Caroline Cochrane
Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Quite a bit of progress has actually been addressed. The City of Yellowknife, I commend them for doing the ten-year report. It was amazing, and it actually backed up a lot of things that I had been saying, that it needs a continuum of services; we can't just look at one model; we have got to look outside of the community, et cetera.
The City of Yellowknife asked me if I would sit on a committee and work with them on that. I agreed to do that. The City of Yellowknife has taken the lead on that committee. I have met with them once, and we are working towards that. The...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can commit to submitting the link for that tomorrow. If there is any difficulty for the Regular MLAs to be able to access it, we will provide the link tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it is over two years. For the two years, it will be $217,000. Like I said, we are watching them closely. If they need additional monies, we will support that, and we are also looking at different ways that the local housing organizations can bring in funding. For example, some of the communities are talking about how they don't have access to repairs for people who are over the income threshold, and they don't have supplies. We are just in that policy review. We are looking to see if the local housing organizations can expand to meet not only the public needs in the...
Thank you, Mr. Chair, absolutely. As soon as we hear more and there are firm commitments, we will share that with the MLAs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to update Members on the progress community governments and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs have made on implementation of the Northwest Territories Asset Management Strategy. In spring 2016, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, in partnership with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and community government representatives, launched the Asset Management Strategy. The strategy helps community councils and staff maximize benefits from their infrastructure investments. Implementation has been designed to be flexible and...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, as stated, we do have the annual meetings, and the boards are well aware of it, of the programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I should state that we are working really diligently with all of the chairs in the local housing organizations because of the number of program and policy changes that we are implementing, so communicating with them on a regular basis is critical to make sure that this program renewal is effective. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Mr. Ron Williams. Tom Williams, the president of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Sorry, family members. On my right is Mr. Jim Martin. He is the vice president for finance and infrastructure services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree with the Member that housing needs are important within the Northwest Territories and we need to look at all accesses, all opportunities for funding. I am hopeful that the National Housing Strategy and the Indigenous Funding will actually address some of the needs within the territories, but I do commit that we will continue to work with the Department of Infrastructure to identify any opportunities that we can use to increase and better maintain the stock of housing that we have in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, the CMHC, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, halted the cuts that they were taking every year, so now we will not be cut any further, but, in 2038, that money is still on the table to be chopped. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Yes, every LHO is notified as soon as someone is behind their rent, and then they can actually provide counselling to people to try to ensure that they can catch up on their rent.
We do allow people to enter repayment plans. We try to work with them to say, "If you keep current with your current rent, can you pay a few dollars towards your arrears?" to keep people in, and then, finally, like I said, we are trying the new pilot project, the housing support worker, that when we get notified that someone is falling behind, we send in a worker to see if we can actually work one-on-one with those...