Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2017-2018 Main Estimates for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. The main estimates propose a budget of $132,888,000, a decrease of $14,019,000 or 9.5 per cent from the 2016-2017 Main Estimates.

These estimates continue to support the Government of the Northwest Territories’ objective of ensuring a strong and sustainable future for the government and its programs by managing expenditures due to limited revenue growth.

The 2017-2018 Main Estimates include a decrease of $7,814,000 from the 2017-2018 Business Plan reviewed by standing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That question is really hard to give a definitive answer to. I was expecting that there was going to be a federal announcement on the National Housing Initiative when it was National Housing Day. That never came to effect. I was hoping that the federal budget would have come in February; that has now been pushed to March. The only thing I do know is that they have committed to doing a tri-territorial housing strategy separate and we have been told that there should be funding coming with that, substantial. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The current PATH program actually does not put that money out to get mortgages that are outside, so they're actually units that are already within the capital of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. So it's not like there will be actually an increase of money coming because we already own the units. When I do the initiatives, it's more of rewarding good behaviour. So it won't be actually cash. Again, it would be looking at people's payments, have they been substantial, and there would be a host of other ways we would do it. The areas that we're looking at doing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to report that, actually, we will be looking at the Sahtu to build a homeless shelter within the next coming fiscal year. Both proposals, we were actually excited to receive and we were able to accommodate. One of the proposals was only for more of a dropin day shelter idea, so they can access some food security funding to accommodate that. The other proposal actually will be an overnight shelter, so it's really exciting to say that, within the next fiscal year, we will have a homeless shelter in every single region within the Northwest Territories and to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we are investing in energy-efficiency things that will actually help save money. For example, replacing fuel tanks, hot water tanks, putting LED lightbulbs in every single public housing unit. So we are expecting that there may be an increased cost until people learn to close their windows and to conserve energy. What we have decided not to do is that we will not be increasing our rent. I need to point out that the Northwest Territories, between 4 and 14.5 per cent of income goes to public housing. The standard across Canada is 30 per cent. So even though...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize. I should have actually done an update. As soon as we hear more from the RCMP, we will do a Minister's statement to keep the Members informed of what is happening with the RCMP initiative. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I do want to address it even though it was just brought up as a comment. The Transitional Rent Supplement Program would not be one that I would look at to address with seniors in its current form, in that it is only a two-year program and it is one of the policies that I do want to change. I do not believe that a twoyear program is the most effective use of that funding. I also state that, when it comes to the till, to the money for housing, we are strong advocates federally. We have been knocking on the federal door. Our Prime Minister has promised us that there will be exciting news in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just on affordability, within the market communities, we try not to compete with them when it comes to public housing units, so we are not going to flood the market and build a whole bunch of new public housing units when we actually have vacancies within communities. Like I said, I am not a fan of the transitional rent supplement program. It was not, in my opinion, an effective program. We did not give people the training that they needed to be able to get off after two years. So, instead of a transitional rent supplement program, perhaps we need to look at a rent...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the Government of the Northwest Territories did actually acknowledge that seniors aging in place is a priority and so, therefore, we agreed to do the $500,000 increase to the SAFE program on page 362. So we actually have an extra $500,000 that we are putting into assist seniors to age in place, so it's not that we're not working with you. Then again, like I say, we are expecting the federal government to come with substantial -- in fact, when Prime Minister Trudeau was in Yellowknife he said that there would be billions of dollars for housing provided, so we are...

During the current fiscal year, actually, we are building fourplex shelters within the communities of Aklavik, Behchoko, and Fort Simpson.