Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, would like to express and acknowledge the efforts of the Housing Corporation and the staff in terms of a lot of the fundamental challenges that we face up here in the Northwest Territories, particularly more so in the riding that I represent. It has always been a challenge just trying to meet the people in the homeless shelters interests and concerns. I think the Housing Corporation has come a long way and I look forward to at least the continued relationship with the management and the staff, so kudos to the corporation.

At the same time, there are two parts to at least my general comments. I’m interested in terms of the status in terms of the efforts towards trying to be energy efficient, in terms of the projects related to converting the fuel-fired water tanks and where that’s at. I’m curious as to whether we’ve made any progress on that front.

The other things I wanted to concentrate on, or at least highlight, is there are always challenges for the local small communities. There are a few jobs. I know, fortunately, there are a few people that work for government, and those are not devolution jobs, by the way, in the small communities. A lot of them are seasonal jobs, as well, and part-time jobs. Of course, the cost of living is pretty high in small communities and there are some young families that aspire to try to gain independence and create a healthy climate for their children, so they aspire to

own their own homes and get out of public housing. I know there was mention made of efforts to try and create programs that could meet this certain sector of the population that are young, aspiring to own their own homes, and whether there are programs out there that could meet their interests.

In that regard, there are also some fundamental challenges that remain, particularly on the K’atlodeeche Reserve. There are jurisdictional matters. But at the same time, I understand that there are some efforts to try and do some retrofits on the reserve. Just recently we had an effort by this government of opening up a wellness centre and I understand it’s been in the making for a long time. It’s been achieved, and it serves as the model, in terms of an iconic achievement of having multi-level governments cooperate and collaborate and ensuring the interests of the public are met in terms of their needs. So I’m hoping to hear perhaps some positive updates as to what kind of efforts have been made to try and at least sort out those jurisdictional matters on that front.

Also, at the same time, I know there are smaller communities that I represent that aspire to trying to at least manage the housing initiatives in their community, and whether they could aspire to perhaps have their local associations established in those communities. Mahsi.