Thank you, Mr. Braden. The Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, the Honourable Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regard to the one for housing, we did a needs survey which identified that we do have a major problem especially when it comes to affordability of housing, but most importantly the investment to increase the amount of housing in the Northwest Territories. In Yellowknife we see a lot of development happening where the private sector has stepped in. They have taken a lot of slack off in regard to ensuring that they have a thriving industry in regard to the retail industry in providing housing for the residents of the larger sectors. What we also see is that in a lot of the smaller isolated communities there is no investment, and that is where we are having a real problem in regard to delivering this program. We do have programs by way of the Loan Guarantee Program to assist the private sector to get into that market. That's something that I have been doing over the summer is meeting with people through the different development corporations, the different housing authorities, to get them more involved in the business of building housing.

As a corporation we can't do it alone, we need the private sector. So that is something we are working on. We do have programs available to assist in that area so that we are working with the private sector, but more importantly through our Loan Guarantee Program we have been working with a lot of major companies. Again, a lot of these corporations will not take the risk in the smaller communities because they know they cannot get these loan guarantees or they don't have a big enough client base to take on that investment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Loan Guarantee Program I am familiar with and I know there has been some uptake and it is a good program. But what else can government do? I suggest that there are a number of other areas in conjunction with working with other levels of government, including our partners in municipalities, to provide incentives and tax breaks and things like this. Our corporation could be a major stimulator or catalyst for this kind of thing. I would like to ask the Minister, is the Housing Corporation considering going into other areas to help stimulate private sector investment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a corporation, we are developing our 10-year plan. We are looking at different initiatives. We all know that we are seeing a major decline in the amount of money we get through CMHC, so we are looking at new initiatives. One of the different initiatives we are looking at is selling off a bunch of our assets to make our units more operational. Right now, we are paying a large amount of our dollars on the operational side, in regards to the water, the sewer, the electricity. The utilities are very high in a lot of our communities. We have to find ways of bringing

down that cost so we could put more money into building more economically-efficient units. We are looking at multi-units to be able to do that, where you have one mechanical system. You don't have all of these independent housing units which are costing us a lot of money. In order to do that, we have to be able to find ways of streamlining how we do our business but also get into the area of making it more economically affordable, and also on the operational side that we don't spend one-third of our money.

I will use an example. In Tulita we are spending almost $400,000 a year just on power. That is a large expense that is being expended. We have to find ways of streamlining our dollars, but being more competitive and also finding ways of being more economically sufficient in the way we deliver our programs, especially on the operational side. We are looking at that. We are looking at building more multiplex units, six or eight-plex units, and also ensuring that it is a more affordable way of developing housing. We also need a bigger client base that have these individual units constructed. We are looking at that. It is part of our 10-year plan.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I take it from the Minister's answer that there is a considerable focus going on in the Housing Corporation for social renewing and modernizing our social housing inventory. I certainly support that. I restated or refined my question to look at the market communities, Mr. Speaker, where we already have a private sector base of developers and builders. But, for whatever reason, just in keeping up with demand, therefore, affordability and availability is very difficult. Is the corporation looking at all at anything beyond loan guarantees to the private sector to stimulate more construction in market communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are doing exactly what the Member is stating. We are working with the private sector through loan guarantees. They are building units here in the city of Yellowknife. In regards to that market, we presently have loan guarantees with companies here in the city of Yellowknife which basically are in the retail business. We are open to that business with any other corporation that is out there. There is that program that is there to stimulate that segment of the economy through these loan guarantees.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you. I think I have my answer there. The areas that I believe our corporation has not explored and that I would like to see some more action on, more investigation on, Mr. Speaker, are things like tax breaks to developers who create housing for lower and middle income people, and modest grants. I am not talking about something that is going to be a market disrupter, but I would like to see modest grants to developers for that area. Work with tax-based municipalities in order to help them afford some tax incentives for people, investors, to develop this kind of thing. That is where I believe we have room to grow. Be more innovative and be more aggressive. I will ask as my final question, what is the appetite of our Housing Corporation to continue these other innovations in incentives to builders? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now a lot of programs that we do deliver are programs that we administer on behalf of the CMHC. A lot of the direction we do get is federal programs. We just administer it on behalf of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. I have had a meeting with the federal Minister of Housing. We did discuss looking at the whole mandate of the corporation and look at restructuring it, as we heard in regards to the address by the Prime Minister and also from the Governor General in the Speech from the Throne. Basically, it was clear that housing is an issue that we have to look at nationally. It doesn't only affect us here in the Northwest Territories, but we also have to be able to look at ways that we deliver housing by looking at a unique system that works for the Northwest Territories. Right now, the direction I was given as the Minister is to look at the mandate of the corporation and streamline the corporation so that we are focusing more on affordability of housing in the Northwest Territories, but also ensuring that we have the resources to continue to meet the demand that is out there.

