Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I spoke of the public housing rent scale in non-market communities acting as a bit of a deterrent for people working. I have some questions for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. Does the Minister agree that public housing rent scale is different between market communities and non-market communities?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is obviously a difference and we all realize that between all the communities in the Northwest Territories as to how the rent is calculated. Having said that, I do agree with the Member that there is a difference in the amount of the rent scale.
Just to add a little to that, I was looking for more of an amount. Not a specific amount, but does the Minister agree that the average public housing paid, average rent paid for public housing in market communities is higher than the non-market communities?
There are many things taken into consideration when they calculate the rent scale and a lot of things are factored into coming up with the amount of rent that the folks pay in the communities. I do know that there is a bit of a discrepancy at the regional level. That’s one of the reasons the Housing Corporation is entertaining the idea of going to a regional rent scale. That would benefit some of the smaller communities that are maybe a few minutes away from some of the larger communities and the rent calculated in those communities is quite different.
I’d like to ask the Minister if there’s a policy that prevents the Minister from establishing maximum rents and replacing economic rents with maximum rents in non-market communities.
That’s one of the things we are looking at doing, is a rent scale review. We’ve tied it in with the Shelter Policy review because we feel that this is one that will be a way forward document for the NWT Housing Corporation.
We’ve heard many suggestions from Members, we’ve heard many suggestions from members of the public and all the general assemblies that we go to as to how we should calculate rent. I can assure the Member and all Members that we’ll look at any way possible to try and be fair and just be sure that all tenants from across the Northwest Territories are treated the same and treated fairly.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s good news. Will the Minister direct his staff to look at this very specific point, and that very specific point is that non-market communities use economic rents? Economic rents are established to recover costs. People never pay that, because there’s no work. Will the Minister direct his staff to look at the feasibility of establishing a maximum rent for all non-market communities?
We are in the process of reviewing the way we deliver public housing and the way we calculate rents and that. I can assure the Member that this is one that we will continue to have a look at.
When we talk about the maximum rent, there is a maximum rent. There is the economic rent and very few people in the Northwest Territories pay the full economic rent, as the Member points out, because of the lack of work. Even those that are working, very few pay maximum rent. I think we have maybe 12 across the Northwest Territories out of 2,400 units that we deliver. I think that’s a pretty good percentage. We do what we can to ensure that all tenants of the NWT Housing Corporation and public housing portfolio are treated the same.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
