I certainly look forward to the new numbers that the Minister indicated. That will be coming out sometime this year in terms of core needs that I am using the 2004 needs, so it might not be too fair to the Minister and his department, but I think those numbers pretty well reflect the needs in the community. It is not fair to the Minister to give a proper answer until he sees the new numbers that are coming out this year and I look forward to that.
Mr. Chairman, the seniors facilities, and I am going to make another pitch for the seniors facilities in our communities that meet the needs. With the list of information that I have for Colville Lake 60 years and over, they have 22 elders. They don’t have any public units in that community, they are all privately owned. I certainly agree with the Minister in terms of the uniqueness and the challenge for construction of units in communities like Colville Lake, so that is one. In Fort Good Hope, there are 61 elders that are 60 years and over. Our numbers are high in the Sahtu with elders compared to, probably the same as other regions, so I would like to look at ways that we could look at facilitating new units for elders that would meet their standards and bring down the core needs, also, at the same time.
In this area here, I have looked through the corporate summary. I am very excited that the Minister indicated that some new units are being designed and looked at, and hope that is part of the corporate summary in terms of how we deal with units. I think it is a good move. It is one that would be supported by our region in terms of how you look at housing for single units and single families that are very basic and simple. It is almost like a trapper’s cabin, if you want to put a name to it. You have to learn some skills, you have to have some discipline to live that kind of lifestyle and that is what our elders have been telling us. The units that we have, our young people right now are being too used to, too spoiled, and they are depending too much on these units. We haven’t done any justice by teaching them what it is like to be self-sufficient, self-disciplined, in terms of having a unit. I am very excited. I know some of the smaller communities are probably happy to look at something like this. Some design that is affordable, with the help of some good people around the Northwest Territories, to show how to have an energy-efficient homes that they could rely on no matter where they live, in town or the community. They will have a sense of they could make it. So I am looking forward to some directive from the Minister in terms of how he puts together, with some discussion with this Cabinet colleagues as to what is affordable, what is reasonable. I hope we are successful in that.
Those are more comments, I know Mr. Chairman, in terms of the Minister, but I am very happy that he makes some mention of these issues here. Thank you.