Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can commit to talking to my colleague, the Minster responsible for Housing, to look at suggestions, specifically for low-income families. Actually, we are doing some work around energy conservation and just green energy in principal. We are rolling out a LED Lighting Program this year that we will be putting in LED lights within every home. We are looking at redesigning homes so, that instead of having single units that are not so energy efficient but also very expensive, in order to address both energy efficiency and cost of living, we are looking for more shared...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The corporation itself does work with Lands, so when they offer workshops we do attend those and we offer them out to the communities. Currently, though, we meet with their local housing organizations once a year to provide training opportunities. So I will take that into consideration. The big focus, though, this year with our training of local housing organizations will be on customer service. I do agree with the Member who says we need to get out and knock on people's doors and reach out to people more. So part of that is actually making sure that people have the tools...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this moment, no, we are not. These are ideas. The home ownership ideas, the rent supplement ideas, all of those things are on the table. Once we compile all survey results, we will organizing them into categories and all of the suggestions will be considered, not only the ones that we have identified, because I am assuming that, out of 44,000 people within the Northwest Territories, people have incredible ideas that will assist us in the goal of helping people to obtain, retain, and maintain their homes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I can absolutely commit that tiny houses will be one of the areas that we look at, and go further to stating that we are looking at developing partnerships with municipalities and Aboriginal governments to address their own housing needs within their communities, and we are already forming partnerships with some municipalities on a form of a tiny house.

As the corporation, though, I do want to stress that my own worry is that when we only look at tiny houses within an independent, solo idea, then we're not perhaps looking at the cost of living and the energy efficiency. So I am also looking at...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The grants and contributions have nothing to do, actually, with the Aboriginal governments. This is actually the 2012 dollars that is for the local housing organizations. That was the surplus, and so, if they have $5 million in surplus, then that $200,000 is coming from the monies provided to local housing organizations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any amount of work that is not started, completed, by the end of March 31st, and that is right around the corner, actually, so it will not be completed, those will be carried over into the new fiscal year. That money will not disappear. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We are looking for cross-jurisdictional, about how other jurisdictions are implementing this request. I will commit to taking the document and to reading it. I cannot commit to it being a sole document that we use in determination. We work closely with all of the communities and the NWT Association of Communities, so it is important that we do not confine ourselves to one document when we are looking at developing partnerships.

I just really want to add on to that that this is not only about taking costs away from the Housing Corporation. Really, it is one thing to address the CMHC declining funding, but it is really about energy conservation. I would rather lower my cost of rent than keep providing utility bills where people are opening doors and leaving windows open in the winter. It is about energy conservation, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I cannot commit to tabling it at the end of this session; it does need to go through the process to go through Cabinet, but I will table it at the earliest possible opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Martin.