Like I stated, right now, we have 2,300 units in the Northwest Territories. We realize that, from the information we are getting, we are going to need another 3,000 in the next period of time. At the rate we are going, we are not going to get there. We have to be unique with regard to how we deal with that, but more importantly, we have to work within the confines of the dollars that we do get from the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few more questions in regard to the North Slave Correctional Centre. I would like to go back to what the Minister was saying in terms of his being satisfied with the staffing levels at the North Slave Correctional Centre. I would like to ask him how he maintains his satisfaction level when, in the last four years, his department has gone through no less than three wardens, five deputy wardens, three deputy wardens of programs, and three deputy wardens of administration? How is that satisfaction? What is the Minister's definition of satisfied? Has he or his department got any long-term senior management plan for that facility? Perhaps stabilizing these key positions would be a good start. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. There are probably two or three questions there. Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Mr. Speaker, I heard way more than two. I am not sure I can remember them all, in fact. We were talking about staffing and vacancies earlier. I pointed out that the number of vacancies has reduced over the past year and is going down very quickly because of the numbers of new trainees who started on October 4th. The Member has pointed out that there have been some changes. We have had a lot of changes related to people working in new positions and learning more about their jobs. There is ongoing training. The training programs are being set up to be online training programs so that all of the staff can participate in them. They can study at their own speed and move forward to take advantage of opportunities. There has been a lot of use of secondment in order to take advantage of knowledge from people from other jurisdictions, for instance. We have had people on secondment from Corrections Canada so that we...

---Laughter

Excuse me. Sorry, Mr. Speaker. We have taken advantage of people's knowledge from Corrections Canada by bringing them into the system. I am aware of a number of other changes that have been made in order to further opportunities for people for personal growth so that they can apply successfully on senior positions as they open up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Time for question period has expired, but, Mr. Ramsay, I will allow you a supplementary question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As part of my four questions, the last one was, if the department had a long-term senior management plan in place for that facility, and by the sounds of it, it is a revolving door, Mr. Speaker. I didn't hear in the Minister's response whether or not they indeed had a plan to try to get some stability in these key positions. By the sounds of it, they are moving people in and out at will. I think that is part of the problem that is currently at play at the North Slave Correctional Centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, we have been trying to take advantage secondments to learn from other people. Yes, we have continuous training going on. We have people who work within the Department of Justice to help the staff in all of our facilities develop their skills so that they are better managers. Yes, we are working with staff to try and improve the jobs that they do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I go back to something else the Minister said. That is in regards to people speaking out. The Minister said that they wouldn't be hung out to dry. In my experience, Mr. Speaker, these people have had a bull's eye squarely put on their back. I don't think that is fair. I wanted to ask the Minister why he said this would happen, when, in fact, through my experience, it happens. People that speak out are painted with a bull's eye squarely on their back and they are left to fend for themselves in that type of environment. It is not fair, Mr. Speaker. I just want the Minister to clarify what he meant that they wouldn't be hung out to dry. In some instances, they definitely are. Thank you.