I certainly can commit to working with the Premier to see what options there are and what involvement the federal government could be requested to assist us with in this situation.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are many reasons that the core need would rise. It’s not just a matter of putting the product on the ground. The affordability is a

contributing factor; suitability of housing and adequacy. We’ve taken steps to address the core need. With the money that’s been invested by the federal government and matched by this government, we’re quite confident that within a year or two we’ll have addressed or made a serious dent in the core needs in the communities.

The Minister speaks of the money that’s going to be coming to the corporation over the next couple of years or so. Has the Minister looked at what exactly would be needed to lower core need? Has he taken a good comprehensive look at what is needed to lower core need?

We have a pretty good idea that we know what it will take to address core need. That’s why the corporation, using the money that is due to run out next year -- the federal infrastructure money is due to run out in 2010-2011 -- we’re taking steps to channel a lot of that money into the communities with the highest core need so we’d be able to address a lot of the issues, whether it be major M and I projects, which is one of the contributing factors to the high number of core need, talking about the adequacy. We’re taking steps to address that and there’s a huge investment being made in repair projects across the Northwest Territories.

The Minister speaks of a strategy and knowing what it takes to lower core need. Does the Minister actually have a strategy to address core needs in the small communities, to address the communities that have the highest core need? Has the corporation developed an actual strategy to address that issue?

The strategy that we have to address core need is to make an investment in the communities with the highest core need. We’re quite confident that will address a lot of the issues as far as core need goes. We have about a year and a half left of the federal money they have invested plus what we’ve contributed. Since 2004-2005 we’ve actually invested about $224 million into trying to address this and the money has gone to a lot of the communities that are in highest need. That is our strategy for the next couple of years, is to take what we’ve learned from the Community Needs Survey and allocate money based on the numbers that we receive.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that response. Will the Minister do a complete review of the NWT Housing Corporation’s programs and policies with means of lowering core need and developing programs that can be delivered effectively in the small communities?

We’re always looking at ways that we can bring the core need numbers down and the investment that we are making, whether it be in the public housing stock or through the Homeownership Programs. It’s an ongoing process. We’re always looking for ways that we can improve the delivery of our programs with the investment that we have. We’re quite confident that when we meet again next year for the budget session that some of our numbers should go down. The communities that need the most investment to bring their core need down will be getting the most investment. We’re quite confident that we’ll see a decline in the core need numbers. We also have to understand that affordability is a contributing factor to the core need numbers too. If the economy picks up, I think that plus the investment we’re making we’ll see the core needs start to come down.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier and they’re about the high cost of living today.

The group of citizens in Yellowknife, and perhaps across the Territories, are working through electronic means as well as individually and together have had a lot of press and a lot of profile. I certainly appreciate their initiative in discussing this and trying to come up with solutions.

I’m wondering what the government is doing to recognize this initiative and meet with this group of people. Have we met with them, made contact with them, and offered our perspectives and willingness to work with them?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although we’ve heard something of discussion out there about a group who has gone on-line to raise concerns about the high cost of energy there has been no request made to Members of this Cabinet nor, as is my understanding, to Regular Members as well.

I hope we don’t have to wait until somebody asks us to do something when we see a need out there. Obviously there’s been considerable press, as I’ve mentioned: radio coverage, newspaper coverage, electronic coverage. I was asking what initiative we have taken to step out and meet these people halfway. Perhaps the response I got means that we haven’t done that and I would ask if the Premier would be willing to get our government to actually do that, to recognize the citizen effort here and offer to meet with them.

The record will show that we’re not waiting for a request to do anything about this. In fact, previous governments have been dealing with the issue of the high cost of living in our communities in quite a number of ways. You can look at almost every department within the Northwest Territories where we are taking initiatives to try to help with the cost of living. Whether that is a fuel subsidy for seniors, property tax issues for seniors or income support basket for residents, our housing program helps deal with that. This government itself is looking at alternative energies and investing the dollars to look at alternative energies to help stabilize our costs or even reduce them. We’re taking quite a number of initiatives as a government to help with the cost of living issues in our communities. When it comes to the one group alone, no, we haven’t gone out to them. There are many groups out there we meet with on an ongoing basis to deal with the core need or high cost of living issues.

I appreciate that response from the Premier. I’m wondering what this government is doing to actually reduce the cost of living beyond buying out a reduction in the cost of living and putting it onto the back of our taxpayers indirectly, sort of hiding those costs in a way. Not that I don’t appreciate those programs; we need them as part of our strategy. But what are we doing to actually reduce the costs of services to our people and the cost of living directly?

This government has made huge investments in looking at alternative energies, that being some of the biggest cost drivers. When we looked at the overall impacts, two factors come to the forefront around the cost of living and that is transportation and energy costs. So we’re looking at expanding, for example, hydroelectricity to smaller hydro potential initiatives in our communities. So we’re pursuing that. We’re looking at wind energy. We’re looking at a number of other factors; biomass. But those are yet to come and have the potential to reduce the cost of living or stabilize it in our communities. The other area is, for example, on our winter roads or ice crossings, when we try to speed the acceleration to build up the ice crossings so that the trucks can get across and deliver goods to our communities

All of these, Mr. Speaker, require an infusion of cash to help makes things happen across the Territories and that still costs us. Many governments across this country look at subsidies for individuals to help offset. Even in Manitoba where there’s hydroelectricity, everybody pays the same cost, but we know that the cost of delivering service in remote communities is offset by those who live in the larger centres just because of the population base. So aside from what we’re doing, the energy review that’s happened, we’re working on our response and working with Members to

come forward on that to help stabilize the cost of living and energy in our more remote communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I appreciate the comments from the Premier. He named a lot of good programs that I’m hoping actually get on the ground and start to reduce our costs. But the phrase that caught my attention is yet to come. We’ve been talking about a lot of things. We’ve been planning a lot of things. Let’s just pick hydro, for example, I think eight, nine, 10 years we’ve been planning small hydro, small hydro, Mr. Speaker, in Lutselk'e and Whati. Yet, here we are spending more money and time thinking about it. When will people actually see these things on the ground in a way that starts reducing our costs? I recognize there are front-end costs to that, but we can’t keep studying these things to death, Mr. Speaker. When will it happen on the ground? Thank you.

At times it can be frustrating in trying to move things along, but in our style of working with our community governments and aboriginal leadership we have to work through a process. Hopefully, on the Lutselk'e project, for example, the mini-hydro there, we began to move that ahead at a faster pace. Whati is another area where we’re working on run-of-the-river technology. Some of the decisions that have to be made though are should we be looking at a bigger expansion or leave it to the community size when it comes to the hydro pieces. Biomass, when we look at replacement of diesel generators is the time to look at a natural conversion of those things so that we’re not having to duplicate the efforts or come up with additional cash when things are as they are. The yet-to-come benefits are the ones where those hydro projects are in or, for example, our runway expansions and our ice road technology improves. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.