Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize Laura Boileau and William Greenland from A New Day. I'd also like to recognize Ernie Abel from the Tree of Peace. My good friend Annie Harry who I'm glad to have here. Then the NWT Association of Communities, Ms. Sara Brown, the Chief Executive Officer; Mayor Mark Heyck, the City of Yellowknife; Mayor Charles Furlong from Aklavik; Mayor Ray Ruben from Paulatuk; Mayor Craig McMaster from Enterprise; Councillor Donna Lee Jungkind from Hay River; and Councillor Clarence Wood from Inuvik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have made proposals to committee and we're currently awaiting feedback from the committee on the acceptance of our proposals.

As stated many times, we are currently doing the engagement survey that will be coming out -- it should be in the MLAs' hands for the last review of the format and the questions. It will be going out to every user of Housing's services and every employee and local housing organization for their feedback.

We are giving two months for the feedback to be brought in, so starting in January we will be doing a thorough review of every single policy and every single program that we offer.

The policy that we are speaking about right now is actually not an easy policy; it's very difficult. The reason that we did put on a time line of the forgivable loans starting to come off after five years and up to a ten-year period is because we found that, when we were doing the loans to people — some people, not all, in fairness — some of the people that we were providing the loans to were actually turning around and selling the units soon after they'd gotten the loans.

So they had fixed up their house, gotten up to $100,000 on taxpayers' money, and then turned around and sold the unit. So...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently the policy for family members who inherit a debt from a deceased parent and get ownership of the house is that, if they decide to sell the unit, they either have to pay back the loan that was taken by the parent or else. If they wish to stay in the unit, they can take on the forgivable loan and they would just take it on. It is a forgivable loan, so if you stay in the unit over five years it starts to come off without financial contributions. So that is the current policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Since 2006, the Housing Corporation has invested approximately $50 million towards home ownership, not renovations, but actually purchasing homes. I too have issues with the co-payment allocations. That is one of the areas that we will be looking at in depth to try to assist people. Today I was having a conversation with one of the MLAs, and he spoke to me and said one of the elders actually had been paying for years and was wondering why he didn't own his house. That really resonated with me and told me that we need to look at alternatives so that people can move into...

Like I had said earlier, again, two of the elders actually have been returned to their units. One of them is waiting for a bed. I'm really hoping that that senior doesn't have to wait till Christmas to get a bed in there. Then the third one, we're just waiting for the final tests. I will do all within my power to make sure that these seniors have a home for Christmas.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All the applications or proposals are reviewed on the same criteria, although we are conscious that we do want to support northern businesses and preferably businesses in or close to the communities that are providing the services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation and on behalf of the department, we also are conscious of the need for additional units within our communities. That is part of the reason that we're doing the engagement survey, not to identify the problems that we have; we know we have problems. We're looking to identify solutions within that survey so that we can actually assist residents of the Northwest Territories to be more independent or semiindependent so that we can invest more into public housing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker. The policy within the Housing Corporation is that we have a limit on housing, so, when houses get too close to 50 years old, then we try not to do too much renovation. We do an assessment to see if it would be cheaper for us actually to build a new unit. When they get to the homes in the '70s, after I did the math on my fingers, actually will be hitting that time zone so that we look at: is it more cost effective to actually renovate, or is it more cost effective to actually demolish them and put up new units?