Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are just in the process of working with ECE to identify possible income support clients that we could transfer over to this program. We find that this program is going to be a good step going forward because, in the past, income support clients have had difficulty accessing private rentals. We feel with the NWT Housing Corporation having the lease, or sub-lease, then we would be able to make it a little easier for these clients to access housing. As soon as we come up with a progress report, or as we are moving along, we will be sure to update committee on the work that we are doing as we go forward. Thank you.

I didn’t hear an answer when this will be in place. I hope it will be in place April 1st .

Seventy-five new public housing spaces NWT-wide, 50 new places in Yellowknife is a good start, but it’s not nearly enough to make a dent in the pent-up demand. Affordable housing is one of the most pressing social issues that this government faces in market communities.

What are this government’s plans to expand this program to further address the crushing need for affordable housing for income support clients? Mahsi.

Working with income support clients and trying to get people into units is obviously our top priority. In response to the Member’s question before, and I apologize for not giving a timeline, it’s actually effective April 1st that

we will be leasing or subleasing private rental units. There is an expression for interest out there right now. We’re trying to deal with the affordability issue, especially in some of the market communities, through the Transitional Rent Supplement Program and other programs that we are trying to introduce. We are seeing this as a first step in trying to help address that. It is obviously a challenge and we will have to continue to deal with it as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister. I hope he is going to work with committee on this. One thousand fifty-five Yellowknife families have housing affordability issues, up 45 percent. Yet $900,000 in rent supplement budgeted to help people exactly like this remained unspent last year.

So, what is the Minister doing to ensure that the money budgeted for housing assistance this year, through the Rent Supplement Program, for example, makes it to the people who need it in the market communities like Yellowknife? Mahsi.

I think that’s a point that needs to be clarified. I did see it in the media that $900,000 was unused, which was in my response to Member Bisaro the other day.

We had $1 million originally budgeted for this program. We have reduced that to about $900,000. We were doing some math the other day and it comes to about $75,000 a month that we are trying to assist transitional rent supplement clients and that works out to $900,000 per year. Our uptake right now is not where we want it to be and we need to make people more aware that the program is out there. We have had some ads in the paper. We have helped 158 people who have gone through the program. Some have moved out for different reasons. We need to get the information out there and we will continue to do what we can, as the Housing Corporation, to ensure that residents are aware of these programs and how it might benefit them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. With the crushing need out there, the Minister needs to do something beyond just the normal communications efforts, I would say, to get this happening.

As I mentioned, 60 percent of the housing affordability issues are in Yellowknife for the whole territory and the problem is worsening considerably.

What other action does the Minister intend to take to lessen the burden of finding affordable housing in Yellowknife and the NWT? What evaluations are planned to ensure another five years of failure are prevented? Mahsi.

I shudder to think where this territory would be without the investment from the NWT Housing Corporation. To say five years of failure I think, Mr. Speaker, is an unfair statement. If you look at the money the corporation has spent housing people, they have helped many people. We know there is an affordability issue in some of the market communities and that is a result of the market, and we take steps to deal with that. We continue to invest money, such as the territorial Rent Supplement Program or Public Housing Program. We have other initiatives that we are working on right now to try and help address some of the housing crunch in some of the larger communities. We will continue to plug along.

We have made a huge investment in housing in the Northwest Territories along with the Legislative Assembly and we will continue to go forward and do what we can to ensure all residents of the Northwest Territories are adequately housed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, are there any updates to the requests for the Deline palliative care bed study that they have been asking for, for some time.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there are some updates. In October 2014 we made a commitment to evaluate the palliative care needs in Deline. I do apologize to the Member; the Member asked the question yesterday and my response wasn’t as clear as I had hoped it would be and I added some additional confusion. I do apologize to the Member for the frustration there. But, yes, we are moving forward with palliative care needs in Deline. We do intend to have staff come in in 2015-2016 to visit the community to assess the existing infrastructure and evaluate the applicability. The assessment is necessary to help us better understand what type of resources and potential infrastructure and improvements may be required to have additional palliative support in the community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the need to prioritize Highway No. 7 as a priority of this government. Like I said in my Member’s statement, despite all my best efforts over the years, my two words “Highway 7” never gets in any official documents like budget addresses or speeches by Cabinet. Despite that, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation about… He indicates that there is investment in Highway No. 7 this year in the capital plan and there is a bit of a strategy, so I would like to ask the Minister, what is the strategy going forward for Highway No. 7? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has quietly spent $12 million on Highway No. 7 to date.

---Laughter

For this coming year, we have $3 million in the capital plan and we’re going to concentrate on that serious area that the Member referred to, kilometres 169 to 170. We’re fixing that area. A lot of that money is going to go to strengthening the

road from Liard to approximately where the Nahanni Butte turnoff is, and also there’s some finishing work still to be completed between Liard and the BC border. Thank you.

Thank you very much. The Minister mentioned completing the work that’s between the B.C. border and Fort Liard and there were plans for chipsealing. So I would to ask the Minister, will that work be completed this summer, 2015? Thank you.

Yes, that work will be completed this summer.

The continued investment in Highway No. 7, because we also know that we’re also talking about a proposed Canadian Zinc mine expansion plan. As well, not to mention the benefits of tourism that travels up Highway No. 7. They’re often delayed or else they’re actually told at the B.C. border, the B.C. Tourism, about the condition of Highway No. 7. So I would like to ask about mitigating the impact of the traffic increase on Highway No. 7.

What other work is being done to let the public know and the tourists know about Highway No. 7 when it comes open for this season’s traffic? Thank you

Of course, we’re continuing the maintenance work on the highway and making Highway No. 7 as passable as possible. We’re always striving to improve that road. So, with this money we’re also going to improve any areas where there have been problems. The people know exactly which areas are problems, and for the first package of work that we intend to do we intend to spend an additional $12 million over the next four years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Now, I was pleased to hear about the investment in our transportation infrastructure and I’d like to invite the Minister to come see that work this spring, and also residents of Wrigley would like to see him, as well, this spring. So I’d like to invite the Minister one more time. He was just there in December, I know, but he’s going to have to come with me and ride the roads. Thank you.

More of a comment. Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would commit to driving Highway No. 7 to Liard and also to Wrigley with the Member. Thank you.