Thank you, Minister. Next on my list I have Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just want to respond to some of the opening comments and the challenges of the NWT Housing Corporation. Of course, in the Ministerial statement a few days ago the Minister did mention about the stats in the Nahendeh riding that were one of the highest regions with regard to adequacy in our communities. In plain words, we’ve got lots of really old homes that require repairs. We’ve got lots of overcrowding, especially in Fort Liard. We do have lots of new homes coming up, I’ll grant that there, Mr. Chair, but the challenge is that in Fort Liard we’re not adding new homes, we’re just replacing the old ones. So we’re not really increasing the units. But at the same time, we are getting new units, which is a good thing for the community of Liard.
We still got a long way to go, particularly in Fort Liard. The need is still for an increase in public housing. I’ve got maybe half the community there that probably won’t be eligible for the HELP program of purchasing their own homes, but the need would definitely be public housing, I think. In my last discussions with the Hamlet of Fort Liard, we’re looking at at least 30 to 50 more units just to catch up to the population that’s there to replace the older homes and house the new younger generation. So I’d certainly like to work towards that.
The residents of Fort Liard continue to indicate to me about mould issues. Mould is still high there. There’s the black mould that’s really creating health problems, especially if you’ve got a household of six to 10 people, it only increases the ability of our people to get sicknesses and disease from this mould. So the mould strategy is still needed. I raised it in the House several times. I’m not too sure where we’ve been going towards that. And the houses that do have mould there, Mr. Chair, they probably need to replace the walls, replace the drywall, et cetera, doors, et cetera.
But these people, a lot of the people not only in Fort Liard but in many of the communities I represent, are in arrears. Arrears are really disputable. So people are saying, well, I’ve got a house but it wasn’t really fixed, so I stopped paying. Or else, yes, I did get a mortgage, or I got the repair program, but it wasn’t adequately fixed so I’m not paying back the loan. That kind of stuff. So, to me, actually, to the Corporation, on their books it certainly is an arrears, but for me it’s about appealing it and coming to some kind of dispute resolution where each individual client is going to take lots and lots of work, Mr. Chair. But I believe my constituents, that they have real concerns with the original construction, or original paperwork, or original additions, et cetera, and they really did have concerns. Even though I advise them that it’s probably not the best thing to stop paying, but still, they’re adamant and frustrated that no one’s come back to fix their light switch or finish painting. So they do have real concerns. At the same time, it disallows them from future programs.
The community of Wrigley, I’ve got about probably 10 or 12 homes that are not eligible for repairs and they’re badly needed repairs. The community of Wrigley had actually done a health assessment two years ago and took numerous photos of all the homes, of the dilapidated conditions. There’s even mould in Wrigley, as well. Inadequate flooring, furnaces, just a whole gamut of issues with each and every one of those houses. They do need repairs, but this whole arrears question is a barrier and the corporation does have their rules and guidelines.
So for me, I’ve always been pushing the appeals mechanism, the appeals process. Questioning the Minister in the House the other day, he did indicate that we are looking at establishing the appeals system. I’m hoping that, like last year, the commitment is the same, that we can have it up and running by April 1st. It was supposed to be running by April 1st last year. But I believe that by having an independent appeals system we can bring resolution to each individual, especially in the Nahendeh riding. A lot of my memos of support of constituents in each of the communities is actually an appeal to the corporation saying, look, you know, this went wrong, that’s why they’re not paying, or else they felt the paperwork wasn’t done.
So it’s going to take a lot of work, but I believe that with a strong initiative, that we can begin the process of addressing each individual’s concern and try to resolve them. At the same time, it will be a good opportunity to improve the living conditions of our constituents and our people in the regions and the communities. Also, it’s the level of arrears as well. If the arrears are nominal, $1,000 to $3,000 to $5,000, can we roll it into any new program? I know they’ve got a mortgage repayment program that’s quite successful that way. But if someone’s actually just applying for a repair program, is there room to actually add the $2,000 or $3,000 of arrears to that repair program, because it’s repayable anyways. I think that will go a long ways in having suitably repaired homes, good floors, et cetera.
