Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have developed a training program and have started to train our staff, especially our technical people to be able to start delivering programs so that when empowerment, as it occurs in the communities, et cetera, those positions can also be transferred. None of those are being transferred at the moment because it is very difficult to have a technical person doing program delivery or a program person doing technical if they have not had some cross-training. That cross-training is being worked

on this year.

Agreed.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Earlier I had asked about the Housing Corporation's allocation to staff housing. I note under contributions to local housing organizations that, indeed, the Housing Corporation is allowing money for something like 480 government staff housing units. I also understood earlier that staff housing was under FMBS. Could we have some clarification on that?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said earlier, the Housing Corporation acts as a contractor for FMBS to administer and repair government staff housing units. We also take care of the checking in and checking out of tenants to these units. The Housing Corporation, with the LHOs have in effect, a contract with the FMBS to administer these staff housing units, but as I indicated earlier, we are not responsible for the policy area of staff housing. Thank you.

Thank you. Following up on my earlier question concerning the 480 government staff housing units. I would stand to be corrected, but I believe that during the earlier reviews that we have had in the FMBS, there were considerably less than 480 government staff housing units. It seems to me there is a contradiction between what supposedly has been sold, what we have left and what is given as a contribution for the 480 units. Could I have some clarification on that first, please? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can check on that. The number here, and I will quote here, approximately 480 government staff housing units across the NWT do not indicate whether these are owned or leased units, but we gather that there is a combination of the two so therefore, the number of owned units would be considerably less than the 480 stated here and the Member is correct.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the contributions to government staff housing units, at the present time, as the Minister has explained, is the Housing Corporation actually administering and doing property management for their own government staff housing units? One pilot project has been put into place in the Keewatin region where there was a privatization of property management services by a private company to manage those units. Is there any analysis now on that project? Has it been completed? Has it been a success? Have there been drawbacks? Is the corporation looking at privatizing staff housing in other regions as they have done in the Keewatin? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Housing Corporation is not the agency that would do the analyses, it is FMBS. As a general comment from the Minister of the Housing Corporation, we do support the privatization of management of these properties and we are in agreement with the general philosophy that the government should, in as much as possible, not be in the staff housing business if we can help it at all. Whatever we can pass on to the private sector, if they can do it more efficiently, then we should. That is a general statement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the privatization of property management services has been done once in the Northwest Territories and the Minister is correct, it is under the auspices of the FMBS. My concern, of course, was that at the present time, those 480 leased and government-owned units are being facilitated through the local housing associations and that is a revenue stream for them. Their budgets have been cut and there has been some concern in local housing associations where if that area is privatized, then they had to make up the shortfall. That has caused some concern. I wonder if the corporation has looked at that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It would be difficult to quantify right now what benefit the LHOs do get, but to indicate that for their work in administering the staff housing units they do receive some monetary benefit. How much it is, how critical it is, I could not say right now. Thank you.