Caroline Cochrane

Yes, we do maintain a policy, and it's called Under the Collection Policy and Procedures. My direction actually when I took over is: don't leave it for three months. As soon as somebody is in arrears for over a month, you start the process. I apologize if that does cause inconveniences, but my job is to take care of 2,600 people in homes in the communities, and so it's important that people are provided their support by the eviction. Eviction is the last resort provided in the rental tenancy order so that they can start carrying their arrears once they owe only a month or so versus years of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is a mixture of people, not necessarily only seniors that were using the CARE Major. It is also important to note that, especially with seniors, where we have the aging in place money, but more than that, we are trying to really work with the senior population. We have gone into communities, and we have talked to seniors' associations. We have been trying to reach out to seniors, and we have focused on them, to talk about our other programs such as the CARE PM, which is preventative maintenance. That is an annual program.

The biggest cost when it comes to CARE Major is...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have worked with the Yellowknife local housing organization. They are using a lot of surplus, actually, to build an eight-plex within Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, it is really important that we verify annual income to confirm that people are paying appropriate rent. It is not fair if somebody is not filing their taxes and paying a minimum charge and the neighbour who is paying their taxes is actually paying more. We need to verify that. These are usually public housing units. Market rent, of course, is different. They are paying the market rent.

Within the public housing, we do ask them to file their taxes. There are a number of supports within communities that will help them with that. We stress to them that it is important. A last resort would...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, if that does go over, we will accommodate within. It's important to note that homelessness is one of the major concerns of mine and the corporation. It's the reason I ran for politics.

We're currently doing a homelessness review to look all the programs that we offer to ensure that we're providing the proper supports and at that point, if we need to increase on certain areas, we will be looking at doing that. Everything is under the microscope, and homelessness supports is one of my critical and most important aspects within this policy review. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the idea is that residents would be paying their full power, which would be at residential rates, which would actually be more economically viable, but the important thing to also recognize is that we're just currently looking at the rent that we are charging within the zones. We'll be taking that into consideration and that's one of the policy renewals that we're doing just currently at this time.

The goal is not to make people poor. The goal is to actually make people more energy efficient and responsible for their electricity and to realize that there is a cost...

I want to step back for a minute and talk about the process for accessing the information from the Canada Revenue Agency. It is really important to note that this is actually the most private way that people can share their income information. It is important to get income information, as these are tenants who are usually in public housing.

Only 10 people within the corporation have access to this information, excluding myself. I don't even have access as the Minister. It is really confidential. Although, some people, like I say, weren't comfortable with us doing that, so we provide the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are watching it carefully. It is important to note that people who need additional income support, who are at the lowest end of income, in fact, have no jobs or very minimal income, can qualify for other programs that are offered through ECE, such as income support. Income support rules, I hate to speak on behalf of the Minister, my understanding that if it is a family, they will pay for the cost. Individuals, there is a set amount that can be paid for. There is other support besides the Housing Corporation for people who have no jobs or very minimal employment. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct. We are moving towards a more user pay. We did realize that, in a lot of communities when people are -- and not everyone, so I want to justify that -- but a lot of community members, when the Housing Corporation was paying for all the utilities, the lights were left on, the windows were left open in the winter months. The public housing units were used as the local car washes. We are trying to bring more people more responsibility within that, so the user pay is the reason for it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, there are budgets. I don't know the exact number. We'd have to pull them all through, but like I said, there is a budget for building of the homeless shelters within the community. We provide the operating money with that. We have food security initiatives that we provide to people. That comes with a budget. We also have a homeless assistance program. Again, I'm not sure of the total budget, but that is just people with up to $1,500, a one-time funding that they can actually use to repatriate, if they wish to go back to their communities, if they need to pay off a little bit of debt so...