Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Mackenzie Delta.
That will be beneficial thank you, Mr. Chair. It would be beneficial to the potential homeowners. And there is yeah, I would like to hear back of what the purpose of those homes are for. But it would help a great deal in getting some potential homeowners within my community because they'd like to be independent and strive for something that they've always wanted. And owning a home is a big step, so having this forgivable loan, if it's available to subsidize the cost, it will help a great bit. It's just more of a comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Next on my list I have is the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my question to the Minister of housing is under the emergency repair program, can Members from my riding, my constituents from the Hay River Reserve, access this program? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the members can access this program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Dehcho.
The question is thank you. Thank you to the Minister. Can members that are I don't know if the housing that they're living in currently some of the members from the Hay River Reserve, if their housing units if they're privately owned units, can they still access the program?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this is what the program would be eligible for, is for privately owned units, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And can residents or my constituents, are they to go to the local district office or the which office do they go to to access to get an application to take part in this emergency repair program? Because currently I am told by some residents that they are not able to access any emergency repair program. There's a few of my constituents in Hay River on the reserve that are having issues with the damages from the flood and having mold underneath their houses, and currently are getting no support at all. And it was really unfortunate, so now I can tell them they can access this emergency repair program, which is delivered out of which office in Hay River? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The program's delivered out of the Hay River district office. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you. Mr. Chair, I will advise my constituents to go to this district office and apply for emergency repair programs. Hopefully yeah, thank you. That's the question I have. Hopefully they're eligible to receive that funding for their repairs as we're now in June, fall's going to come, and I would really like for them to have that support. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to sorry, any other Members that have questions? I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. This fuel tank replacement for homeowners, I know that's a popular program because a lot of people in my region applied and got their fuel tank replaced and etcetera. So for this fiscal year, I see the program is I don't know if it's discontinued, but there's no money allocated. So if the Minister can explain why this fiscal year, because people are going to be asking.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The fuel tank replacement program for homeowners is discontinued for this fiscal year. We encourage all homeowners interested in replacing their fuel tank to use the emergency repair program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Yes, thank you for that information. It's good to know so we can, you know, redirect them to that program.
Another one too is that here, so all this housing programs, it's a good program because I know a lot of like, we've been, you know, advocating for a lot of people and to apply for these programs. So I just wanted to ask all these programs that's in place, are they based on income threshold? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, all the programs are based on the core need income threshold, and it depends on which region they live in for the different types of income thresholds. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. No, well, it's in my region and it's in her region, in all the North, because especially for seniors and elders aging in place, it's difficult for them to make ends meet so they you know, like, they do parttime job here and there or contract work and when income tax season comes, you know, a lot of times some of them they're denied the program. So I just want to ask the Minister if they can increase the income threshold to accommodate elders, retirees, so they can so they can apply for these programs, be eligible for the programs. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is some of the work that we're doing over the next little while is review of the core need income threshold and also the rental scale. Both the rental scale and the core need income threshold haven't been reviewed since 2012, so we're doing some of the work behind that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. That's all I have for this on this page. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there's been some sort of concerns circulating amongst constituents that programs for homeownership assistance are being cut or they won't have opportunities to get help in purchasing homes. Now, I do see that the home purchase program is being maintained. If we go back to page 383, we certainly see a bit of a decrease in the homeownership entry level program. Can the Minister explain, so that it's clear to everyone in the public too, are some of the homeownership assistance programs being cut, and is there a shift towards a different type of assistance towards homeownership? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The fuel tank replacement program for homeowners is the only one that has been discontinued for this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. And the homeownership entry level program, is that a type of homeownership assistance program and is that one being cut? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister to the question.
The homeownership entry level and market housing program was a program that was introduced in 2007. It was 300 housing units across the Northwest Territories. Housing NWT would work with clients to offer a two to threeyear program with the HELP program, so they would take on that unit after two to three years. This is continued to 2024 so we're, like, almost 20 years still running a program that was supposed to be discontinued in 20092010. So what we're doing with Housing NWT is we're going to look at the remaining clients. I think we have about 50 remaining clients, and council them to take on the unit as part of their home, to buy it as their home, through a forgivable loan program. And the other units that have been vacated or given back to Housing NWT will either become public units or market homes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. That's more clear, I think. If we go down to the preventative maintenance program, and so it looks like the budget is being decreased from where it was last year. It's still a little bit above the 20222023, but it also seems like it would be super valuable to you know, the description of the program is assisting households to complete preventative maintenance, making minor servicing repairs, which seems like exactly the type of thing that we need to be doing more of so we don't end up with more costs and renovations and new homes always having to be built. Can you explain why it's being decreased from last year's funding levels? Was it fully subscribed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Vicepresident Martin will answer this question, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
I'll go to the president sorry, vicepresident.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was an internal budget adjustment made for 20242025. There was a reallocation of funds from the preventative maintenance program to the community housing support initiative program. We wanted to increase the community housing services program while at the same time maintaining a sufficient level of program budget to accommodate current client need. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
So the proposed budget amount for preventative maintenance program for this year, 20242025, at $932,000, is that going to be sufficient to meet all of the needs or the applications that you would have coming in based on, say, last year's level of applications, or will there be people who get turned away with that amount of funding in that pot? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The number proposed is based on actuals from last fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, that's good to know. So my last question is if for some reason we do have, you know, a lot more people coming forward this year wanting to do preventative maintenance, it seems like something we would really, really want to support, would there be ways to shuffle around money from other pots, such as the emergency repair program or something, to be able to accommodate people wanting to do preventative maintenance? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
