Caroline Cochrane

Range Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated before, I do not know exactly what the status is today, so I will have to get back to the MLA on what the status is today.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

I am really excited that the housing survey is now finished, in all honesty. It means that we can get down to work. The department right at this moment, the corporation is compiling all the results and putting them into categories. For example, some are around home ownership, some are around homelessness, et cetera. They are also categorizing it by community. After that process, we will be going through them one by one and looking at, like I say, every program and every policy that we provide and revitalizing them to meet the needs of the community, to meet the needs of residents within the...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I want to stress that the agreement for the $15 million is not in consultation with the Government of the Northwest Territories. It was done directly with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. They could determine what they wanted to do with the whole funding. We have developed a partnership. Within that partnership, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation has agreed to make sure that the buildings are done to code. We have agreement that we will be confirming that, as well. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation does have the capacity. This corporation does have...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

The Member is correct in that, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, we do get funded for 2,400 public housing units. The CMHC funding is going to dissolve in 2038. We are trying to develop a plan to deal with the lack of funding that we will have for operating and maintenance for 2,400 units. So, at this point, we are not looking at increasing our public housing stock, but we are looking at and we're hoping that, with the program renewal, we will be able transfer some of the current units into more home ownership. That way we can actually increase our public housing availability at...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Tom and Pam Williams, who are constituents of Range Lake now. Happy anniversary to both of you. On behalf of MACA, Municipal and Community Affairs, our sports and recreation division, I also want to recognize Bryan Trottier and Tyler Kennedy, who are true role models to the youth who are coming up in society. It is really important that we have people like that, and it is an honour to have them here. I want to put a shout out to Tom Williams, who is our deputy minister of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, who will be going...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a bit early to define what exactly the program renewal will look like, because the survey just closed over a week ago. I do know, however, that we have done mortgage programs in the past and there were some issues with them, so I would have to review what the problems were with the mortgage programs that we provided, to do an analysis. I know that we also will be working towards more of a lease-to-own kind of a model, as well. So, in regard to whether we start to do a guaranteed loan, that would be something I would have to explore to find out why it didn't work...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation abides by all the standards, building codes, et cetera within Canada. In fact, our standards are actually higher than some provinces and territories. The reality is, though, that each individual is different and so what determines what one person who is aging in their own home needs will not be the same right across the board. So we look at each case on an individual basis to determine what supports they need in there.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

Mr. Speaker, no, to my knowledge we have not done an evaluation of exactly what the cost savings are to do aging-in-place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

I am sorry. At this moment, I do not know the answer of what the status is on the four-plex. I will have to get back to the MLA on that.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 63)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As part of the program renewal that we are actually right in the process of doing now, all available housing units within every community are going to be looked at, and if they are not being utilized for the purpose that they were put there, they will be repurposed into a new use. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.