Debates of February 24, 2005 (day 43)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the 15th Legislative Assembly vision statement sets a goal of adequate, affordable and accessible housing;

AND WHEREAS current policies on housing programs for seniors and disabled persons are uncoordinated and there is a clear need to improve the level of services so that individuals are able to live independently and with dignity;

AND WHEREAS there is significant housing infrastructure that is underused because it was built without ensuring it met client or community needs;

AND WHEREAS the $33.2 million annual contribution for public housing from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation will be reduced over the next 34 years and will sunset completely by the year 2038;

AND WHEREAS nearly one year has passed since the Premier advised this House on March 29, 2004, that the government had initiated steps toward development of a comprehensive, coordinated, interdepartmental strategy for addressing homelessness in the Northwest Territories;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the government develop a coordinated housing program for those in need, including an assisted living program for seniors and disabled persons, which allows individuals who wish to stay in their home community or region to do so wherever possible;

AND FURTHER that the government continue to pursue initiatives with national aboriginal organizations, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to secure additional funding to address aboriginal housing needs;

AND FURTHERMORE that the government ensure there is community support and a client base for infrastructure before making capital investments;

AND FURTHERMORE that the government bring to this House by October 2005 a detailed plan including fiscal forecasts and timelines on how to replace the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation funding which is due to be reduced over the next 34 years and sunsets completely by the year 2038;

AND FURTHERMORE that the government accelerate development of a comprehensive strategy on homelessness.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The development of the Assembly’s position on housing is one that is very high up on the radar screen, very close to all of our constituents, no matter what riding we are from. We are addressing these needs, Mr. Speaker, through our voices here in the Assembly, through our research, through our participation in forums, in housing seminars, in meetings and workshops with our constituents and with the non-government organizations, Mr. Speaker, which are so incredibly valuable to the delivery of housing programs for those in need, for the homeless, for the disadvantaged. Mr. Speaker, there are aspects of this that really must be recognized. It is something we have to remind ourselves of.

Sixty percent of the entire budget of this government -- that is about $600 million -- is delivered through non-governmental organizations and boards and authorities. Now when we are looking at something as all-encompassing as housing in our society, this is something that touches on many different organizations. It is through the dedication and commitment and passion of those volunteer-lead organizations like the YWCA, the Salvation Army here in Yellowknife and housing authorities, that we’re taking our queues and getting our signals and bringing the attention, bringing the focus, bringing the momentum and the urgency, Mr. Speaker, for the needs that are outlined in this motion. In fact, when we were drafting this, we went from single line furthermores and therefores, Mr. Speaker, to almost two pages, trying to decide how we are going to help keep this message at the top of the radar screen. How are we going to get it through, how are we going to do something that is going to get action and results? We honed this down, Mr. Speaker, to five different areas that we feel are at the very top of the radar screen, and this is what our motion addresses. So to the motion, Mr. Speaker, a coordinated housing program for seniors and disabled persons.

I have attended a number of different workshops and forums in the five years that I’ve been an MLA, Mr. Speaker. I’ve seen that we are, as a relatively young jurisdiction, developing our social safety net. We’re not doing too bad a job in terms of the policy side. We’re listening. We are growing and maturing as a government, in realizing and doing what we can to deliver these kinds of services. But we do have a long way to go in terms of coordinating and really delivering, in as many communities as possible, what the disabled and senior people really have come to so rightfully deserve in other parts of Canada. We’re getting there, but we cannot stop at the basis of a piece of paper and policy.

Mr. Speaker, our motion also calls on the government to pursue initiatives with aboriginal organizations, DIAND, and CMHC, to secure additional funding to address aboriginal housing needs. This is where during question period I spoke to the potential of a very powerful partner to be brought into this. This is the weight and strength financially and, of course, to the communities, to the people of the aboriginal development corporations and First Nations. I think there is a natural fit here if we, as a government, can think outside that box and look for really innovative ways to involve other people in arriving at these solutions.

Mr. Speaker, we also heard considerable traffic about the need for government to make sure that when we’re going to make an investment or a move into a community, that we do so with the basis of some research and knowledge and confidence about what is going on in a particular community. The market housing initiative, whatever you want to call it, is a prime example of that. In fact, it’s almost a contradiction in terms that we’re trying to introduce in non-market communities or those that don’t have a viable private sector market of their own, we’re trying to inject or impose the idea that there can be conventional market housing. If this was possible, Mr. Speaker, doesn’t it make sense that there would already be something there? Why are we trying to jam something into a community that is contrived or artificial or really has no basis of success or sustainability from that community’s point of view?

