Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right I have Mr. David Stewart, president of the NWT Housing Corporation, to my left is Mr. Jeff Anderson, vice-president of finance and infrastructure of the NWT Housing Corporation. Thank you.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2015-16 Main Estimates for the NWT Housing Corporation. The main estimates propose a budget of $143.127 million, an increase of one percent from the 2014-15 Main Estimates. The budget includes a contribution of $85.368 million from the GNWT for 2015-16.

As Members are aware, one of the five priorities identified by the 17th Legislative Assembly is to address housing needs. The approach of the NWT Housing Corporation recognizes that there are significant differences in housing between our market and non-market communities and there are needs...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The agreement we signed was for money we get from Canada. We roll that money into many of the programs that we deliver, so through the CARE, PATH and mostly focused on the homeownership side. We utilize some of the money they give us along with the money we contribute and that goes towards many of the programs we offer. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, we work closely with the NWT Teachers’ Association. They provided some of the information as to some of the communities that are most challenged as far as housing goes. We relied a lot on some of the information, some advice we got from them. I will have Mr. Stewart add on to that, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we have, through the PATH program – providing assistance to homeowners – and the HELP program. The HELP program is one where we try to transition people out of public housing. They’ll stay in a HELP unit for a couple of years and then if they feel that they would like to be homeowners, they can transition into the PATH program, which is providing assistance to homeowners. They have the option, I think, of purchasing the HELP unit that they’re in and I think they’re given a $10,000 incentive to move into homeownership.

We have $7 million that we have invested into CARE and PATH for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. New units, we’re doing 40 replacement units in ’15-16 and we’re doing the 36 market rental units in ’15-16. We will be glad to provide a list to the Members. I believe we have all the locations and everything. We have all the locations, so we’ll provide that list to committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, the contract in McPherson has been awarded and my understanding is they are going to start the work this summer. The one in Aklavik, they are doing a great job on it. It should be opened in late spring. It should be completed in late spring. So we are looking forward to seeing how that rolls out.

Some of the Member’s comments, he was talking about the units in the communities. We recognize that we need places to stay in communities. It’s one of the reasons this government has committed $21 million over three years to put an additional 100 market rental units...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have to get the update on that and provide it to the Member. I don’t have it with me right now, so I’ll take the Member’s question as notice. Thank you.

---Question taken as notice

I thought I did answer the question. Yes, we will look at it for every community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have 804 people on the waiting list in the Northwest Territories. In the Member’s riding alone, I think there are about 39 on the waiting list. In many cases, people have to be on the waiting list to access some of the support programs. So they may be housed, but they have to be on the waiting list to access some of those programs. That’s the reason some of the numbers are so high.

At far as the length of time, I’d have to find out about the length of time. We try to get as many people into units as quickly as possible.

As to what we’re doing to address the issue...