s within their power to do something about it. But part of the problem is getting people to come forward and identifying them, because there’s a process that you have to go through. I think that’s the toughest part, because you get calls and you know who’s doing illegal activities. Some of it could get tied up in the law’s hands, and if you...