Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Morin.

Thank you. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have said, we will continue to work with the Government of Nunavut. There are meetings being set up, the Premiers are planning to meet very shortly, for instance, and there will be an agenda and I am sure the items that the Member has raised will be part of the discussions that are ongoing right now. We are paying attention to the issues that the Member is raising. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow up to Mr. Morin's questions, and somewhat in relation to them, I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation how much was budgeted for the MDAP program? Thank you.

The Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The initial amount that was budgeted for the MDAP when it was announced, was $2 million, but I would have to check back to the information and make sure I have that accurate. I know it has gone above that since we extended it. It was initially to end March 31st but we have extended it to the end of June, so I know the numbers have gone above that. I think we are in the area of over $3 million into that program now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. The Minister answered what my second question was, and that is how much have we spent today, approximately, on the MDAP program, and he has answered that it is around $3 million. Is there going to be a cap on the amount of dollars expended by the NWT Housing Corporation on the MDAP program? Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that initial amount that was put out there, we did go back and have approval for a limit. If we go over that limit, then the Housing Corporation will have to start using it from its existing resources, so there will not be any new money, for example, being appropriated for this one. The program was announced in the previous year, I believe supplementary funding was given for the program. Anything that would go over that would come from within and, in speaking to the president of the Housing Corporation, he did raise that concern, if we were getting close to our limit we would have to relook at that program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am curious about how that was budgeted for, but that is a whole other subject we will have to take up on another day. My concern is, Mr. Speaker, we have heard a little bit about some of the economic benefits of the MDAP program. I believe the previous Minister alluded to them, but I am just curious, based on what it costs on average to build a new home in the Western Arctic in a community, how many houses could have been constructed with spinoff to contractors, suppliers, manufacturers, shippers, craters, local employment benefits to small communities had these dollars been spent on construction in small communities where the need for housing is the greatest? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, the MDAP has created other economic development in communities where people have bought new homes and have further gone into repair, so there has been other activity created by the purchase of homes where new owners would go in and if it is renovation, if it is a kitchen area, if it is replacement of windows, and so on, so there has been the creation of some economic spinoffs because of this program. Just to be a little more clear, right now, in the areas throughout the whole territory, before we split off, this is as of March 15th, the numbers were at, for total

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is it the intention of the Minister and the NWT Housing Corporation to do a post-mortem on this program? I hear him allude to the benefits by people upgrading homes and so on, but we are well aware of the benefits of new home construction. We may not be as aware of the benefits of remodeling, if required. I am sure many homes that were purchased did not require any upgrading, so is a post-mortem going to be done on this to determine whether or not this was good value for money at $3.9 million? Also, whether or not this money was equitably spread over the Western Territory, because I do believe that there were only a few communities that really benefitted from this program when, in fact, perhaps it could have been a little more equitably distributed so that some of the other communities could have benefitted as well. Thank you.

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member did hit on an area that is one that does stand out. When we reviewed the numbers, there have been a number of communities that have accessed this program and it has definitely been accessed more heavily in the larger areas, for example, Yellowknife, Hay River, and to a certain degree, the community of Inuvik, have accessed this program more than the smaller communities. I do know that, again, as of the middle of March, the amount of funding or house sales in the Western Territory is around the $40 million figure, so it has generated a fair amount of spinoff from that investment. But, as I say, we are concerned that we will go over our limit and we will have to look at that because as we know in these fiscal times we have to be very careful with where we expend our money. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had questions earlier in regard to the Economic strategy and I have some different questions on the Economic strategy for the Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Kakfwi. I wonder if the Minister could tell us, when the Minister received the document it had become a discussion paper and the Minister felt it appropriate to do consultation with stakeholder groups, which I think is certainly warranted and should have been part of the original mandate to fulfil. In any event, I wonder if the Minister could tell us if he has initiated those steps to consult with the stakeholder groups, the aboriginal groups, the various municipal governments and the economic associations, such as the business organizations. Could the Minister tell us that, please? Thank you

The Minister responsible for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Premier has given the responsibility for developing an Economic strategy to myself as a Minister, in February. Since then, the Premier and myself have both taken up the work of meeting with various aboriginal organizations, regional organizations, the Aboriginal Summit, as well as business leaders, to lay out the approach we want to take. The approach is to ask for the aboriginal organizations and the federal government, in the first instance, to buy into the idea of developing one Economic strategy, that the aboriginal leaders could support and develop, that could be supported by this government as well as the federal government. Then to lay out a process whereby we could get community leaders, individual communities and regions, the business community, as well as other stakeholders to get involved in a process to help us develop a vision, and process as well as a timetable to develop such a strategy. We are still having discussions with various aboriginal organizations and stakeholders to make sure we have sufficient support to begin the process and within the next few weeks, hopefully, we will be in a position to say emphatically that we have agreement to proceed. Thank you.