Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I understand the issue of physical limitations; however, planning is fundamental. My question is: what, if any, work plan progress has been done under the Voices on Housing Survey? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Voices on Housing Survey was a phenomenal success, with 1,500 responses throughout the territories. Every community actually provided responses to it, which shows the need for housing. I take this issue very seriously. Housing is a basic need.

It is one of the critical things that we need before people can move forward and do other things for self-development and wellness. I focused the whole summer, actually, on meeting with the Housing Corporation every two weeks, and we hashed out policies constantly. We have quite a few policies that are coming forward based on this survey.

I will be doing a Minister's statement on that, specifically on the housing survey and the policies that we have made, but I can say that some of the policies that we will be rolling out and we will be announced in my Minister's statement. As soon as the Minister's statement is done, it will begin implementation of things such as a senior's retrofit program that can be bundled onto other services so that they can actually get more renovations to their homes. We are going to be having a fuel tank initiative to help homeowners, which will help with some of the insurance issues that communities are facing and environmental concerns. We are going to be having a new rent supplement program that is more accessible to people.

We are going to be working with some of the NGOs to support them with the rent supplement program so that they can actually provide services within a Housing First model. Policies are coming in to change so that students and people on medical travel, or medical needs, will have more access, better services to public housing.

We have a lot of policies that have been worked on. We have more to come. It is a passion of mine, and I have been working diligently, and it is really exciting to be able to provide the Minister's statement towards the end of this session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks for that response on what we can expect as we move forward. My next question: as mentioned within the survey, can we expect consultation at the regional level after the development of action plans?

I do believe in being inclusive, and so within that, when we were doing the developmental policies, it did not just come from headquarters. Within the policy developments, we have the regional departments that are actually part of that policy development team. In fact, we have LHOs, local housing organizations that were part of that policy development team, so we have tried to be as inclusive as possible.

We heard the comments from residents who were working with the service providers that are on the ground, the local housing organizations. Yes, we have been trying to be as inclusive as possible to develop these policies. We got amazing feedback from staff, from the regional departments, and from the local housing organizations on how excited they are that we are moving towards this new initiative.

Thanks for the response, Minister. As we all know, there are federal engagements, federal announcements made on the infrastructure dollars on the National Housing Strategy. Is the department working towards securing resources from that national strategy initiative?

To address the needs of housing is not only a Government of the Northwest Territories issue. It is not only a homeowner or a residents issue. It is a bigger issue. It belongs that all governments, including municipalities, including the federal government need to have help within this to be able to deal with that, so, yes, we have been actively engaging with the federal government to access housing supports. In fact, we have secured a deal with the federal government that we would have a Northern Territory strategy that would provide assistance only to the Territories. That has already been released.

There was a $300 million subsidy to two of the three territories, specifically to address our needs. We have been advocating more when the National Housing Strategy will be released, we are hoping in November, and once it is released you will see that there have been more supports provided to the northern territories. So, yes, we have been actively lobbying the federal government for supports for housing in the Territories.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On the issue of the access to that capital as mentioned, will the Minister seriously look at entertaining a proposal submitted by the community of Tulita to construct a seniors' complex? There is no seniors' complex within that community, and I've received numerous phone calls. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Until the details of the National Housing Program are released by the federal government, I can't actually say exactly what funding is coming within that strategy. However, what I can say is that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation does see a huge need for seniors' accommodations, and so we will be focusing within the next fiscal year on doing a total research project on how many seniors are out there in need of public housing, what specifically are their needs, and within that we will be developing a seniors programs that specifically are tailored towards meeting the needs of seniors and elders within the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Since the middle of June the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre has been closed. The numbers tell the client service story: 725 visitors served in July of this year versus 3,018 the previous year. The City of Yellowknife is stepping in on a temporary basis until March 2018, but what's the plan for a vigorous interim arrangement that will carry us through until a new permanent visitors' centre can be opened? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; the City of Yellowknife has stepped up and is going to have a look at doing this until the end of the aurora season this year. We are in discussions with them on moving this plan forward. Talks are going well. We want to be able to develop something and establish an appropriate model that's sustainable for the long-term delivery of visitor services in Yellowknife, and we will continue to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's great to hear that, but I'm actually learning more about what's going on through the newspaper than the regular updates from the Minister. Can he explain what support, if any, is being given to the city to temporarily deliver visitor services to March 2018 and how that compares to support that was provided to the Northern Frontier Visitors' Association?

I can tell the Member that we are continuing with the support that we gave the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre. The same allocation is going to the City of Yellowknife in the interim moving forward, so whatever funding was not used up by the Northern Frontier Visitors' Centre in this fiscal year, the remaining amount will be going to the City of Yellowknife.

Thanks to the Minister for that. No increase, but I guess status quo in terms of supporting this booming industry here in Yellowknife.

We've known for at least six months that the visitors' centre was likely going to close; the museum desk was a stopgap measure, but what is the long-term solution here? I would like to hear from the Minister on what that long-term solution to support tourism in Yellowknife is from his perspective.

Like I said, we're working with the City of Yellowknife and their officials to have an appropriate sustainable model for the long-term tourism delivery services in the City of Yellowknife. These discussions will be ongoing, and we will continue to review this process going forward, as well as the fiscal capacity that we have. We have spent millions of dollars on tourism in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to do so right across the territory.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for the commitment of millions of dollars across the Northwest Territories. I pointed out that there are three visitors' centres elsewhere that were created with our funds, GNWT funds, including work like leasehold improvements in Dawson City, $1.8 million in construction costs, but what's being done here in Yellowknife?

Doesn't Yellowknife deserve at least equal treatment for a year-round operation? Will the Minister begin work now to commit a proportionally equivalent amount of money to the construction of a permanent visitors' information centre here in Yellowknife? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

This isn't about just cutting up the pie to make it equal for everybody in the Northwest Territories. Tourism is a growing market in the Northwest Territories; we're using it as one of the main factors of diversifying our economy.

We have spent money all over the place trying to support the industry, not just in Yellowknife, which gets a significant amount of visitors. We are trying to spread it out across the territory to make our great land more accessible and more enjoyable for all tourism participants who come to the NWT.

We have community tourism coordinators, Aboriginal tourism, a championship program, community tourism infrastructure contribution programs, and we have the tourism diversification and marketing program. This money is spent right across the territory.

In conjunction, we work very closely with NWT Tourism on how to support this industry across the NWT. We will continue to work with the City of Yellowknife on this approach that will make it the best possible approach at the City of Yellowknife as they try to develop their tourism and develop their marketing program moving forward, and we will work closely with them and we will continue to inform the house on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to my Member's statement, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister: has the Minister been aware of the service and transportation needs of patients and clients of the Tsiigehtchic Health Centre or similar needs at health centres in other smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.