Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister for his opening remarks. I do have a few comments to make. I would like to say that I certainly look forward to the $50 million that the federal government made available to the Northwest Territories to look at housing investments. It will be very interesting to see the game plan how we expend it, how we expend $50 million to put houses on the ground in our communities. Mr. Chair, I look forward and I am very anxious to see what type of plans will be coming forward from the department to let the people know what is possible out there.
Mr. Chairman, the issues on matching funds, again, I will wait until the Minister gives some kind of signal as to whether we can do matching funds and proceed with that type of commitment to know that we are comfortable to go ahead and match funds to build infrastructure.
Mr. Chairman, the other comment I have is on asking for some of the rental stock and where the priorities will be allocated in terms of funding for public rental housing units, how much is going to go into these units, if our core needs are being looked at and some of the core needs that need to be brought down. I know there are some pretty staggering numbers, but I also want to say that some of these numbers have decreased over the years compared to what they were at one time. They have made some improvements. So you can see some significant decreases in these numbers. The government now has extra dollars to put into these units in our communities.
Mr. Chairman, I did want to commend, let the Minister know that he has heard the Members in providing incentives to communities for staff housing for people in our communities. I am very interested to see how this program will roll out, to see how this program would be a benefit to some of the communities that want to take advantage of it and to see how the regional district offices will play a role in terms of this type of initiative brought about by this government.
Mr. Chairman, the other issue I have is with regard to the overstock of housing units, either private or
public, and the energy efficiency support that is going to be given to communities. I am not sure how much each unit will receive based on application, based on assessments being done in our communities. I know when we had these assessments coming through our communities, they were only there for a short period of time and they are fully booked. They are doing good work, but they are fully booked. I think there is not enough time for them to stay in the community to do all the people who want to have their units assessed and to make sure that they fall into our criteria for funding for upgrading their houses. I just wanted to say to the department if there is any way that you could have some communique over to the Arctic Alliance, I think it does it make sense stay a little longer because they are pretty well crammed when it comes to the communities. They are pretty well jam crammed until they leave. Sometimes it is done because there is a real need for it. But also when I went to Tulita, some people didn’t know they were in town because they were already booked up and didn’t have time. Some people will lose out on this process here, so I would ask if they would give that some consideration.
Mr. Chairman, there are other issues here that could be looked at but I want to tell the Minister that, in terms of the two issues that popped out of my head here in terms of the seniors maintenance program that now is on a regional allocation basis. I believe the application is first-come, first-served. Some of the communities that really need these services here, sometimes the money is already depleted. I am hoping to have discussions with the Minister in terms of if there is any thought, if this program can be relocated back to the community and possibly if this could be a private enterprise business opportunity. I know the staff members in the community are pretty well busy in terms of doing other jobs that is required by them. Sometimes it is the elders that are not quite receiving the care that they would like to receive. I get a lot of complaints in terms of having a special maintenance program done by one or two people for the community. That is their whole focus. The elders could get a hold of them quite easily. Right now they have to go to the local housing authority which, in fact, has to fill out an application which goes to the regional district office which reviews the proposals and requests. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like they are responding quick enough to settle the needs of the elders. That is quite a bureaucratic process. Some of the people were asking, Mr. Chairman, if the Minister would consider something in terms of a seniors maintenance program in the community if there are qualified people that could do the job to fill the bill that could look after elders and maintenance needs in the community. That is a request that has been asked to me by my people.
Another one I want to ask the Minister later on in terms of the housing need is the Colville Lake situation. The Minister had some discussions with me and I had some discussions with the district office in terms of how do we deal with Colville Lake. Colville Lake is a very unique situation in terms of the status within the Government of the Northwest Territories and I know they do want some homes. There are other issues at play here that I won’t take up the time right now to discuss with the Minister. I have some of my notes upstairs, so I can speak to the Minister when we get through that chapter in the budget here.
Mr. Chair, I guess, in closing, I want to say I look forward to seeing what kind of numbers that the Minister had in terms of affordability of homes in our community, the adequacy of issues, where do we determine what is adequate and what is not adequate and what is going to be available in our regions with the housing. But I want to also congratulate the Minister for working with the federal government to get that for us in the Northwest Territories. I know it is a tough job. There are certainly lots of needs out there that are going to be talked about in the next couple of days here. I want to say to the Minister and staff that it is nice to know that we do have some dollars. I guess the trouble might be can we spend $50 million in those years? I think we could, but that will be up to the Minister and his staff to work with the community vendors. In closing, I want to say thank you to the Minister for bringing $50 million to the North for housing.