Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that very good commitment. I think the communication of that was very well accepted. I think that the people raising the concerns will be very happy. Mr. Speaker, because the Minister is in such a good, committal mood today, I think I will ask him just one more question to help us avoid rate shock. Will he also write the board chair of the WCB, referring back to my Member's statement, to look at ways to avoid rate shock where premiums can grow at 25 percent a year? If that's the case, then they can double in only three years. Will the Minister write the chair of WCB and find ways to help avoid rate shock for those businesses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will certainly pass on, to the chair of the governance council, the Member's concerns. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up with some of the questions my good friend Mr. Lafferty was asking the Minister of Housing yesterday about the rent scale formula that the Housing Corporation uses, especially when it refers to the condition rating system that affects people's rents. We know that the rent is reduced based on the condition of a unit, but I just want to make the Minister aware if someone is living in a dilapidated, near-condemned unit with cold floors and ice

blocks for windows, and frost on the exterior walls and doors, mould and no ventilation, when they get their condition rating done and their condition rating gets their rent down to the lowest level possible, these families and people are still living in these units. Mr. Speaker, there is nothing to say that because you are getting a lower rent and you are living in dilapidated conditions, let's be happy. I think the Housing Corporation should seriously consider the rent scale funding formula to reflect something to the effect of what Mr. Lafferty touched on yesterday. Put some money aside and tell these people, yes, your unit is going to get money put aside out of your rent that you are willing to pay that's going to address these issues. Is the Minister willing to take this avenue under serious consideration? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Members have to realize we have a major housing crisis in the North and we do have problems of replacing older units. Without having a major capital investment in housing, replacing older units...Yes, we have to admit we have units that are 30 years old in a lot of our communities. In order to make a difference, we have to be able to have a major change of how we do business. We cannot continue to spend in excess of $100 million here in housing. We have to do some major...find new initiatives to do this.

Mr. Speaker, the way that we've calculated the rates, the majority of those dollars that are collected in the rent goes back into the operation of those units in those communities. In order to make a difference, we have to have the tools to do that. That's why through the proposal put forth for the 500 houses over the next three years, and the Novel concept of 1,400 houses over the next number of years, it will make a difference. But in order to really change how we deliver housing in the Northwest Territories, deal with the social challenges we face, we have to be able to make a major capital investment in this area. Those dollars we do collect through rents are left in the communities to operate those units in those communities. That's where the money stays. In order to make a difference, we have to bring down the high cost of operating these units, which are not as energy efficient. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Minister that we do have a major housing crisis here in the NWT and one of the major contributors to this crisis is people just don't want to pay rent. The reason why they don't want to pay rent is they are living in shoddy, dilapidated, mouldy houses. If the Minister can just look at a simple formula in the rent scale and say part of your rent is going to go towards fixing some of your mould problems and ice blocks on your windows. I think if you told people that, people would be more than happy to pay their rent on a regular basis, which doesn't happen today. I know many scenarios in my community where people just don't get their unhealthy living conditions addressed. So I want to ask the Minister again, can he sit down with his staff and commit to reviewing the whole rent scale of the NWT Housing Corporation? It obviously doesn't work for the Housing Corp; it doesn't work for the clients; it doesn't work for the LHOs. Could that be taken under serious consideration? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, we are doing exactly that by getting out of the social aspect of housing, evolving that to Education, Culture and Employment. We will focus our emphasis on managing those properties, but also renting the properties at a reasonable rate. Right now, people paying $32 a month for rent is subsidized housing. Right now, the cost to operate one unit in a community is roughly $18,000 a year. That's what you have to pay to operate a unit in a community. At $32 a month, that house is subsidized for roughly $1,500 a month. There is a major subsidy attached to a lot of these rents. People pay, because they are in social housing, roughly in the area of 14 percent of your gross revenue on rent. We don't charge the full 30 percent like some people assume. Again, we are looking at that. The first step we are taking right now is to centralize all social funding into one area. We are looking at focussing our emphasis on improving the quality of our houses in communities, but, more importantly, putting more houses on the ground. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that. I am just asking the Minister if he could maybe consider splitting the pot. Have one pot address the O and M, fuel and utilities of running any particular household, whether it's a dilapidated house or a new house. The costs vary. But another pot is going to tell the people, yes, we are trying to use some, five percent or 10 percent of your portion, your rent, that is going to go towards addressing your mould problem, your ventilation problem or your unhealthy living conditions. Is that something the Minister could consider?

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Final, short answer, Mr. Krutko.

---Applause

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are for Mr. Dent as the Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Mr. Speaker, coming up to six years ago now, a panel was commissioned to survey the stakeholders in the WCB across Nunavut and the NWT. They delivered a report to our respective assemblies called Act Now. It prescribed an extensive list of legislative amendments that were proposed. We dealt with some of these in the last Assembly, Mr. Speaker.

Legislative change does not come quickly and we sure as heck aren't breaking any speed records with the WCB legislation. We've been anticipating the second round of legislative proposals and we've got some news on this, Mr. Speaker. The president of the WCB advised a public meeting here in Yellowknife that we are going to see bills presented in this Legislature and Nunavut on really what I understand is going to be a complete overhaul of the WCB Act. Can the Minister confirm, as the president of the WCB stated, that we will see legislation tabled in our legislatures this spring, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have been working together with my counterpart from Nunavut, Minister Akasuk, to try to ensure we get the legislation brought forward for the spring session. If we find that it can't all be done by that time because it still has to go before the standing committee in Nunavut at this point -- the legislative proposal has not been to the standing committee yet -- and we've agreed that we will try to coordinate the times at which it goes into the House, but we may wind up having to introduce it in the fall session. That would be the latest we would expect to see this new legislation coming in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the information from the Minister. There are a couple of aspects about the timing of it. One, Mr. Speaker, is that we are also anticipating, as the president of the WCB said at the same meeting, that the report of the Auditor General of Canada into the performance of the WCB is also anticipated to be delivered to this Assembly in May of this year. I wanted to ask the Minister, considering that this is a very substantial and, I am anticipating, a rigorous review of the performance of our WCB, would it not make sense to give ourselves some time to incorporate any recommendations that may come from that hearing, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have also talked to the Nunavut Minister about this issue. We have agreed that should a recommendation come out that obviously impacts on the act, we would then wait until the fall session and make sure we would incorporate any recommendations that need to be moved into legislation into our proposed legislation coming forward.

Right now, we are of the opinion that the relationship between the WCB and the Receiver General, as they prepare the report, is one that would lead us to know whether or not they were going to make recommendations for legislative change before the May session. If that seems to be the case, then we could deal with it. However, we are leaving the door open. If the report comes in with something that is unexpected, we have agreed that we will, in that instance as well, postpone until the October sessions the introduction of our legislation.