Rylund Johnson

Madam Speaker, the other night I was watching the news and after years of Iran failing to come to the table to negotiate a nuclear deal, I heard the lead negotiator on that file say they expected a deal within one year. And Madam Speaker, I thought let's hire that guy to settle some land claims.

Madam Speaker, the time, all across Canada in fact, not just the GNWT problem, to conclude a land claim agreement is getting longer and longer. They are becoming slower and slower to negotiate and as the time period gets longer, the number of leaders involved in each negotiating gets longer, only...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister maybe just put that in context? You know, it sounds great that we're retrofitting 176 units. Where does that get us at the end of you know, assuming this fiscal we do that, how many more units would we anticipate need major retrofits? Is there a backlog. Can I just get some context of what $10 million in retrofits actually gets us with regards to the giant backlog of maintenance we need. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just also want to understand, so every year the Housing Corp puts $10 million in here for M and I, you know, essentially retrofit and putting buildings up, which means it or is the other hundred are we just spending $100 million a year on O and M? There's $100 million a year to staff the Housing Corp and make sure the lights on being spent and only $10 million to actually upkeep units? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, so capital is for retrofits, and I actually see no new builds here. Is that correct, that the Housing Corp is planning to build no new houses?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand that we fund the Housing Corporation differently, because they're an arm'slength corporation, through a grant through the Department of Finance. And then they pass the information, they give us a capital number, and they consistently give us $10,625,000. But I'll note that the revised estimates for last fiscal were actually $70 million, and the revised estimates for the year before that were actually $21 million. So that's good. That's good that they say they're going to spend $10 million, and then they spend a lot more on capital.

But can someone just...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I would appreciate the Minister getting back to the House with information on how or what software we need to do this. I know we are purchasing a new electronic medical records system which will cost millions of dollars. And I guess I wanted to also know, as I mentioned in my statement, when we did the vaccine roll out, the software, however we got it, was great. I think everyone who could book online and could see their appointments and get reminders was very happy with that software but I'll note, with perhaps the exception of occupational therapy and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was hoping the Minister of Health and Social Services could tell me which procedures or services we presently track the wait times for and which we don't. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I recognize that it's hard to just, you know, completely understand an infrastructure deficit. We all struggle to do that for the territory. But can I just get a bit more explanation on what, having a $40 million annual infrastructure deficit means. Does that mean if we actually wanted to maintain the current housing stock to a suitable standard, the Housing Corp would need another $40 million every single year? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Forgive me, I couldn't add up all the numbers here. How many in this fiscal sorry, I keep saying "this", I mean 20222023, the fiscal year we're approving, how many units are we planning to retrofit?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe there's a disconnect, and I'm trying to understand this number that shows up repeatedly. So the new units, I believe, are reflected in the revised estimates. That's why it's $60 million more, because the feds gave us $60 million and we're going to put housing units on the ground. But for 20222023, right now is the Housing Corp planning to build no new units; is that what this is? Thank you.