Mr. Chairman, a number of years ago, the government made a decision to get out of staff housing. We are carrying through with that program. While I realize there are some serious situations in terms of social housing needs and getting into housing and maintaining these housing units. For that purpose, it might be an option we could look at, but we are not looking at it at this point. It is not a function of the Financial Management Board Secretariat. I do not think this would be the right way of doing it. We would be better off to look at how we might do this through the Housing Corporation or some other vehicle, but not through the Financial Management Board Secretariat houses. I think we are better to continue on our course of getting out of staff housing. Once we have staff housing in a community, we cannot discriminate as to who gets it, whether it is southern or local people. We have to be open. I do not think this is the right vehicle. I think we should get out of the staff housing program as quickly as we can. Thank you.
Debates of March 28th, 2000
This is page numbers 345 - 390 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.
Topics
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Nitah.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
Steven Nitah Tu Nedhe
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the haste of getting out of staff housing, has the Financial Management Board Secretariat looked at the short term possibility of these houses that they want to transfer to the communities? If it is going to be condemned, what would be the cost to bring it up to acceptable standards? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Minister Handley.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
Joe Handley Weledeh
Mr. Chairman, it is a good suggestion and it is one that we are looking at on a case by case basis, to determine whether or not it is feasible to spend the money to upgrade some of these houses. As I mentioned earlier, there are some cases we are looking at right now, but if it is too much money, then it just is not a good business decision on our part. Thank you.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Nitah.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
Steven Nitah Tu Nedhe
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The last question was just to look at how long the life of the house is before it is condemned, before they offer it to the communities. I am not asking if they are going to put some resources into upgrading the houses, just to find out how long of a life it has before the offer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Minister Handley.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 386
Joe Handley Weledeh
Mr. Chairman, we do provide condition reports on the house. I think that gives a pretty good condition of how many years are left in that particular unit. Again, we have to do it on a case-by-case basis. It is a good suggestion. I think it is one that we do provide already. If there is a way of improving on that, we are happy to do that.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Nitah.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
Steven Nitah Tu Nedhe
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One final question. When you do that case-by-case or whatever that might be, do you have a cost associated with that? Thank you.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Minister Handley.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
Joe Handley Weledeh
Mr. Chairman, we do not have any set cost that applies across the board. We look at each unit and determine whether or not it would be feasible to upgrade the house. When we sell it to somebody, there is a condition report. I think that gives some indication of what they would have to spend if they were going to take it over and renovate it themselves. Whether we put any money into it, again, it is case by case. There is no set figure because every house is quite a bit different than the other ones. Thank you.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
The Chair Leon Lafferty
General comments. Mr. Bell.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to follow up with a few more questions about the PeopleSoft system. I still have some questions, I am a little unclear on a few things. I am wondering if the Minister can tell us, now that we have spent $6 million on the PeopleSoft system, is it able to provide all the things for the various education, health boards, other boards around the North that it will hopefully provide for the Government of the Northwest Territories? Can it handle these functions over the DCN in the communities?
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Voytilla.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
Voytilla
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The PeopleSoft system has been set up and is being used by all the education boards now in the Northwest Territories, as well as all the government departments. It is also currently being used by the Housing Corporation and by the Stanton Regional Health Board, so we have rolled it out successfully throughout the Territories. It is working well over the DCN in those communities. We have not yet rolled it out to the other health boards. We are doing planning on that now, an assessment on that and, of course, talking to the health boards about the timing of that and the desirability of that. The capacity is certainly there if that decision is made.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Bell.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
Thank you. We can assume the health boards are interested and we are going to make arrangements to roll this out to them, as Mr. Voytilla has told us, Mr. Chairman. I am wondering if the Minister could tell us how much it is going to cost to roll this out to them. When we can expect it to be complete?
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Voytilla.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
Voytilla
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would not be able to give the Member a specific cost estimate at this point in time. That is part of the assessment we are doing in determining whether rolling the PeopleSoft out to the remaining health boards is the right business decision. Costing is part of the discussions and the review that is going to be taking place over the course of the next number of months as we make this determination.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Bell.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
Brendan Bell Yellowknife South
Thank you. Is it possible then, because of a business decision, that we may not roll this out to the health boards if it does not make business sense? Thank you.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Minister Handley.
Staff Housing
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 387