That’s one of my thinking. That’s why I’m adamant. I’ve been pushing that appears process for almost six years as an MLA now, and I’d like to see us work towards that, Mr. Chair.
Just a little bit more on the arrears, Members have also spoken about arrears that are very, very old. So if the Minister is going to comment to my remarks here, if he can also address the fact of what efforts are being to change the NWT Housing Act to allow the corporation to write off some of these very, very old debts, because it’s probably good fiscal practice to do so. I don’t know any corporation that holds debt on their books forever. So there’s got to be a way to erase that. It will probably look better for accounting processes and as they deliberate their budgets. A lot of that debt, and it’s arrears to people, people might have programs 10, 15, 20 years ago. Even they don’t even remember they got arrears until they actually try to access Housing Corporation programming. There are many, many reasons to forgive debt. So all this has to be looked at. I believe that slight change in the NWT Housing Corporation Act of eliminating some of the arrears, eliminating some of the debt, that we can also move a long ways in helping our constituents and communities and regions in improving and allowing constituents to access more NWT housing programs, which is the real reason why we’re here. I’m often criticized, as I travel through the region, that I cannot get the housing program.
We are getting new clients. They’re often working. They got income. But those that aren’t working are the ones that are really impacted. They’re the ones that have the homes that are in need of repairs. Those are the people that seem to be in overcrowded conditions. I really believe that we have to address this whole area of arrears and establish the appeal process. At the same time I think that will reduce a lot of the, I hate to say the word “negativity” towards the Housing Corporation, but I think it’s more the barrier that’s there. Front-line workers are governed by our guidelines and procedures so they do have to say no, but at the same time, we as legislators can work with government and the Minister to try to make those changes that make lives a little bit better for our people
With that, I don’t mind if I get some comments from the Minister with regard to those issues.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Next on my list is Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing more about what the Housing Corporation is actually doing with the declining CMHC funding. This is my seventh budget, if I remember correctly, and I think for all seven I’ve heard the same standard line. Not just from this Minister but from some of the previous Ministers. I’m curious as to what headway has been made on this particular issue. Have we negotiated anything? What headway have we made with other provincial governments or territorial governments on getting this initiative really on the agenda as one that can be solved? Or is this one we just cannot solve? It always seems to dominate the future of the Housing Corporation as the critical element, and rightly so; it’s the money. But ultimately each year -- and I don’t certainly blame this Minister by any means -- I’ve heard the same line. This is the seventh time I’ve heard this story. I know the Minister, when he was on this side, would have heard the story told to him by the old Minister. I want to get a sense as to what actually is being done and what success. Furthermore, I think equally importantly, if I may say, what success have we made.
I wouldn’t mind hearing as to what, you know, I’m an environmentalist in the moderate sense, I’d like to think, and I’d like to hear what the department is doing about energy efficiencies and through developing our housing stock down that road. What are we doing to take those things into consideration? Whether it’s repairing our homes or developing our existing housing stock, with those type of things in mind, ensuring that our new housing stock is reflective of these type of needs. I’m always about common sense. How are we planning to heat these things? I’m not about suggesting we have to be splitting atoms on any sort of new design, but I think there are lots of excellent examples out there on energy efficiency that could provide strong examples of doing business better.
The other area that I think I’d like to hear a little more from the Housing Corporation is what is its plan at this time for the expansion of housing for disabled people. One of the big things that I always try to trumpet in any way and every opportunity is housing for people with disabilities. I feel very passionate about that cause and I’ve worked very hard with the department in the past and certainly have been successful with one of the older Ministers -- I should say one of the past Ministers, not older -- about getting the eightplex building built downtown and quite fortunate that it was even in the riding of Yellowknife Centre. It provided a new type of living for people who had not had decent and adequate housing that met the standards of basic needs for people in the situation of having a disability. I think the department at the time responded most excellently in the sense of achieving a standard. I shouldn’t call it a new standard, but certainly achieving a new standard in the way that the people with disabilities are living in public housing in the existing situation in Yellowknife.
