Marsi Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to speak about the lack of strategic spending on the part of the GNWT. The GNWT must increase the amount of money they spend strategically. I am going to speak about an easy one, low hanging fruit, as the saying goes.

Mr. Speaker, seniors care spending is the first scenario that I will speak of. The NWT Housing Corporation could retrofit seniors' homes designed to keep them in their homes and in their communities for an extra ten years on an average of $70,000 per unit. Mr. Speaker, these units could be brought to a barrier free or seniors-friendly level. If the needs of the various nuclear groups has not changed significantly since 2000 which indicated that seniors' household have the highest average need of about 30 per cent.

Mr. Speaker, just for information, on the other side of the spectrum, couples with no children have a core need under 5 per cent, the non-seniors singles and families are somewhere in between the two. However, Mr. Speaker, I do not know 100 per cent if seniors still have a higher need than single.

Mr. Speaker, there are number seniors lead households and 30 per cent of them are in need. Mr. Speaker, if we were to take the 300 seniors homeowners and we were to retrofit their units including energy upgrades, not only would we be taking many seniors out of core need, but we would keep them out of long term care for years. Mr. Speaker, long term care costs the government about $140,000 per senior per year.

Mr. Speaker, you can do the calculations. Over a ten-year period, each senior that remains at home would defer $1,400,000. You can multiply that by 300. Mr. Speaker, that is $420,000,000 over ten years of cost deferral to the GNWT.

Mr. Speaker, this can be completed over four years at about 75 households per year for about $5,000,000 per year. In addition, Mr. Speaker, that calculates to about 60 to 70 jobs plus businesses for building supply companies. This would benefit the NWT immensely. Finally, Mr. Speaker, we can employ homecare workers and make the seniors stay at home easier. Maybe about another 30 employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.