Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the answer. Could the Minister tell us what guidelines she is giving the LHOs to come up with their plan? What kind of guidelines has she asked them to meet in coming up with the plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My final question is about the National Housing Strategy. I know the Minister and her colleagues in the other territories have been lobbying. What is your expectation about when the strategy and the dollars are going to be delivered? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as you may recall, Members on this side of the House proposed a motion in June of last year where we asked the government to make a commitment to reduce the level of core need in NWT housing at the rate of 2 per cent per year for four years.

It is my understanding that this hasn't happened. In fact, the same number of units are available in social housing today as there have been for many, many years. Without adding new units to our stock, we are never going to get on top of the waiting lists which are common to all social housing LHOs. That hasn't changed, to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I might have given an answer that was similar, as a matter of fact. I think that it is important to recognize that social housing is for people who have low to moderate incomes. It is my understanding that there are people living in public housing who have sixfigure incomes. Public housing is not for that income group, so, if there is a way to move people on, I think that that would be very useful.

The other thing I want to address is affordability. Affordability is a big issue in Yellowknife, not so much in other places. People are in core need because they can't afford...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now I'm looking at this page, is the number of the amount of money that has been paid back from the NWT Housing Corporation on this page? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I think it is a two-pronged approach. I think that we need more housing units, and we need to help people who cannot afford housing on the income that they have as retired people, and so I am interested to hear that the Minister is working on both of these fronts. Would she consider a rental subsidy program that would tide seniors over from the time they retire until they get to the top of one of the waiting lists for subsidized housing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I realize that my initial question was quite a large question, so I will break it down into a bit more detail. Not only are there not enough units for seniors, there are not enough units for families, either. We know that the core housing need for the size of the home is at very high levels in some communities. I can think, off the top of my head, of a couple of the Tlicho communities that have very high core need based on the size of the house. What is the plan to provide more units in all the different ways that there is a demand for social housing? Thank you.

I would like to ask my favourite Minister to consider that the best solution is to enable seniors to stay in their homes as long as possible, whether those homes are owned or rented. It may be financially advantageous to offer a rental subsidy to seniors to stay in place when they retire. To do so would probably be both less expensive than moving them into public housing and also less of a drain in having them move. So I wonder if the Minister will consider some kind of a rental subsidy specific to seniors that would allow to stay in own homes?

Thank you for catching that. Yes, in fact, I am talking about the CARE Program.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, by the time full implementation of these rate increases takes place, how much money will the Housing Corporation be saving on utilities? Thank you.