Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Some general comments before we get into detail. I share some of the concerns already spoken about by a couple of my colleagues and it goes around seniors and the harmonization and the rent they would end up paying.
I am aware from previous discussions in the 13th Assembly when this harmonization package was being talked about, there was some consultation done with the Seniors' Society of the Northwest Territories. The Seniors' Society of the Northwest Territories agreed that most seniors agreed that some form of rent was acceptable to them. The figure that was being talked about was in the area of $100. I hope that is remaining as it is and we are not going to go to our seniors and tell them they are going to have to pay the same price as everybody else.
As we heard already a number of times, it is already extremely difficult for seniors to make ends meet. More times than not in the smaller communities, even in communities like Inuvik, the seniors take the role of helping out families when it comes to their grandchildren and even their children in some cases. That is the way it has been for a long time.
Changing the policy and direction will not change people's attitudes in the way they have lived and treated their families. So hopefully that area is not changing. If it is, I think we are going to run into some concerns from a lot of Members, especially those coming from smaller communities.
The other area I see here, looking at the capital plan and hearing from the Social Programs committee in the past as well as this year, is that a number of seniors units are going up. I am aware that in the past there used to be seniors units built between Health and Social Services and the Housing Corporation that totalled eight units per year. I see that we are going 12 units per facility now.
There is one area of concern when it comes up and I will use a specific instance. Contractors that I have been hearing from in Inuvik referenced the seniors facility in Tuktoyaktuk that is supposed to be built in this fiscal year. I heard that a number of weeks ago and thought it was just rumors and did a quick contact with the Minister's office. At that time, I was told there was no decision. I was hoping to be kept informed.
Again, I received more calls from contractors stating that the information they were receiving was this project has been sole-sourced now. I would like to hear if that is the possibility. It is one thing to hear some rumours, but when the suppliers in the community are pricing out the cost of the facility already for one other contractor that supposedly has been sole-sourced, it is getting serious. At that point, it seems we are beyond rumours.
I guess in the area of contracting, I would like to know if the Housing Corporation has changed its stance when it comes to public tender or sole-sourced negotiated contracts. Those are the areas I have an interest in right now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
