Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Did we miss anyone in the gallery? Thanks for coming to our proceedings. It is always good to have an audience. Item 7, acknowledgements. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge Mr. Jeffery Philipp, who is a recipient of the 2017 Order of the NWT. I am very proud of Jeff today. Jeff was born and raised in Fort Providence and now lives in Yellowknife with his family. Jeff built the North's premier broadband technology company, SSI Micro. Jeff and his company have helped many organizations throughout the NWT and Nunavut, such as a computer lab for the Deh Gah School and contributions to Northern Youth Abroad. Jeff is also a strong advocate for consumers' rights. Congratulations, Jeff. Mahsi.

Masi. Congratulations go out to all Order of the NWT recipients today. Masi. Colleagues, before we continue with oral questions, I am going to request a short recess. Masi.

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Item 8, oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during my visit back home, I had the opportunity to talk to a number of residents, and they had some concerns. Mr. Speaker, as more and more housing situations occur, I have been more perplexed on why things happen with the Housing Corporation. Just recently, I was informed the contractors have the first right of refusal to the extra material for housing contracts. This does not seem right, since the clients have to pay some sort of cost for these projects. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation please advise this House if this practice is something in a written policy or something the corporation just implements? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The allocation of the materials that are left over from units is a decision that is based on how we contract, so, if it is a design build and the contractor takes on the project, the contractor has first right to that material because he is charging for that material. If it is a maintenance, then often the local housing organization will hold that material. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for her answer. Mr. Speaker, is this something that is explained to the clients before they sign the necessary contracts, so are they well aware of this process?

I am making the assumption, then, that the Member is speaking about home maintenance repairs. In that case, then often they might not be knowledgeable of it. I would be leery about a change in the policy to allow them to have the extra materials because they, too, get charged for that stuff. Some of our smaller communities, it is very, very expensive to get maintenance done, so if we give a repair program for $10,000 and we spend all the money just getting the contractor into the community and giving them extra materials, then I worry about what work is actually getting done. I am seeing that there are a lot of expenses already just getting contractors to communities, so I am leery of any kind of policy that would put more expense on people in housing.

I thank the Minister for her answer, and I understand her concerns. However, we are talking about people in their own homes, who need these potential materials to help them with other stuff or fixing up later on, renovations. Can the Minister advise this House if this issue was brought up during the survey that was just recently done?

The issue has been brought up, not only in the survey. It has been brought up in a couple of other areas that I have heard but, when I do let people know that if we were to leave the materials there would be a cost incurred by the client, then people have not been as eager to take advantage of it.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for her answer. I guess I am a little concerned, though, that it is not information that is shared with all clients. I know in my riding a number of the clients have asked, looking for a small part, you know, a small portion of material like tiles and that. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister be willing to look at or engage her department in looking at this as an opportunity to discuss this with clients and maybe in the future that they have that option available to them? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is looking at doing a full review of every policy and every program. When the policy comes up onto home repair, we will take the Member's comments into consideration and see if there is some way that we can either communicate better or provide tenants with the option to be able to purchase leftover materials if they so wish.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As this House is well aware, the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre had to be shut down due to structural issues with their building. We have met with them, along with the City of Yellowknife, to have discussions. A short-term fix to this situation, agreed upon by all parties, is to move into the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, which is going to be taking place today and tomorrow. The visitors' centre will be open on June 1st of this month. That is a short-term solution. Moving forward in the long term, we will be sitting down with the City of Yellowknife and the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre to figure out a long-term solution that is viable for everybody in this situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The current agreement for the museum arrangement, the short-term solution, is very short-term. It expires October 1st. That is my understanding. What is the Minister doing to prepare the visitor information services post-October 1st? Can we guarantee we are going to have some sort of brick-and-mortar location for visitors who are here in the Northwest Territories?

The intent is to definitely keep the visitors' centre in operation going forward. This is a file that involves not just the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre; it also involves the City of Yellowknife, who plays a big part and who is the biggest beneficiary of the centre. As I have said, we were going to sit down and work with them. Hopefully, the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre can work with us and identify a delivery model that meets the needs of visitors over the long term for the City of Yellowknife and residents of the Northwest Territories.

I want to ensure that we have something for our aurora season, which is perhaps the highlight of our tourism year, although, as I said earlier, there is plenty to do in this town any time of the year. When it comes to government funding of visitors' centres across the territory, we have seen different models. The ones that work best seems to be the ones where the building is owned by the government and the staff is provided on a contracted basis. These are efficient models that seem to work very well. Is the department considering that in addition to their talks with the NFVA?

As I have said, we want to identify a model that meets the needs of the visitors over the long term, for the residents of Yellowknife and the tourism sector that comes to the Northwest Territories. We are open to all ideas and considerations moving forward, and we will look at anything that is proposed to us.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that the Minister is keeping an open mind about this. Back to the initial people who provided the service, the Northern Frontier Visitors Association. They are still on the hook for remediating that site, and there is still a very large cost to demolishing the building, remediating the site, and making sure it can be handed back to the government. There has been no commitment made from the government to support those needs. The honourable Members representing Yellowknife constituencies have made that appeal to the government and asked them to provide that. Is the Minister in a position to comment on that? Will he provide financial relief to this organization that for decades has been providing a vital service that our government has not been in the business of doing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.