Robert C. McLeod

I agree with the Member 100 percent, that people that can afford and are able to look after those units should be in there. That’s why I’ve given direction to the NWT Housing Corporation to have a look at the number of clients that may be over this net. If we started going too low, the lowest net, then I’m just afraid we may be setting some people up for failure and we may get some quick claim units because once they’re in there and realize what a cost it is to pay for your own fuel and power and other utilities, then they realize that there was a lot more to it than they thought. But I have...

There has been some discussion amongst myself and the officials to put this out for an expression of interest to see what kind of feedback we get on it, what we get back for as far as pricing goes. I believe we kind of have a design in mind, one that we’re proposing to go with, and a lot of this was working with the Rural and Remote committee who felt there was a need for this particular type of unit in some of the smaller communities.

This is not actually a HELP unit that’s being built there. It’s a retrofit to an existing HELP unit.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve got 293 public housing units in Yellowknife, we’ve got 105 homeownership units and we have about 360 third-party projects. So to me that shows that the Housing Corporation is making a significant investment in the capital. And just to clarify, if we’re fixing up 25 units, we don’t have to take 25 units out of stock. It’s just the Public Housing Replacement Program. If we’re replacing public housing units, then we have to look at ways of taking some units off the backend because of declining funding. Thank you.

I’ll let Mr. Anderson respond to that.

The applications that we’ve received, as Members know, the deadline was October 15th. The applications that we’ve received for PATH, that’s the actual homeownership, we’ve got 110 assessments that we’re doing right now. As far as applications for the HELP units, we have 183 territorial-wide that we’re doing the assessments on right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the comment from the Member. It is something that as a corporation we’re constantly trying to keep on top of the technology and how we can improve the products we put on the ground. At the end of the day, you’re absolutely correct that there is a savings to the Housing Corporation. Obviously, it’s climate-friendly and a saving to the homeowners at the same time. It is something that we’re constantly trying to do, is improve the product we put on the ground.

There’s always an opportunity for the community to approach the corporation and try to secure some kind of program to put a four-plex into the community. There are loan guarantees that the corporation has used in the past. We’ve got a $25,000-a-door incentive that we offer to communities that try to provide housing for staff. So the opportunities are there. We’re always willing to sit and listen to what the communities propose.

The Housing Needs Survey encompasses all aspects of housing in each community. Obviously, Yellowknife has an advantage over some of the other communities where the corporation is able to get into rent supp agreements with a lot of private landlords. Obviously, if there is a public housing shortage in Yellowknife, it is one that as a corporation we’ll have to address and see about getting public housing units into the capital. As well as looking across the Northwest Territories trying to get public housing into a lot of the other communities, because if you look at it percentage-wise, their...

We can provide the information to the Member. We’ve got about $1.2 million in CARE. The Member is correct; it is through the program delivery. So that’s on top of the infrastructure that’s going into the Member’s riding. There’s approximately $1.2 million earmarked for CARE. Then we’ve got preventative maintenance money, but I can provide some information to the Member as to exactly what’s going into his riding. Thank you.