Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments to the opening remarks and the budget for housing as a whole.

I’m glad to see they’re planning to actually replace some new stock in the communities. This year I

believe there 19 older public units that are going to be replaced. I hope that one of those units is Bennett Apartments in Aklavik. I believe that is older than I am. I recall in the ‘80s when I went there for the Northern Games, that building was there and I believe it is time to make changes to that.

Also, as I’ve explained, there are a lot of people moving back in the riding that I represent. I’m not too familiar with other ridings, but in Tsiigehtchic, Aklavik and McPherson there’s a big waiting list of people that are trying to get units, and I believe that there is a need for market rental units, and I hope that those communities are put on the list when the time comes.

I’m actually glad to see that the Joe Greenland Centre is in the books for this year. I’m glad to see the department is actually putting something into the community rather than taking stuff out like other departments. Also, the community would really like to see these kinds of projects actually taken on by the residents of the community just to provide more jobs. One thing that we’ve noticed when outside contractors get the work is that they bring in workers from out of town but the people in the communities just would rather not have that. They’d like a lot of that funding to stay within the community and boost the economy of the community.

Also, one thing that was mentioned through our tour, as you recall, is some questions towards a shelter. Some funds that were allocated through there that the community wanted to access to provide meals for the residents that are having troubles. I think that’s very important to work with the community on.

The other thing was one thing that is working really well, working with the Arctic Energy Alliance for homeowners, was the wood stove program. We’re hoping that more units, you know, as we try to cut down on the consumption of fuel, that we work with a lot of the homeowners to ensure that they have wood stoves or pellets put into the homes just to… It’s also good to have a backup, say, if the power goes out, especially in the smaller communities and even the larger centres. It’s good to have a wood stove in your house, because you go three or four hours without heat in your home and the pipes start freezing up and we’ve seen that in a lot of the communities. A few years back in Fort McPherson, we had the whole power plant burn down and that was a big strain on the community, but the community did pull together and they recovered. It’s always good to plan for those sorts of situations.

As I mentioned, a lot of good programs that are coming within this fiscal year, and as I mentioned, I hope to see a lot more homes. I’d like to commend the department, as I did last year on the job that has been done in one of the communities, Aklavik.

All the units there have been completed and people there are very happy with those new homes that they’re now living in. As I mentioned, there’s a big waiting list there and we hope to increase that amount of availability.

With that, I’d just like to thank the chair and thank the department.