The Minister has made a very strong point and, in fact, it was at least in part at the urging of Members on this side of the House that we wanted to have housing solutions delivered to those small communities so they could stand at least that much more of an opportunity, more of a chance to keep their essential workers, their health workers, their teachers, the social service workers, so that at least we wouldn’t have the excuse or reason or cause of poor or inadequate housing as the reason these communities can’t keep these people. We continue to endorse it, we need to have that. The way our government is delivering that service has certainly brought this into question and that was the reason, Mr. Speaker, for that particular part of this motion.

I have focused on the need for what I think is an extremely serious long-term problem for this government, and that would be the loss over the next 30 or so years. It might seem like a long time, but it has happened to us every year. We’re losing, bit by bit, tens of millions of dollars that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation was injecting into the Northwest Territories. The opportunities that we have to replace that with our own devices, I would say we’re kidding ourselves, Mr. Speaker, if we think we can do this from our own resources and with the conventional ways of thinking that we have always brought to bear on this. We’ve got to get going on this one. It will become a much more serious issue not only on our revenue side, but on our expenditures side. Certainly, Mr. Speaker, from the point of view of the health and wellbeing and the wellness of our communities and families, we have to attack this.

Homelessness is another one of those situations, Mr. Speaker, when good times, boom times come, there are inevitably people who are forced out of that stream of wealth and prosperity and really fall into the cracks. It’s been something that really hasn’t been that much of an issue. It really is not that large and has not been a chronic situation, I think, until in very recent years. Mr. Speaker, especially in our larger communities now where the wealth and the attraction is coming, we’re finding that those people, the truly homeless, are becoming much more evident on our streets and businesses, in back alleys and homes. Here in Yellowknife one signal of this is the amount of crime, Mr. Speaker, that is happening in our businesses and in our suburbs. This is at least one sign that homelessness really is here. It is here to stay and we have to do things to deal with it.

Mr. Speaker, those are my general comments in support of this motion. We covered here how many different departments? We covered the Housing Corporation, of course; we covered Finance; I suppose we could also say that somewhere in here was the Minister responsible for homelessness. But I would conclude, Mr. Speaker, by saying that each and every one of our Ministers and the Premier within our portfolios has got a very direct and a very large mandate and responsibility for the state of housing and homes in the Northwest Territories. None of our departments and none of our Ministers can dodge this one and I hope that we can engage them all in this very critical government-wide, territory-wide, society-wide issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. To the motion. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise in support of this motion and just wanted to point out that a lot of the issues that I face as an MLA, about 80 percent of it is housing. I travel to the communities and that’s one of the first things that people point out to me, is that we have to keep addressing our needs. So that’s what I’ve been trying to do. I’ve been urging, I’ve been working with the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to try to find solutions in the Nahendeh.

In my Member’s statement today I spoke about single housing. That’s one of the biggest needs that’s coming up right now. We don’t specifically speak to it in the motion, Mr. Speaker, but that’s one of the growing needs that’s happening already.

But in terms of the motion; yes, the people do want social housing. I don’t know how or when or why our government is moving away from social housing, Mr. Speaker. In fact, I don’t know when they’re changing the mandate or who gave them the authority to change their mandate. I think we give them the mandate and I think the people give the government a mandate. People still want social housing. In terms of that, once again I’d like to urge government to take the cotton balls out of their ears and say hey, we want social housing. Let’s move in that direction again.

There are people out there who want to build houses, they need some help, they want assistance in building their houses. They don’t want people to do it for them. But we don’t have a program for that anymore. It used to be called the HAP program, and people were proud to be building their own homes. But we’re not allowing that to happen anymore, Mr. Speaker. They think it should, and I think it should, and I believe our government should make it happen that way.

As well, in terms of disabled housing, there’s a little bit of mixture because it is part of Health and Social Services' responsibility to help the disabled modify their houses, as well as the Housing Corporation does have a bit of a program. So there has to be better coordination and efforts in making our houses more disabled friendly.

But to confuse the people out there by sending them from one department to another department, just doesn’t work. It just frustrates people, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to see a more coordinated effort or perhaps another transfer of responsibilities and say, okay, one guy will handle this segment.

