Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that we’ll go to Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize to the Member; we don’t have an exact number right now. One of the things that we are planning, and we’d indicated this to committee, was with the territorial information system we’re able to plug into the LHOs and their condition ratings. I think from those condition ratings we’ll be able to come up with a solid number for the Member on the number of houses that have been updated. So I’ll commit to getting all of that information to the Member once we’re able to gather the information. Thank you.

Thanks. I appreciate that. Thanks to the Minister. Just on that, where are we in the implementation of that new system? I mean, I think we have great hopes for that, and we’re finally going to see things very transparently and in one spot. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that we’ll go to Mr. Stewart.

That’s good information. I missed the date that the asset system was brought on stream or will be brought on stream, but also I’ll throw in my next question. Sort of getting back to the energy side, are the 171 major retrofits, are we taking the time to select those or using all of our information so that we get the best payback, that sort of thing, rather than just sort of methodically going through them from A to B? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that we’ll go to Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We go by the age of the unit and then we also go by the condition ratings that the LHOs have provided us, and we make our decision based on that. So, obviously, the older unit that hasn’t had a lot of maintenance before is a prime candidate for a major retrofit. Thank you.

I’m wondering, just to go a step further, that sounds logical, but to go a step further, is there an opportunity to look at the payback, given what the local costs of energy are, and select those that will give the quickest payback. I’m just thinking of trying to make the most efficient return to the corporation investments here.

Once again, is the assets system on stream and operational now? Thank you.

I apologize; January 1, 2013, the assets system was implemented.

To the Member’s second question, we work closely with our LHOs, obviously. They would have a pretty

good indication of how much a unit is actually costing them to maintain with utilities and everything, so they would put those units forward for major retrofits. So there’s a lot of thought that goes in there, and some of the quickest payback, and we rely heavily on the information we get from the LHOs. Thank you.

Thanks for that information. On the $700,000 for pellet boilers estimated to serve about 50 units, I’m very happy to see this. We’ve talked about this for a number of years and I appreciate the Minister moving this forward. Do we know what the anticipated savings… Have we had the opportunity to do that work yet, or is this where we would start? I’m just curious.

Again, have we got locations figured out for this? Would it be in several places or are we talking a couple places where we have a concentration of units? Thank you.

We’re looking at probably a five-year payback on this investment. As far as communities go, we do have them spread out across the Northwest Territories. We’re planning on doing some in Detah/Ndilo, Fort McPherson, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Inuvik and Norman Wells.

That’s all I had on this page. Thank you.

Moving on with questions I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to follow up on the energy infrastructure work that’s being done. I’m really pleased, as well, to see that there’s a focus on putting wood pellet boilers into a number of units.

The Minister will know that there’s a desire by the Members on this side of the House to look at replacing electric hot water heaters with oil-fired hot water heaters. I’d like to know if the corporation can advise how many units would have electric hot water heaters. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll go to Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have about 100 of them in our thermal communities and we’re compiling a list to provide to the Members because, I believe, in a briefing we had the other day, I committed to providing the information to the Members. So we’re compiling that information now.

Thanks to the Minister. I guess I would like to know, I appreciate that there’s a focus on wood pellet boilers, but I’d like to know, from the corporation’s perspective, whether or not there’s any focus on replacing these electric hot water heaters in thermal communities. It makes more sense to do it there than it does to do in hydro

communities. Is that something that the corporation recognizes is a good energy initiative and it is on the radar? If they agree with me that it’s a good initiative, how soon will it get enacted? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, as part of our renovations when we do major retrofits, if they have an electric hot water heater, we will replace them with oil-fired. Thank you.

I guess, then, that tells me that there is no intent to go out and actively replace the electric hot water heaters in these 100 units with oil-fired. The research is very clear; it’s a savings on several fronts. I would encourage the corporation to look at the cost; it’s not a heck of a lot of money, but I would encourage the corporation to look at actively replacing electric hot water heaters with oil-fired. I think you could probably find the money to do 50 of those hundred units within this budget year if you look really carefully. That’s a comment. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I wanted the last word. Part of these hundred units would be some of those that would be getting retrofitted. But I can assure the Member that every opportunity we have to replace the electric hot water heaters with oil-fired, we will take advantage of it. If it’s just a matter of bringing in a few to replace them, then we will do that, too. We do realize that there is a significant cost-savings and that will bode well for the local housing authority. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. The Chair aims to please. Page 5-51, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, finance and infrastructure services, operations expenditure summary. Any questions?