Support for the Homeownership Programs, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Fire damage repairs and winter road you had in previous years $187,000 and for ’09-10 there’s nothing. Is that just the way the funding is arranged with the Crown corporation here in terms of $187,000 not being in this year’s budget?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, this was an area that was reduced as part of the reduction process. We expect we’d be able to accommodate this program through our repair program.

Mr. Chair, including this program here, so this program was somewhere in your new design of the funding that this program will be included as part of the criteria, requirements that when this issue comes up that the Housing Corporation will be able to satisfy, say yes, we can deal with this in this area. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. The Member is referring to a program that we’ve decided to eliminate as part of our budget reduction

program and also as part of our desire to incorporate the many programs that we had historically into a smaller grouping. This will be built into each region’s budget and will be able to be covered off through the different programs that we have. Thank you.

The other question I have is on contributions and federal and territorial funding. I’m very curious as to why it here it says urban native fully targeted. Can I get a brief explanation as to what that is all about?

Mr. Minister. Mr. Anderson.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, is it possible to get a copy of these 500 units that they administrate across the Northwest Territories? Because certainly I would be interested in asking further questions on this. Certainly in some of my communities people aren’t making any profits, so I don’t know if they would be qualified under that. This here, in terms of the funding, it seems like it’s been a...I don’t know. I’ll wait until I make my conclusion, but I need to see some more information as to this funding here for the 500 units.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, these are all programs that we had inherited historically from the federal government. We do have a listing and we’d be glad to share it with the Members.

Is it possible to also get an idea as to a description on the urban native fully targeted in terms of what the Minister and officials from the Crown corporation has said? I wouldn’t mind getting some information to read before I could ask a few more questions if I had to.

Mr. Chairman, we’d be glad to give a definition on each one and give the location and the projects that we’re doing in the different regions. I would also be glad to sit down with the Member if he had further interest in some of these areas.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Next on my list is Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chair, this is an initiative that the Refocusing Government has been working on. We’re also working with the Executive to develop a program that would go out to the communities. There are still a number of issues that we have to work out before we come forward with an actual package. These dollars have been placed in the budget as a placeholder. We’d like to start delivering this program as soon as possible but there are a number of challenges and some legal issues that we have to overcome.

Hopefully, we can get around some of these issues, because that’s something that I know in the community of Fort Liard are challenged with. That annually, teachers are hired in the springtime but they show up in the fall time only to find out they’re having challenges with the units that are available. It’s something that I would urge the Minister and government to try to put in place and even create some units this coming summer. Once again, I am glad to see that line item there. Maybe I can shift gears here a little bit.

I know that Mr. Yakeleya was talking specifically about urban native fully targeted line item here just above that, but I think some of the concerns from the communities that I heard is that some of the housing dollars that the Housing Corporation get are earmarked, for lack of a better word, for the urban native, because we don’t have reserve

systems here. Some of the communities have actually asked how our specific band access funding from the band corporations, if they are getting aboriginal dollars for housing. So my thoughts around that actually were, can we create a program or look at establishing some of our funds to specifically give it to the band organizations out there to build some houses or create some houses which they can manage if they so choose. It is one thing to say we can manage our own housing but the other thing is the same as the government is facing, yes, you are giving us money for houses but it is the O and M that is the real kicker, that is a drawback. I believe that discussions should occur. I believe that we should actually look at some type of programming that identifies, for our different bands out there, to address this concern. At the same time, I think we need a complementary strategy with the federal government too. Just because they are providing some dollars doesn’t mean that they also can’t provide some aboriginal housing dollars for, I think it is called, off-reserve housing, I think is the word the federal government uses. I don’t know what kind of discussions that maybe the Minister can touch on that he had with his last visit with the federal Housing Minister on this particular topic and he may have represented himself as only GNWT funding, but at the same time there is funding necessary for our aboriginal communities. So I would just like to see how the Minister worked his way around that, what are his thoughts on that, and I don’t think it is about devolving all the housing corporations but it is about addressing the needs and concerns of the aboriginal communities and the band councils out there, about delivering some of their own homeownership programs. Thank you.

Thank you. The urban native fully targeted dollars that you see in the budget here was a federal program that was transferred to us. This program no longer exists except for these revenues that have an agreement in the North Slave. There is no other dollars in our budgets that reference any aboriginal or band funding per se.

Having said that, we do have universal partnership agreements with many bands. We are talking to at least one community in the Member’s riding about delivering some of these programs. We do have a number of asks from other band councils to see how we can work together to better address some delivery in the communities and operation of our units. We will continue to move that forward.

The Member has also asked about federal discussions. We did not engage in a discussion about aboriginal housing at our last meeting with the federal government. I have historically raised it. The previous Liberal government had shown some interest in putting a program together, but that went

by the wayside and this new government has not really picked it up. The aboriginal communities are still quite concerned over this and it is something we have to flag as we move forward and have further discussions.

I was just wondering, I am sure that the Minister and his staff have looked at the federal budget when they talk about aboriginal housing. I don’t know if it’s specifically mentioned in this new budget about off-reserve housing at all or how it impacts our Territory. Maybe I will get the Minister’s thoughts on that. Is there ability for us to access any aboriginal dollars from the federal government or does it have to come, or is it our only reserve? It might be just Hay River and, of course, Fort Smith. Are they the only ones that have the ability to access any of those federal dollars?

We are just checking to see if we had the latest update on any discussions we have had with the federal government. Up to now, all our discussions on housing infrastructure on aboriginal lands or aboriginal reserves and the funding that flows and other jurisdictions get are not available to the Northwest Territories. Our dollars are presented through a Northern Housing Program. The last Northern Trust and also these new dollars that are flowing are geared to that. With the federal government, I think today we are able to nail down a date that we will be able to have things wrapped up and ready for presentation. It looks like we should have some agreements signed off by March 2.

Yes, I just wanted to raise with the Minister that there is a desire out there, maybe create, like I said, maybe a line item that can help our aboriginal communities. Basically we are off-reserve housing and just keep that in mind for any discussions or any new announcements on federal initiatives and how they plan to role that out. I know somehow our government should be able to make the case to the federal government that there must be a way in order for us to access those additional dollars that will certainly go a long ways in helping us out there, Mr. Chairman. Thanks.

It is something that we need to engage in. This is an issue that has been raised by many of the band councils across the Northwest Territories and we will commit to doing that.