Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I will take it as a comment. Page 5-55, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, programs and district operations, operations expenditure summary. Any questions?
Agreed.
We are moving on to 5-56. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one question here. It is under the mobile and computer equipment line item. There is $425,000 in 2012-13 and nothing in 2013-14, so what are we not doing? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister McLeod.
Mr. Chair, that is in capital now. That’s why it’s not reflected here.
Whose capital? Maybe the Minister could be a little more specific and tell me where the money is in the budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll go to Mr. Anderson.
Mr. Chair, yes, the funding for mobile and computer equipment has been transferred to, and is reflected in, the Infrastructure Acquisition Plan for the corporation for next year. Thank you.
That’s good. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Committee, 5-56. Mr. Bromley.
Just very quickly, there is a very steady and seemingly steep drop in the CMHC repair programs. Could I just request an explanation on that once again? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that we’ll go to Mr. Stewart.
Mr. Chair, really what’s going on there is that our own programs have become… People have been more aware of that. They have been applying for our programs as opposed to the CMHC programs. So we have moved some of the resources that previously were under those program titles into our own. It’s not a question of them losing money, it’s really us focusing on our own program offerings as opposed to what we are doing for CMHC. It’s the same amount of money, but we are now focusing much more on our own design programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Page 5-56, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, programs and district operations, grants and contributions, contributions. Are there any questions?
Agreed.
Page 5-59, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, local housing organizations, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Blake.
Mr. Chair, I just wanted to ask the Minister if this included the forming of the housing board in Tsiigehtchic. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister McLeod.
Mr. Chair, it is a very consistent question for representatives from Tsiigehtchic and the Member for Mackenzie Delta. We have been waiting on the leadership in Tsiigehtchic to come to us and send us a letter saying they want to form a board. As far as I know, we haven’t received that yet. This has been an ongoing issue for two or three years now. They have a desire to form a board. We may need to get our district folks to follow up with them to see if a letter is forthcoming.
I was assured that the letter was sent, but I will double check and make sure of that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. I will take that as a comment. Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Chair, I’m just wondering where we’re at in response to recovering from the episode of moving ECE for a few years and now back under this Minister’s leadership. What is our debt situation and how are we doing with collections? If I could just get an update on that area. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod.
Mr. Chair, I was hoping somebody would ask the question on collection rates because it is something that we’re quite proud of, not only for ourselves but the tenants out there. The collection rates have been doing really well. We have one region in particular, the Sahtu. I think their collection rate there is over 100 percent. It is 122 percent collection rate in the Sahtu. That indicates that folks are keeping up with their assessments and they are also putting money on what arrears that they may have. So the collection rates across the Northwest Territories have been going really well.
We did a lot of work after it was transferred back to the NWT Housing Corp from ECE. There were a lot of people that had huge arrears. So I think I’ve told Committee of the Whole before that we’ve gone pretty well to every LHO, worked with every client, and a number of balances were adjusted because it was just a matter of not reporting their income, it was a bunch of different issues, but we’ve done quite well with that, and again, I commend all the people out there.
We have a couple of communities where it’s still a bit of a challenge, but we are working with those communities to try and improve their collection rates, but overall I think we all should be very pleased with the collection rates in the communities. It indicates that people are starting to take a lot more responsibility for not only paying their rent, but the big problem was verifying their income and we seem to be going in the right direction. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that good news. I think it would be useful if the Minister could provide an update to all of us really, probably in our respective ridings, on where we’re at. Maybe by community it would be useful for us to once again get on top of that. Just sort of a parallel question, if I could get a similar update of how our LHOs are doing knowing that those are related issues, but I know some of the LHOs have gone through real bottlenecks and difficulties with paying for utilities and so on and working within their budgets. If I could maybe get an update there. Thank you.
We will provide the list of collection rates by community for across the Northwest Territories. That way the Members that have the ones with the lower collection rates can go and encourage them to start living up to their responsibilities. The communities have been responding pretty good.
As far as the LHOs go, we have seven that have a small deficit, it’s probably our lowest number in the last six years. So they’re doing quite well. The ones that we find that we were running into some situations with, we worked very closely with them to try and get everything worked out. So it’s a work in progress and the LHOs are doing a much better job. Again, I keep going back to the new information system that we’re rolling out. We can, almost daily, check on how they’re doing and identify a problem before it gets too big and work with them to try and overcome that. Thank you.
Thank you. Again, it seems to be good news on that front, Mr. Chair. So thanks for that information. I guess my last follow-up on that would be, are there things in particular for those seven that are common across them that they need to focus on or that we should be aware of. Thank you.
Collection is probably one of the biggest ones because you find that the communities that have the lower collections are the ones that are having some trouble financially. Utilities might play a part in that because sometimes what you actually budget them for and what the utilities actually come in at, utility rates might rise. So that’s an issue. But collection, again, is one of the biggest ones. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Committee, we’re on 5-59, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, local housing organizations, operations expenditure summary. Any further questions?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 5-60, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, local housing organizations, grants and contributions, contributions. Any questions?
Agreed.
I see none. Page 5-61, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, lease commitments – infrastructure. Any questions?
Agreed.
Seeing none. Page 5-62, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that consideration for NWT Housing Corporation is completed?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. I would like to thank Minister McLeod. I’d like to thank Mr. Stewart and Mr. Anderson for joining us today. If I could get the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses out of the Chamber. Thank you.
Mr. Menicoche, what is the wish of committee?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that committee reports progress.
---Carried
Can I have the report of Committee of the Whole, please, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014, and would like to report progress with three motions being adopted. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. A motion is on the floor. Do we have a seconder? The seconder is Mr. Jackson Lafferty.
---Carried
Orders of the day for Thursday, February 21, 2013, 1:30 p.m.:
Prayer
Ministers’ Statements
Members’ Statements
Reports of Standing and Special Committees
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 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
Bill 2, An Act to Amend the Territorial Parks Act
Second Reading of Bills
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014
Bill 1, Tlicho Statutes Amendment Act
Report of Committee of the Whole
Third Reading of Bills
Orders of the Day
Thank you, Madam Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Thursday, February 21st, at 1:30 p.m.
---ADJOURNMENT
The House adjourned at 6:56 p.m.
