I mentioned the program earlier on in regard to the Market Housing Initiative that was put in place. It was a lot of upkeep, mostly in the southern part of the territory, and we’re working our way north, but we haven’t heard much from that program in a while.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Education: has he been working with the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to ensure we maybe consider either expanding the Market Housing Initiative in those communities where we don’t have market housing provided by the private sector or else the possibility that we could use existing housing facilities that are not occupied but are basically still functional for emergencies such as this throughout the Territories?

Mr. Speaker, the Market Housing Initiative, as the Member would know, has been with us for a number of years now. I’ve been working closely with the former Minister of Housing as well as with the current Minister on identifying the units that are probably vacant and can be utilized in the community. We met yesterday as well, talking about market housing — the rent at the community level, where some rents are $700 per month and some rent at $2,200 and so on. That’s what we’ve been talking about: how we can make it attractive for teachers and other professionals working with the development corporation and also the Member and the band. It is coming from the community, especially the small communities that are lacking the housing for staff.

That is one of the areas we are working closely on.I am working closely with the Housing Minister on this particular item. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I definitely look forward to working along with the Minister and other Ministers to resolve this problem. It is unique to small, isolated communities, especially where it’s a non-market community.

I’d like to ask the Minister, along with the Minister of Housing, if he can provide us with any information he was able to compile on this situation in regard to where the units are located and where we don’t have units so that in the affected communities we know exactly what situation we’re in and the same

information is being shared between the affected parties.

I’d like to thank the Minister for taking on this challenge. More importantly, keep us in the loop; share that information with the affected Members so we know the exact status of the professionals’ housing in our communities. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can release that information.

We can certainly provide the information we have within my department of Education, Culture and Employment. I did talk about the inventory we have on hand and the number of vacant units that may be available.

I need to continue to work with Minister McLeod, the Housing Minister, on this particular item as well, because they’re the ones that have all the inventories of the units at the community level. We’ll provide that to the Member and also keep the Member informed of what’s happening in the community of Aklavik and also Members in the isolated communities. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Housing.

Listening to the interesting debate we had between the Minister of ECE and the honourable Member, I have similar types of issues in terms of affordability of homes. I have to commend the Housing Corporation for increasing the housing stock in the Nahendeh riding, but we’re having affordability issues, meaning that people aren’t being approved or getting into these homes.

I think part of the issue there has to do with it being a non-market community. Government guidelines and procedures…. I believe they’re selling them at economic rents or at the economic rate it costs to construct them, but the issue is that in our small communities they’re being constructed at a high cost, and I think they should be sold at market cost. I’m not too sure how we’re going to get around this. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister could speak to that.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, we have a number of programs that have been incorporated in the last while to assist the people across the North to get into home ownership or, in the case of repairs, to apply for repairs. In each case there is a

threshold that is established. We look at calculating the maximum construction cost. We look at factoring in the interest rate, land costs, shelter costs, and we also then amortize that over a 25 year period.

For the most part, Mr. Speaker, it seems to be working well. In the last while we’ve had a huge investment in home ownership through the Affordable Housing Initiative and the Housing Trust. That money was provided on a cost shared basis from the federal government. We’ve put a lot of units on the ground. We have heard from a number of people across the North that the opportunity to access this program is too limited. We are reviewing the thresholds to ensure that maybe we could open it up a little bit so that it’s a little more flexible.

That’s the absolute crux of the issues in many of the small communities. The affordability window is just so small and the income threshold, I believe, has to be reviewed. Is the department or is government going to look at reviewing the threshold this coming winter?

Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation, including myself, has sat down on a number of occasions now to look at some of the areas that have been causing issues to come forward. The threshold seems to be an area that we need to commit to doing a review on. It’s been a while now that this program’s been in place. We’re hearing a lot of feedback in this area, and we want to do that.

The other area, of course, is to be able to deal with the large number of questions and requests that come in from the general public to the MLAs and also to me as Minister. We are working on a new initiative there, also, to look at the appeal process. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do both of those things sometime over the winter.

Does the existing program take into account the remoteness of the smaller communities like Jean Marie? Is the income threshold lower, or is there more room for deduction, as it were, from the payment plan, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, the answer to that question is yes. Each community has a different income threshold, whether it’s the maximum or the minimum, and each income threshold is designed and calculated from the cost of living in that community.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Is that threshold limit applicable to all the programs that are there? Is that the same program

available for CARE as it is in HELP? Is that the same income threshold?

Mr. Speaker, this program is designed towards the Homeownership program. The CARE program is a lot more open and fewer conditions are placed on it for homeowner repairs.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Minister of Health today. I’ll be following up on both my Member’s statement and my questions from yesterday, which addressed my concern about this young mother, two in tow, a three month old nursing baby with her, who had trouble getting a hospital room and waited 34 hours.

I was reading Hansard questions yesterday. To understand some of the complexity, the frustration I’m feeling on this side of the House…. The Minister said we send people….that we use Capital Health services, because services like urology…. Well, Mr. Speaker, I was talking about neurology. That’s the frustration I’m having over here, trying to communicate this problem. I mean, it’s the study of urine and I’m talking about a stroke.

Mr. Speaker, the question to the Minister at this time is: there must be some type of contract we have with Capital Health, and there must be a proviso within that contract that says we communicate with the Northwest Territories government, and within that contract there must be something that stipulates accessibility for northern patients going south. Is there such a clause, and would the Minister be willing to make that known to myself as the Member, the family, as well as the rest of the House?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to just ask that the Hansard be corrected to read “neurology.” That is what I said.

Mr. Speaker, we do have a contract with Capital Health so they can provide services that we cannot in the North. We don’t have special status with Alberta, but we do have access to service that Alberta and Capital Health gives to its own residents. My understanding is and we are aware that there is a shortage of beds and facilities all over the country, and sometimes we experience some difficulties. I would be happy to provide the

Member with any details of the agreements he would like to know and that I could get hold of.

Well, if I try really hard and understand that answer, what I’ll do is I’ll assume that there must be some proviso and detail that talks about potential status if the hospital is full.

Mr. Speaker, when I raised the issue about notice or communications to the Minister’s office vis-à-vis through Stanton or whatever from Capital Health and it talked about beds being full, the Minister said there was nothing, but I am getting indications that there was information passed to this government through Capital Health. I would like to be clear: does Capital Health inform this government in any way if no hospital beds are available? How do they do so, and when was the last correspondence on that matter?

Mr. Speaker, as I stated yesterday, this is a medical decision. A medical doctor at Stanton decides that somebody needs to go elsewhere to receive medical care that we cannot provide here. The medical doctor would be in touch with somebody in Capital Health to receive our patients. So it’s a medical decision; it’s a medical practice decision, and I believe in this case that decision was made by the medical practitioners.

: Mr. Speaker, I certainly wish we were in a court of law so we could treat the Minister like a hostile witness to get her to answer the question. The answer wasn’t in there anywhere. My question was about the detail of communication.

All indications are that there is information that flows from Capital Health to the Northwest Territories through Capital Health, maybe through to Stanton, then it gets to the Minister’s office. So, Mr. Speaker, I will have to find another way to say the same question: is there any type of communication that gives the detail that beds are full or not?

: Mr. Speaker, I don’t know what the Member means by “all indications.” I did get a call from the media telling me that the Member is suggesting I got an e-mail two weeks ago. I don’t have any such information, and I will make it clear: we do not have any information that says anything like the Member is suggesting. I don’t know what the Member is saying with “all indications.”

Once again, this is a medical decision made by the medical practitioner at Stanton, who felt that this patient needed to go to Royal Alexandra Hospital. That’s the decision that was made.