Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation was established in the early 1970s to provide safe, adequate, and affordable housing to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Somewhere along the line, Mr. Speaker, they began to lose sight of the very reason for their existence. Providing housing, Mr. Speaker, is no easy task, as we found out during our pre-budget tour. Everyone has an opinion on the state of housing.

With the amount of complaints on housing, that has to tell us, Mr. Speaker, that something is seriously wrong with the direction that the NWT Housing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 14, Public Airports Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So $19.9 million. That answers one question. The second question was, is this going to affect the other programs the Housing Corporation runs because it’s another subsidy? I am all for people getting into their own homes, but if you know you can’t maintain a home, it just seems to be one program set up after another. EDAP, as far as I am concerned, is a pretty good program where people will go to the bank and get the money. If you know you can’t maintain the home, why bother going to apply? The Housing Corporation is going to recoup some of their money out of this instead of just providing...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Of the $32 million the Minister mentioned in his opening statement, I would like to know how much of that is going towards the 112 units. I am getting the feeling that this is starting to sound like another subsidy program. It almost appears to me like a second tier public housing type deal. I want to know from the Minister how this is affecting, or if this is affecting, the other programs that the Housing Corporation runs. I am sure they had a program called the Independent Housing Program, which was almost along the same lines. It just seems like they are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Last year, going through the same exercise, I spoke to a number of issues and concerns. I see this year I am going to be speaking to almost the same issues and concerns. We go travelling to the communities and it never fails, even in our day-to-day work in our constituencies, I am sure there is not a day or a couple of days that goes by that we don’t have people calling with concerns with housing, not so much the Housing Corporation, and the way the programs are delivered. I commend the Housing Corporation, as I did last year, for putting a lot of these programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

What is the number of clients assisted through EDAP in the Beaufort-Delta region in the past two years?

What are the amounts received by each client, by community?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation is always changing directions and my question is for Premier Handley. I’m wondering if this government has ever considered following suit and creating a department of housing whose sole mandate would be to provide safe, adequate and affordable housing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have committed to providing I think it’s $250,000 a year for a period of four years to the Nahanni Butte access road. It’s something that we are very interested in doing and in a lot of cases it’s to create partnerships with the communities or the development corporations in the communities. We have had discussion in several other communities about the possibility of doing so. We, of course, would have to involve the Department of Finance in this whole discussion to ensure that the FAA is followed, but we’d be glad to do so. We’d be glad to sit down and...

Lend some technical experience when required and asked for, but for our sake, stay out of the business end. We can’t afford any more blunders. How many units could have been put on the ground in the NWT, Mr. Speaker, with all of the money that we have lost so far? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. People in social housing who are paying the high end of the rent scale are people who I hear about who want to get into EDAP, but they can’t because they make too much. Now we are talking about starting a whole new subsidy program, another layer of public housing. So it doesn’t seem that that is the group this is geared for. I will ask my final question again; will this affect the other programs that the Housing Corporation offers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.