When I travel to the communities it’s very odd, because what I’ll find is the number of people in the communities, whether I’m in Inuvik or Fort Smith, people know that was a big cause of mine in my first term. They’re asking, because they had heard that this was something I had always said, not unlike what Mr. Krutko had said a minute ago, I had always presented it as a new way of doing business better for people with disabilities and why couldn’t this model be rolled out in some type of form territorially. Start maybe with regional centres and see how far deep into our network of communities we can go.
We do have people with disabilities who need supportive living. It’s not just in Yellowknife. It’s not just in Hay River. It’s not just in Inuvik. Whether you live in Gameti or Trout Lake or Sachs Harbour or Resolution, there are people out there. I don’t think our public housing stock reflects that individual need. As I emphasize individual, I will note that the department in the past has done some good work on trying to address case-by-case situations, which I certainly give them great kudos for their support in trying to identify individual cases and help them on those measures, but I always find that it’s one-offs. That’s why I’d like to hear what this corporation is doing to develop a plan to help with the low stock, or in most cases a non-existing stock of public housing that suits people with disabilities. I think that seems to be a missed focus here. Like I say, I know that they try very hard at working on one-on-one cases, but I don’t think the plan exists.
Furthermore, I think that needs to be a focus. I know the president speaks very highly of aging in place and I certainly share his passion on that particular case. You can certainly see the investment that’s been done in our community over at the Aven Cottages. I think it really requires a hard and serious focus as to what plans we should be considering. We need to come up with a strategy and that just doesn’t exist today. Recently I’ve had a constituent who is bound by a wheelchair and we don’t have public housing that can facilitate this family’s needs. So if one person is wheelchair bound, they’re almost held hostage to the system that there’s nowhere for them to go. One of the options then becomes that we have to break up the family and I think that’s the wrong focus.
We should be trying to say to ourselves where is our strategy to make sure we have public housing that reflects this type of need. I know that is a very important thing for me and I certainly hope that with the team over at the Housing Corporation it will be identified as an important issue for them. One of their jobs here is trying to find these type of milestones within the department’s focus for the next year. I worry that this issue has gone by the wayside and back to the one-off approach. The one-off approach tends to be like trying to pull hen’s teeth. It’s always a struggle getting one person individually accommodated. If the housing stock doesn’t provide for that need, they go to income support and income support is sometimes forced to pay an exorbitant market fee because this particular facility may be the only one and it is private, so the income support is further held hostage by the fee that we can only get these facilities for.
I guess I certainly hope that my concern, my passion and certainly a little element of my frustration on this issue is heard. It is not meant to be at anyone personally, but the fact is that I really want to make sure that the corporation starts speaking to me about strategy. I know it is great to use all these buzz words on how we are going to do things, but eventually I would really like to see a plan in my hands that says, look, we are going to commit to five units here this year. We’re going to commit to two units in this particular community. We are going to do this. That is usually one of the most exciting things we can do here, but we have to see it on paper. I am not really looking for buzz words about we are going to rethink and change and do this and that. I would like to hear where we have a plan in place and we are just waiting for this budget to activate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I believe at this time that is all I have for opening comments. I shall provide more as I see fit throughout the budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. We are on general comments. Just for reference, communities like community plan for placements I believe is on pages 63 to 65. We will get to that when we get to it. General comments. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to see that there is more money being put into repairs and renovations by NWT Housing Corporation. I think that is a substantial increase from when this government first started. I do believe that the original repair and renovation budget was $792,000. It went up to $2.1 million and then now to $8 million, so this is very good news.
I hope that the money is able to get out to communities that have the higher needs and up to the groups that have the higher needs as well. When I speak of the groups with higher needs, I am referring to the different groups that I always felt that the corporation should be strategizing towards addressing the core need groups, and the different core need groups being seniors, families, couples and single people. If we look at the core needs across the Territories, although I didn’t review the needs for what was tabled yesterday, I don’t know how the core needs are reported. My assumption is that core needs are continuing to be reported in that way where there is a difference between seniors, singles, families and so on and so forth. My feeling is that, if the corporation uses strategy to approach the different core need areas or the core need groups, then I think they would go a ways to actually addressing the core need issues in a better fashion, I do believe. Although this is not about the needs survey, this is about the main estimates. I realize that.
