Statements in Debates
I will pass that on to Mr. Stewart.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We’ll be sending a letter out here to all the communities soon. What we would like to do is we would like to work with the community organizations, because we need to have somebody in the communities to oversee the operation of the pilot projects in the community. We will be sending a letter out soon, explaining some of the criteria. As long as we’re able to find a partner in the community, I think that improves their chances.
I know with only four, the need is high across the Northwest Territories with only four. We’ll have to spread those out quite evenly all across...
We see our role now as support to the communities. We work with them closely in identifying best practices, and if there’s a need to try and identify some financing that they have to go and borrow to see their projects come on stream, then we work with them. We point out some of the challenges they might face. Then, at the end of the day, after we provide them all the advice, the ultimate decision is theirs.
Again, I give a lot of credit to the communities. Through the NWT Association of Communities and Local Government Administrators of the Northwest Territories they’ve done a pretty good job...
Thank you, Madam Chair. As far as the vacant units go, we’ve got 75 public housing units that are vacant and I think we’ve got a number of them that are under repair in addition to the 75. So those are ready to be allocated.
On the affordable housing side, we’ve got 58 units that are ready to be occupied and we have a number that are under repair in addition to the 58. So as you can recall, from a number of years ago, we were up to, like, 135 vacant units. So the number has gone down quite a bit.
I share the Member’s concern. We’re challenged with adding on to our public housing stock because...
Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a full formula review underway right now including the infrastructure dollars, and we’re targeting ’16-17 as probably the earliest we can make the increases. Then we try and access any other monies that we’re able to through the Building Canada Plan and any other monies, the gas tax money. I mean, if there is any opportunity for us as a government – and we’re getting quite good at it – trying to access any pots of money so we can pull it into the Territories and distribute it to the communities, they’ve done a pretty good job with that. The review is underway...
I will assure the Member that we won’t rest on our laurels. We’ll continue to explore all new types of technology out there and see how we can incorporate that into the design of our units. Then we will realize quite a savings because the costs of utilities aren’t going down. I think we see that every year. I think last year we had to come to the Assembly for an additional $1.2 million to help our LHOs with utility costs. We have, through our Modernization and Improvement Program, been able to identify some of the units and do some major energy retrofits on those, and I think in the long run...
Mr. Speaker, today I would like to update the Legislative Assembly on changes to homeownership programs offered through the NWT Housing Corporation.
When we developed our strategic plan, Building for the Future, residents told us that we needed to examine our homeownership programs. They wanted us to recognize the different roles that homeownership plays in non-market and market communities. They told us we need to make these programs more effective.
Mr. Speaker, following our strategic plan, we have made significant changes to Providing Assistance for Territorial Homeownership, our main...
Mr. Speaker, the Accountability Framework for Community Governments is now complete. This framework will be an important tool that will allow MACA and community government stakeholders to better coordinate our working relationship based on defined indicators that measure the health and success of community governments.
It builds on the New Deal and emphasizes the importance of responsible and responsive community governments. It provides tools, in the form of standardized key indicators and checklists to ensure they are being met, that community governments can use to assess their performance...
Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Kyla Larocque. Mr. Beaulieu just recognized her. Kyla just got married in April. Welcome to the gallery. I wish you and your colleagues best of luck as you pursue your nursing careers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I do know that for the month of January of 2012 the local housing authority spent approximately $84,000 for natural gas. A year later, January 2013, that cost went up to $181,000 and that is just for the month of January, and you multiply that over 12 months, we spent over $1 million. I think it is $572,000 more than we would normally spend because of the conversion to SNG. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.