Michael McLeod

Mr. Chairman, again, I certainly agree with the Member. We have heard and we recognize that there is a need for probably a new type of housing design; a very basic facility, a very basic unit. Possibly something that could be built in the community. We are looking at ways to use this as an economic stimulus, whether it is log -- that is a question that we haven’t quite figured out yet -- stick built, and the other option that we are looking at for consideration is a modular. We have some communities that are saying we need units right now, so we are looking at all fronts, all angles. We will...

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the issue of board reform, specifically how it will impact on the delivery of housing programs and services at the community, regional and territorial level.

As Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, my priority is to ensure that every community in our Territory receives support to improve its housing conditions. For nearly 35 years, local housing organizations have been the primary source of community input on housing matters and have been critical partners of the Housing Corporation in the delivery of programs and...

There are two completely different scenarios in the sense that the southern jurisdictions are able to accommodate new units on their reserve lands and Metis settlement lands because there is a federal government that is willing to under write it by way of a federal loan guarantee. We don’t have that luxury here. The situation is in the communities in the Northwest Territories that are on unsettled lands. That, I guess, is a possibility for those jurisdictions to go to negotiate at the negotiating table, Mr. Chairman. I am not at the negotiating table. We can explore different concepts, but...

I think times have changed. Historically, the NWT Housing Corporation was dropping houses fairly ad hoc and even on lands that we didn’t have clear title to or we had the rules that were quite broad. Three years ago we had the Auditor General lay down the law for us that require us to have, through the homeownership, a land tenure. Now they can either get that on IAB lands through the federal government or they can have their band acquire a lease from the federal government and sublease.

We thought we had a solution and we are not too sure if it is a workable one anymore, by having another...

Yes, Mr. Chairman. We have carried over I think 10 units because we are not able to settle the land tenure issue. That is still available. We will continue to work with the community to see if we could resolve it. But, Mr. Chairman, it is very difficult if the community refuses to acknowledge the federal lease, then we don’t have much choice. We are probably in a position where it is not going to be a concern because we have the ability to invest, carrying it over for some time may be quite challenging in the future. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the communities of Dettah and Ndilo have been probably some of the communities that have been most challenging in the area of getting land tenure. We have been working towards a third-party entity and we have had a number of meetings over the last while with the communities. It looked like it was resolved. I believe we have brought that to the federal government’s attention. We still have to formalize that but it doesn’t seem that that will be accepted, so we have to go back to looking at getting a formal federal lease on these lands. The land might be something very challenging...

Mr. Chairman, the community of Good Hope has already done some partnership arrangement with the NWT Housing Corporation. We were able to develop a number of properties in that community. There is, right now, a desire to start working towards a more formalized agreement in terms of a universal partnership agreement, or a UPA, and will continue to work with them towards that and explain to them and make sure everybody understands what the agreement states.

Mr. Chairman, the 90 percent collection rate was the percentage we have been able to collect historically in the year 2004-2005. In 2005-2006, the collection started slipping in the area of rent collection and it dropped down to 76 percent in the year 2006-07. We are now back up to 87 percent collection in the area of rents. Jeff can speak to the mortgages and the collections.

Mr. Chairman, with me I have Jeff Anderson, deputy minister or the acting president of the Housing Corporation; and Revi Lau-a, vice-president of finance and infrastructure services.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, first of all I should thank the Member for his office to help us try to come to some resolution on the issue. I should mention on the land issue we have put together a committee that involves MACA and CMHC and Indian Affairs, I believe, and ourselves to see how we can find our way through this. We are, of course, going to have to make a decision on the carry-overs at some point if we can’t resolve the land issue. Putting into retrofits is certainly an option. Any retrofits or whether it’s a modular unit we’re going to be putting together, that number that was asked about...