Of course, it is a disappointment to see that the needs have grown from 16 percent to 9 percent. My understanding is that the needs have dropped substantially here in the city of Yellowknife. I guess when you see that number, it is kind of a scary thought because if you have half of your households in the Northwest Territories located in the city of Yellowknife and the core needs in Yellowknife drops from 11 percent down to 5 percent, say, as a rough estimate, that is a 6 percent drop in half of the households across the Territories. If there is an overall increase of 3 percent, then of course I am saying that then there must be a 9 percent increase outside of Yellowknife. That is just doing the rough math on that, right? That is a real disappointment. That is essentially what I have been standing up in the House over the last two-plus years and saying. Does the Housing Corporation have a strategy that is actually designed to lower core needs?
The responses I have been getting is we have these four programs. I keep saying, they don’t seem to be working. When you build a home in Fort Resolution and nobody moves into it and when you build a home in Fort Resolution or Lutselk’e and a teacher that has a high paying job moves into it, then I have no issue with housing teachers. Don’t get me wrong. They need housing too, but that does zero to address the core needs issue. That is a $250,000 expenditure that does nothing to the core need. That is what my issue is. I have been saying all along. We have to have a strategy that addresses the core needs by community.
The communities that have the highest need, you have to go in there, develop a strategy that addresses that issue. You have to take a look at the core need groups.
Seniors still continue to be the highest core need across the Territory. We have to have a strategy to address the core needs of seniors. The families are having the highest core need issue. If small community families and small communities have the highest core need issues, then the Housing Corporation, if they are serious about lowering the core need and not just reporting it, have to have a strategy to address it. I have yet to see or hear of such a strategy.
We can’t continue to say we have programs that are addressing this issue and have vacant houses right across the Territories. If we are going to pump all our money into vacant units or pump our money into units that eventually become market housing units in small communities, we do nothing to address the core needs issue.
We have people that are very poor in the small communities. We have very low employment rates in small communities. However, they might have arrears with housing. They might have arrears with land tax, lease arrears, whatever they do have. All I do know is that the income they have only takes them from month to month. They have arrears and are not addressing those.
We see those commercials on TV. Food or shelter: one million Canadians can’t afford both. The Northwest Territories percentage of that is much higher. I am assuming over one million families across the country is based on the fact that we have 30-some-odd million people in Canada, but that ratio is much higher in the Northwest Territories. We are supposed to be addressing those issues.
It is not just an income issue. It is in a lot of cases these guys have no income. They are getting income support. They have only pensions as a fixed income. And yet the Housing Corporation does not have a strategy, unless I am wrong and the Housing Corporation does have a strategy and they are going to present it to us saying, this is how we are going to address the high core need issue in Lutselk’e. This is how we are going to address the high needs core issue in Fort Resolution. That would be something that I would love to hear. I would like to hear how that strategy is going to roll out and how we are going to look at each of those groups and address those issues.
Those strategies work because they applied. The strategic planning is applied. They are worked on all the time and they work. You go after those issues. You don’t develop a program and throw the program out there for the people in the field to deliver, and you don’t build empty houses and think that you are addressing houses that remain vacant and think that you are actually addressing a core need issues. I don’t believe that is the way to go.
I will have questions through the detail of the corporation, but it is probably questions that I have asked all along. Now I think I have come to a point where, and I made Member’s statements in here saying I am frustrated with the process.
The one area where it is very difficult to achieve success as an MLA when you are trying to work for you people is in housing, and that is because the Housing Corporation, in my opinion, does not have a strategy to address issues, no strategy to address core need issues dealing with the people. The Housing Corporation has regional staff. The regional staff are fairly close to the communities, the regions are fairly small, districts are fairly small. It is not a huge district which are understaffed. They have fairly small districts and they have a fairly decent staff complement. It is just that people have to get out of their offices, go into the communities and get to know the people.
