Masi. Minister of Human Resources.

We had 628 summer student applications in 2016; out of that 306 students were hired.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise if there's going to be any sort of strategy to increase that number for the coming summer of 2017?

HR has begun a review of the summer student program and a review will also be undertaken with the graduate internship program, and both of these reviews are being done under the Student and Youth Initiative to further enhance existing recruitment initiatives. Our Premier has encouraged all Ministers to try and take on as many summer students as possible. The former Minister of HR has tried to encourage all Ministers to take on as many summer students as possible through their department, and I will commit to this House that I will have a conversation with the Ministers and see how we can improve our summer student hires.

Mr. Speaker, that is the same process we've been following for quite a number of years and, as a result, the number stays around 300. What I was talking about in my Member's statement is trying to find a way to actually increase that number substantially, so just talking about it more is probably not going to do that. So I'm going to ask the Minister if the Minister is prepared to sit down with Cabinet and set some concrete numbers for each department and have the departments hold to those numbers?

Mr. Speaker, first of all I would like to just point out that our vacancy rate, we have about 231 vacancies as of June 30th -- 231.85 vacancies at June 30th, and I know the Member has said that we have been talking about this for a while and I think when we gather here next fall then Members can -- well, hopefully, we'll have a better indicator of the summer students that were hired over the summer.

As I said before, our Premier and the former Minister of HR and the current Minister of HR will encourage our departments to see how we can better utilize our summer students, because we do recognize that it's very important for our students that are attending school to get summer employment so they can be ready for school again in the fall. So, I mean, I've made a commitment to this House that I will work with the colleagues to see if we can improve on those numbers.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I feel like there should be a setting of a target so that we do actually meet the target. The Minister just quoted a number of 230-something vacancies, but we haven't seen a PeopleSoft report. We were talking 900 people at one point, there's 900 vacancies. I'm wondering if the 200 vacancies are just the current number that the department is trying to recruit as opposed to the actual vacancy number of which many of them are contracts, casuals and whatnot. So again I'd like to ask the Minister: on summer students, if Cabinet can set an actual number and hold the departments to that number? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure if we could set a concrete number. I mean, what I could commit to, and I've said it before, is we could either meet and beat this year's total, I think which would be an improvement, and so that's the goal we'll strive for. Again, I'll work with my Cabinet colleagues to encourage them -- to encourage their departments to bring on more summer students. So that's the direction we go, and again, as we gather this time next year I think we'll have a good indication if I fulfil that commitment or not.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I made the statement on the mould in houses and elders moving out of their homes, so my questions are to the Minister of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Elders have moved out about two months ago, so when will the remediation of elders' homes in Fort Providence be complete? Mahsi.

Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.

Mould remediation actually has to be done by qualified contractors. When we realized that there was some incidents of mould in the seniors' units we did put out a request for proposals. The people that were -- local agencies actually were at capacity and they didn't want to bid on it because they were already -- they didn't have the time to complete the work, so we did have to go south actually to get the specialization to deal with that.

Currently, though, what is happening now is three of the four units are currently ready for occupancy, so I believe the people are in the process of moving in. One senior, ironically, has requested an extension, they don't want to move back to their unit yet, because they're waiting for a bed to arrive that they've ordered, a special bed. So we have allowed them to actually not move back until they've received their bed that they've asked for. Then the last unit actually, the mould test that we did -- because we have to do a test before; after the remediation we do another test to make sure things are fine, the mould test results received indicated that the last unit does need to have further cleaning and testing on it, so that unit has now been cleaned. Again, we retested it on October 26th, and the results should be back within a week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'd like to thank the Minister for her reply. The larger question is: what is the Housing Corporation's policy to address identified health risks in housing stock? These are homes that were built in the '70s. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker. The policy within the Housing Corporation is that we have a limit on housing, so, when houses get too close to 50 years old, then we try not to do too much renovation. We do an assessment to see if it would be cheaper for us actually to build a new unit. When they get to the homes in the '70s, after I did the math on my fingers, actually will be hitting that time zone so that we look at: is it more cost effective to actually renovate, or is it more cost effective to actually demolish them and put up new units?

Mr. Speaker, the other question is: Why are certain contractors being used to complete remediation work in Fort Providence when it could be done by local people instead of bringing people from the south? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, as I had stated in the first question from the Member, actually I did explain that mould remediation actually is a specialized procedure and so not everyone can actually perform that work. There are two companies in the Member's area that can do that work, but they were at capacity with other jobs and so they weren't interested in taking that on. Therefore, we had no choice other than to look elsewhere because our priority is to deal with the mould. It was a priority, so we took what was available to us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister reassure elders that they will be back in their homes by Christmastime? Mahsi.

Like I had said earlier, again, two of the elders actually have been returned to their units. One of them is waiting for a bed. I'm really hoping that that senior doesn't have to wait till Christmas to get a bed in there. Then the third one, we're just waiting for the final tests. I will do all within my power to make sure that these seniors have a home for Christmas.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I know the Minister was at the launch of the Downtown Road Map report last week and that he's been a supporter of its development. It's my understanding that the investment in services for intoxicated people falls to his department. Could the Minister confirm that the 11 priorities in the report are his priorities? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a government, we are committed to addressing the issues of homelessness and recognizing that homelessness is a very complex situation caused by many factors. Health and Social Services is committed to working on the items in the action plan that have been identified as a Health and Social Services responsibility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.