Just with that, Mr. Speaker, I think that we have a whole new pot of money set aside in the federal government that was announced yesterday. It’s still not clear, but I think that our Minister should go to Ottawa and not come back until he has answers for us.

---Laughter

---Applause

I think the Minister should go to Ottawa and not come back until he’s got us positive answers to social housing.

---Laughter

---Applause

With that, Mr. Speaker, I once again speak in favour of this motion. It’s, indeed, my way of getting the government to listen to us to bring housing more in the forefront to this Assembly and the NWT as a whole. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion.

Question.

Question has been called. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won’t be long; however, I have to stress I was very pleased, at the very end of question period, with Mr. Krutko’s willingness to work toward developing possible policies. His willingness is much appreciated on this side of the House, at least from my perspective.

Mr. Speaker, I spoke very clearly about the concerns we have in parts of my riding, and I’m sure they apply to many other ridings, that our seniors are really struggling to live in an environment that shows them dignity. We have people in our communities who have disabilities, who have trouble simply reaching their cabinets. They can’t get into their showers. There are an endless amount of problems, Mr. Speaker. I have to reaffirm that this policy speaks clearly to some of the needs I’ve brought up.

I’m really pleased, quite honestly, that we’re having a housing Minister listening to some of the needs in our disabled community. It’s nice to see a couple of Ministers are out there who are listening, and I hope the other Ministers who are not listening will take note. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion.

Question.

Question has been called. To the motion. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues, for giving me the opportunity to speak. I’d like to rise and speak in favour of the motion. Mr. Speaker, I think there is a lot in this motion and it reflects the frustration on the part of the Members in terms of the government’s inability to meet the needs of housing in the North. It also speaks to the desire on the part of the Members to improve the situation as much as we can.

Mr. Speaker, I think there is a need to review the mandate and the work of the Housing Corporation in light of the fact that there are so many needs there and that we didn’t see in the federal budget any additional funding to meet these needs. I know there are lots of programs in the Housing Corporation that meet the needs here and there in patchwork, but I think it is time for us to review this comprehensively and really have a discussion about where we are going from here.

Mr. Speaker, in this year’s budget, there is about $35 million allocated for the Housing Corporation, and surely it is incumbent on us to do a better job with that money to make sure we create more housing for the people. We cannot continue to have the corporation introduce a policy like the market housing initiative. That was really poorly thought out, I must tell you, Mr. Speaker. I think even the officials and the Minister, in their private moments, would admit that the rollout of that was not as good as it could have been. It’s hard to believe that I’m standing here exactly a year after all the debate we had in the House last year, and that there has been no work done to really change and answer to so many questions that were asked about why we are waiving the BIP, why we are ordering mobile homes instead of doing more long-term thinking and see how we can really provide housing in communities. There is no real long-term view given to how we support and cooperate with the northern manufacturing industry.

Mr. Speaker, regardless of what the Ministers are saying, I can tell you there are businesses in Yellowknife and in Hay River, and I’m sure in Inuvik, there are lots of businesses in the North that would be interested in working with the government and becoming a partner in using what little dollars we have to build housing that meets the needs of northerners, that meets the needs of northern climates, that meets the needs of income situations in our communities. There could be partnerships with the band corporations. There are all sorts of creative ways in which the government should be looking at it, and this government had promised to look at that last year.

The previous Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, the Honourable Michael McLeod, put it in writing that they would look at things differently and that they would not be coming here and asking us for a rush job because they had to meet the barge and whatever external circumstances that they couldn’t control. A year later we’re operating under exactly the same conditions and I’m just really tired of us sitting here, standing here, being asked to do the same dumb thing over and over again, Mr. Speaker. Sorry; less than intelligent things. Sorry; my apologies for that bad word.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve already made a lengthy, heated statement about what I think of the market housing initiative as one of the policies that did not work out so well in terms of addressing housing needs.

I am in support of the overall motion. I intend to pursue these issues that I have brought up further for the remainder of the Assembly during this session, because I believe these are really crucial issues that we need to discuss. If the federal government is not doing anything about our housing, it is incumbent on us to do what we can and do a lot more to address our housing needs. Coming up with willy-nilly, temporary, poorly-thought-out policies like the market housing initiative without doing all the homework is not the way to do that. Mr. Speaker, I will be voting in favour of this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. To the motion.

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

---Applause