As a program officer, they are dealing with 100 units in Lutselk’e, 200 units in Fort Resolution. They should be able to visit every household and have a good information session with every family in Tu Nedhe without having any problem at all, but that is not what happens. I think my time is up, Mr. Chairman, so I will leave the rest of my comments for the detail. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next on my list is Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really want to commend my colleague Mr. Beaulieu for his statement. I feel the same because housing is such a big part of our problems in Nunakput. Either a shortage of houses, young families can’t have a house due to none being there. There is a rental market, no private industry to bring in units for the housing market.
I really like what I see in regards to the infrastructure investment summary. I just have a couple of comments in regards to that. I am happy for Paulatuk. We got the six major retrofits coming up. One replacement and a fourplex which is going to be there this year, which is going to be good for the young families that I have in Paulatuk.
Another thing in regards to Paulatuk, I promised my elders two years ago, when Minister Miltenberger was the Housing Minister, we promised the community and the elders in the old-folks home that we would build a back deck. Still there is no back deck. I don’t see this in our executive summary. That has to get done. For the fourplex in the community of Paulatuk, it is a good thing.
For Sachs Harbour, I have two new units and a major retrofit. Sachs Harbour is a community in need of units. Yesterday we heard in the statement that we don’t need units. There is teachers going in, there is no private units in the community again that we don’t have units for rental. We have young families that want to live in Sachs Harbour but there are no units. We put a fourplex in there would be fine for this upcoming year, but that isn’t going to happen, we just got retrofits. I hope the Minister is listening because this is what is going to be needed in Sachs.
For Tuktoyaktuk, we have the one new unit and four major retrofits. Four units need replacement and one new unit for our fourplex. I think it is a fourplex, or one unit, but that is good. I think Tuktoyaktuk needs to get the nineplex in the community... It is really run down. It is probably about 30 years old now and has to be replaced. We have young families going in there with babies that are, you know they are scared to go in there and live, because anytime you get a west wind you have snow blowing in your house almost right through your living room. If we tore that nineplex down, we would be able to get a couple of new fourplexes in there and everybody is happy.
Ulukhaktok; now it is good to see the retrofits that are going on in the community. We have the one new unit and a major retrofit and the materials for another unit, so it looks really good. But again I see the short change in regards to what the communities get and then what the South Slave get again. I turn the page and I see for Behchoko four new units and then 14 major retrofits with 12 new units in that community. Last year, I asked just for two, you could throw up twelve and you would never know the difference. We are short units. That is how bad it is in our communities. We have people having to move to Inuvik because there are no units available. Now you have 16 units going into Behchoko, all brand new and you have two major retrofits in Sachs Harbour. If we took two off of that, we would be happy.
Then you get Yellowknife with a private market that has the capability of private businesses in regards to the 12 new units in Yellowknife, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Minister, I think that if it isn’t spent yet, you could change this, you know? We could just get a little bit out of Yellowknife anyway. Sorry, Ms. Bisaro. Then you have 26 retrofits for Yellowknife as well.
All in all, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Minister, I like what I see. I think we still have a little bit of work we could do for, hopefully, this upcoming year in the planning keeping Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok and Tuktoyaktuk, my communities that I represent. We are short units. Whatever report that you were given out of Inuvik with regards to the statement yesterday, I think that is totally wrong. I really looked forward to the planning session, but I will have the rest of my comments for the page by page. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. We are on general comments. Anybody with general comments? I will turn to the Minister for a response. Oh, sorry, Mr. Krutko. Did you have a question. I’ll turn to Minister McLeod for a response.
Mr. Chairman, I would be willing to wait if Mr. Krutko had some more general comments and I will respond to them all at once. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was just going raise a question in regards to the Auditor General report which was presented February 2008. I know I raised issues in the House yesterday about the Homeownership Program. One of the recommendations in regards to the report, it says that the evaluation of Homeownership Programs is not performed on a regular basis. So I would just like to know when is the review taking place on the program and exactly what type of review are we looking at in regards to performance review, in regards to client surveys. Are we going to be looking at the whole area of accessibility and also ensuring that we do have a system?
