Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I wasn’t sure if the $55 million was incorporated into the main estimates. I am looking forward to that being incorporated into the budget. I am assuming that money is going to be incorporated into 2009-10 and 2010-11. That is excellent.
In addition to that, I am confident that the NWT Housing Corporation would be able to expend the money, Mr. Chairman, that was given to them by the federal government. I don’t have the same type of confidence levels with other jurisdictions. I suspect that the NWT Housing Corporation is going to be getting an opportunity to get more money offered to them. I hope that the NWT Housing Corporation not only puts a project plan together to address the $55 million but also to anticipate that other monies will probably be offered by the federal government. History tells us that some other jurisdictions don’t expend their money and it goes back to the federal government. I do believe the federal government has already indicated they would be prepared to reallocate.
I have, in Tu Nedhe, specific to that and the Housing Corporation, I feel that both communities will benefit from some projects that would be offered under the Housing Corporation’s various programs like CARE and so on. I know that I have talked to one of the governing bodies in the organization. They are prepared to sit down and try to put their own community plan together as far as delivery of homeownership programs, like, talk to them about staying under certain thresholds as far as money goes, Mr. Chairman, in order to allow the flow of money without the issue of having to deal with the status of the land and so on, because land status is a big issue in Tu Nedhe.
Many of the community members in Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e are not able to access large amounts of money from the Housing Corporation for repairs to their units because of tax arrears. That has become a real issue. It is something that I am hoping to address with the Minister of MACA and, as the Minister of that department speaks to the local governing bodies, I think some of those things, hopefully, will be ironed out, making it easier for the Housing Corporation to deliver programs in Tu Nedhe communities. Also, as I indicated, I am hoping to get an opportunity to meet with the governing bodies in Fort Resolution and discuss the possibility of how they could be active participants
in making sure that this money gets delivered. I feel that, together, the communities and some of the resources that are available to me, we are able to put some good projects together for the community that will assist the corporation in spending the money, opening the door for more funding from...that may fall free from other jurisdictions. I’m very interested in the corporation working hard on the housing for staff budget. I think that’s a very important part of this budget. I think the two communities that I represent, Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e, both have different plans on how to address housing for staff. I know that in Lutselk’e they have some units that could be available for renovations through some of these monies that are available for housing for staff. They actually already have staff housing but they’re just dilapidated and would need not a full $250,000 to build a full-blown three-bedroom unit, but I’m talking around the $100,000 mark in order to get these units back up to a livable standard for staff that the community needs to bring into the community and for professional staff that come to the community to teach and do nursing and so on.
In Fort Resolution the issue is a little bit different. There is some surplus housing there; however, there are a couple of local businesses that may, with the right deal, take advantage of some of these programs that make it feasible for them to provide housing for staff in the community. Under obtaining some leases through the various other departments, they should be able to address that important issue.
I, too, look forward to completing the detail on the Housing Corporation budget so that the corporation staff can start the process of getting the work on the ground as quickly as possible since there’s a relatively quick time frame with the federal dollars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.