Alfred Moses

Mr. Chair, I am pleased to present the 2019-2020 Main Estimates for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Overall, the corporation's estimates propose an increase of $284,000 or 0.3 percent over the 2018-2019 Main Estimates.

The proposed estimates include forced growth of:

$515,000 for public housing water and sanitation services; and

$100,000 for Habitat for Humanity Northwest Territories, the first of three $100,000 annual contributions to assist Habitat for Humanity NWT with the delivery of their affordable housing program.

In 2019-2020, to assist with the strategic alignment of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There has been incremental funding for the emergency shelters program transferred through from the Department of ECE, specifically $397,000 in that area. There has also been an increase in the TSC chargebacks budget post establishment of the IT shared services, and that specific dollar amount was $234,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you heard me speak earlier, one the programs that we're looking at, and hopefully will be successful, is the lease-to-own program, and we do have a target of 60 over three years. We also have the new home ownership program that we're hoping to have one in each of our five districts. You know, the more information that we can get out there, I think we can have more people applying, and also just changing attitudes in terms of public housing units. That's what we want to do. We want to change attitudes so people are a little bit more responsible. Our O and M costs are...

We have set up working groups in some communities, which have been working well to address some of the housing issues. This is something that we can look at speaking with the leadership and the Member about to address some of the housing concerns in the Sahtu region. As I mentioned, we are going to be holding a Northern Housing Summit up in Inuvik, and these are the kinds of discussions that we want to have with our leadership, with our administration, with our stakeholders, and with people who we have invited to the table, so definitely. I know that, when we do have this Northern Housing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is exactly the work that we want to do. We want to make sure that our website is informative to all of our residents as well as all of our stakeholders and partners. We do have to work with corporate communications, and we will make sure that that work will get completed. Thank you.

Just for confirmation, in government we always use acronyms, CNIT is Core Need Income Threshold, just so that all Members know when we are looking at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can get that communication out. The communications were done mostly through the LHOs, but we will get that communication so that you can share it with your constituency. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have to get the specific details for the Member, but I am pretty sure that it is definitely under 10 percent. As I mentioned when we talked about the lease-to-own program, we do want to reward good behaviour of people who are in public housing to own their own homes. We are looking at other options moving forward and maybe through you, Mr. Chair, I will ask the president and CEO just to add a little bit more detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we will make that commitment and get it to standing committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Everyone is lumped in. There are other programs that seniors can apply for through other departments. I did table a senior planning study, as well, earlier this session, and I would encourage any seniors who are having any concerns to look at the options that they have in terms of supplementing their heating. Thank you.