I know we’ve raised the issue of appeals and whatnot for clients who have had issue with it. I know that the Auditor’s General report was pretty intense and basically went through quite a few things, and I know that the department has made efforts to review some of those recommendations. But I’d just like to ask exactly where is that program going.
One of the other areas that I think we’ve raised a lot of times, especially from our small communities, is log construction. It seems like this government or this department does not want to see log houses built in the communities. I think for our residents in our communities, especially the aboriginal communities, they’ve always worked with wood in regard to log cabins, log homes that they’ve built themselves in the past, and there are still people in our communities that have log houses. But I think that we have to start using the timber resources in the Northwest Territories, especially our forestry resources, and stop importing a lot of our wood products where we can produce it in the North, especially where we have the potential of wood misers or sawmills or even looking at the areas that we have for that potential. I know that the government in the past, through previous governments, have looked at log housing initiatives. I think that, for myself, we have to not totally exclude that opportunity that’s there, especially where we do have the timber stands, we do have the resources close by our communities or around our communities and that people have had experience with building log houses in the past. Again, I think that we have to look at those types of initiatives.
The other initiative that has been very successful, especially in my riding, is the area of the Elders on the Land Program where people that basically want to live out on the land but also don’t really want to be in town, but having the ability to implement that program. I know, especially for seniors and people that we talk about improving the quality of life for people, one thing that we found in McPherson especially is the seniors that do have the elders units on the land is that they’re probably one of the healthier people in our communities, if not the healthiest. They still carry on a very traditional lifestyle. They still continue their traditional pursuits such as fishing and dealing with the caribou meat and making dried meat, dried fish, and also continue to be independent where they cut their own wood, they pack their own wood, pack their water. Yet, that traditional lifestyle is not acceptable in existing housing programs we have. I think a lot of people, I don’t know if it’s a question of allergies or whatnot or just dealing with housing construction, you hear from a few people that because these new, modern homes, they make them so energy efficient that they basically are circulating a lot of the air in the units where you don’t have that ability.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d seriously consider looking at those types of initiatives and, more importantly, reviewing exactly what was suggested by the Auditor General of having a regular review of the program services on a regular basis so that we can see exactly what the pros and cons of those programs are and making them better than what they already are and, if anything, improving on what we already have. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko, for that second set of general comments. I’ll call on the Minister to reply to all comments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There were a wide range of comments that were brought up and obviously housing is an issue that’s felt very strongly about in the communities.
Mr. Menicoche was speaking about the mould in some of the units. Most of the technical staff in the regions now do have mould remediation training, so they’re getting educated on how to deal with the mould issue.
The comments made by Mr. Hawkins on the barrier-free units, he talked about a strategy but a strategy is a report and we realize that we have probably 300 barrier-free units in our public housing inventory. For those that are living in private housing that apply for the CARE program and qualify, if they are a disabled person, the money that they would qualify for doubles what most people would qualify for, up to a maximum of $180,000 to convert their unit into a barrier-free unit, which I think would go a long way in assisting them with their quality of life.
There was a lot of discussion on arrears. Arrears always seems to be one of the big problems that we hear about across the Northwest Territories and is one that my office gets a lot of calls about is the amount of arrears and I can’t qualify for a program. We have to understand that the Housing Corp has gone a long way into trying to assist most people with homeownership. A lot of the homeownership that they’re applying to get repaired are units that were given to them originally by the Housing Corporation, and you have a lot of folks out there that honour their commitment, that make their regular payments. It must be discouraging for them to hear, too, that folks that are not honouring their commitment or asking for forgiveness of their loans when they’ve been paying faithfully for 25, 30 years. I think that’s one of the reasons that we find ourselves $10 million in arrears in the mortgage file. Recognizing that, the Housing Corporation also recognizes that work needs to be done on some of the units that these folks have. So as part of the CARE, the home repair program, they’ve allowed up to $5,000 in arrears. So that would help a lot of people. If you’re $5,000 in arrears, then you could qualify for a repair program.
