Robert C. McLeod

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2012-13 Main Estimates for the NWT Housing Corporation. The main estimates propose a budget of $113.209 million, an increase of 0.3 percent from the 2011-2012 Main Estimates.

The budget includes a contribution of $65.458 million from the GNWT for 2012-2013. As Members are aware, one of the five priorities identified by the 17th Legislative Assembly was to address housing needs. Housing is a complex issue in many of our communities. There are significant differences in housing needs and challenges between our market and non-market communities...

We’re quite proud of the fact that in some of our small communities a lot of the work that is done on public housing units is from people within the community. As far as assisting, I mean, there are opportunities there to assist people that need to repair their own homes. Obviously, there is going to be a cost to it, because it’s not part of our mandate. It is home ownership and homeowners are responsible for all maintenance of their unit. However, we do have a lot of programs that are designed to assist homeowners wanting to do some repairs on their units. The option is there but it’s not one...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The CARE program has been in existence for awhile. There are opportunities for those that are in need of repairs to access the program. The CARE program, as it sits right now, is fairly sufficient and people are given a lot of opportunity to apply for the program. Thank you.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

The Member makes a good point and it’s one that we’ve had discussions about as a corporation, the fact that it does cost more to do business in some of the higher arctic communities than it does in some of the South Slave communities.

We are looking at it. The Member referencing the $3,000, that would be the Preventative Maintenance Program. The CARE program actually has a maximum of $92,000 that folks can access to do repairs on their home. But the Preventative Maintenance Program is one that is designed and a lot of seniors take us up on that, for some maintenance on their homes. We are...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize two Pages we have in the gallery today from Inuvik, Ms. Angie Edwards and Ms. Tamara Gordon, along with their chaperone and my constituency assistant, Ms. Leah Ipana. Welcome to the Assembly.

I’ll be happy to work with the Member in trying to do what we can about the vacant units. I know we are working with some potential clients not only in the Sahtu but across the Northwest Territories. We go a long ways in trying to get tenants into some of these houses, whether it’s a HELP unit or a supported lease unit or a home ownership unit. We try very hard to get them in there. Compared to the situation we had a few years ago, our vacant unit numbers are way down and these are usually there, so we can try to get some suitable tenants to put into these units.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d have to find that information and pass it on to the Member.