The CMHC funding, that’s always going to be an issue. This is a national issue; 650,000 units across Canada. A business case is being developed for Parliament to make them realize that this money is still needed in all jurisdictions. We hear about the core need groups and the community needs survey we did will go a long way in determining our infrastructure allocation for the next budget. This particular budget that we’re dealing with now has already been set, so we’re going to use this information that we gather to plan for our 2011-12 fiscal year. So those communities that are in higher core need will obviously be given more of a priority in allocating infrastructure projects. That goes to some of Mr. Jacobson’s points that he’s got a community that needs units and if it’s identified as part of the community survey, the core needs survey, then they would be given a priority.
I’m just trying to go down the list here. Mr. Krutko’s remarks on the Auditor General. I think we’re updating committee here quite shortly. I mentioned before that 2010-11, this fiscal year there will be a review done as per the Auditor General’s recommendations. I think this is going to be year three so we’ll have a review of all the programs, the Housing Choices programs and our programs across… The log houses, we quite agree. I mean, I’d like to see more log houses, but now with the crunch on dollars, it’s getting to be a little more difficult. If there’s a business case that could be made for doing it cheaper than stick-built then it’s something that we’re always willing to look at. Talking about local suppliers of lumber, I know with the wood miser and everything it would be awfully difficult because building material has to meet a certain standard right down to the moisture content. That’s why a lot of the stick-built material comes in. So a business case mostly for the log houses.
The Elders on the Land program, I mean, we agree, there’s a lot of good benefit to having that. Also, it has to be, I think one of the stipulations is it has to be their primary residence. We have a lot of folks out there that have had some of the program dollars for Elders on the Land, but it’s not their primary residence. It’s basically a cabin in the bush. I mean, we’d love to see more people out on the land. If that’s their primary residence, then we’d be willing to work with them.
We hear a lot about the frustration of the way the Housing Corporation operates sometimes. Most of the frustration is around arrears and it’s frustrating on our part to have to tell a Member that we’ve received a call from... Well, first of all, a person didn’t apply and then they had arrears and if we start overlooking the arrears, we are setting a very expensive precedent. Everyone will say why should I bother paying and then we’ll have an issue where we will have more money in arrears. I would think we need to be fair to everyone and we try to be as fair as possible. We’ve proven that with allowing up to $5,000 arrears in the Home Repair Program, but we need to be fair to all those out there that they are honouring their commitments, they are paying quite regularly. We have public housing tenants all across the Northwest Territories that are faithfully paying. So we have to make sure that we are fair to everybody and we send the right message out there.
The Housing Corp has a huge responsibility in providing homeownership but also tenants and clients have a huge responsibility in honouring the commitments, and I think when they do that, we’ll see an improvement. Just imagine how much more we could do with all the money that are outstanding in arrears.
So, Mr. Chair, I hope I have been able to address some of the Members’ questions and concerns. I think I’ve touched on just about all of them and I’m sure I’ll have more comments and questions as we go through page by page. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Does committee agree that that concludes general comments?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to report progress.
I move...
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Once again, please.
I move that we report progress.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson.
---Carried
Can I have the report of Committee of the Whole, please, Mr. Bromley?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 62-16(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2010-2011, and would like to report progress. I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Do we have a seconder? The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, there will be a meeting of the Priorities and Planning committee tonight at the rise of the House.
Orders of the day for Friday, February 12, 2010, 10:00 a.m.:
Prayer
Ministers’ Statements
Members’ Statements
Returns to Oral Questions
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Acknowledgements
Oral Questions
Written Questions
Returns to Written Questions
Replies to Opening Address
Petitions
Reports of Standing and Special Committees
Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills
Tabling of Documents
Notices of Motion
Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills
Motions
First Reading of Bills
Second Reading of Bills
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bill 2, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2009-2010
Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act
Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Summary Conviction Procedures Act
Tabled Document 62-16(4), Northwest Territories Main Estimates, 2010-2011
Minister’s Statement 47-16(4), Transfer of the Public Housing Rental Subsidy
Report of Committee of the Whole
Third Reading of Bills
Orders of the Day
Thank you, Madam Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Friday, February 12th, at 10:00 a.m.
---ADJOURNMENT
The House adjourned at 6:01 p.m.
