Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Moving on with general comments, the Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I may repeat some stuff that was mentioned last night. My apologies in advance if I do. It just indicates where my concerns and priorities lie for the department.
At the outset, I want to say that I was pleased to see the recent framework that was published and released. There’s a lot of good stuff in there. I know I felt that there were maybe some details lacking and the department has assured us that those details would be forthcoming. I certainly look forward to seeing more of the details to flesh out that whole framework.
Part of that is in the Minister’s remarks from yesterday, the statement that the Housing Corp has seen and is going to address needs along the entire housing continuum. I’m really glad to hear that. I think the recognition that we have some gaps in our housing continuum is a real step forward. That’s also in the framework.
The framework also talks to the new rent scale. I certainly am pleased to see we are adjusting our rent scales, that we are making some changes that I hope would be for the better. My ask would be that there be an evaluation of the impact of this new scale in about a year’s time, so that we don’t just put it in place and forget about it for 10 years, but that we look at the impact and determine whether or not what we have done as a change is a good thing.
I note in the Minister’s remarks there’s a statement that we have about $2.4 million in forced growth and that it is mainly due to increased utility costs which, unfortunately, everybody in the NWT knows about. But the second part of his paragraph, their task about continuing to do energy upgrades and I’m really glad to see that in there as well. I think we need to continue to put money into upgrades for energy, maintenance, the whole focus that has started to become prevalent within the government. I am very glad to see that.
Along with the continuum of housing -- and I’ve spoken to the Minister and I’ve spoken about it in the House, I know I’ve spoken to Mr. Stewart about it as well – is the need for assistance for people in transitional housing. It’s kind of interesting. I was talking about transition housing relative to another act today. The Transitional Rent Supplement Program, which the Minister mentioned in his opening remarks, I think is going to be a very valuable tool. Similar to the rent scale change, I hope that we will evaluate this program in a short period of time. Don’t wait five years to find out whether or not it’s working. From what I understand of the needs of people that are in transition housing now, between homelessness and their own accommodation, this is going to be something that will assist low-income earners a great deal. I’m anxious to see whether or not our guesses are right.
The move to establish a homelessness coordinator, in my view, is excellent. I was really glad to see that. I have said before that homelessness previously has been handled off the corner of somebody’s desk in this government and we now have a focal point for homelessness. That groups know where they need to go with their homelessness issue or their problems or their concerns is a real bonus. I understand; I’ll ask the question later on, but I understand that the programs will continue. I also understand that the Housing Corp is going to evaluate those programs. I think that’s also a good move. I think they’re a bit piecemeal at the moment and we need to figure out what it is we should be providing for homelessness and have a focused approach. I don’t think we’ve had that for awhile.
I wanted to talk a bit about the LHOs. Some LHOs do great; some LHOs do not do all that well. I think from the Minister’s remarks there is an increased capacity for training and workshops for LHO staff. I think that that’s a recognition that some LHOs do need the extra assistance, and I was pleased to hear that they’re looking at opportunities for bulk purchasing that the Housing Corp was going to try to create efficiencies wherever possible and that’s very positive as well, in my view.
I am extremely concerned, as are all Members, about the declining CMHC funding. This particular budget had almost $1 million investment by the GNWT to make up for what the federal government is not providing us, and in a $1.4 billion budget it’s maybe not a lot of money, but we can do an awful lot in housing for $1 million. So my hope here is that there’s an indication that the Housing Corp is looking at sort of doing an analysis and trying to develop a plan for this declining funding issue. I don’t see and I’m not really sure that a hard, fast, concrete plan is going to be brought forward to Members for consideration anytime in the near future. It would be something I hope that the Housing Corp is going to be working on and will present something to Members sometime soon to say we know this is happening, we’re still working with the feds. But if they don’t produce the extra funding, as I feel they should, this is what we’re going to do as a government.
The only other two things I wanted to mention are rental arrears, which I didn’t see in the Minister’s remarks, but again, it’s a problem that’s been ongoing for quite a long time. Some LHOs are great in collecting their rent, others are not so much. I would just hope that the Housing Corp is going to target those communities that are problematic or do have problems in collecting their rents and have a very high percentage of uncollected rents. Those communities that are doing well, or the LHOs that are doing well, sure, monitor them, but I don’t think we need to focus on them. I would say we need to focus on the ones that aren’t getting the job done.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. That looks like we’ve concluded general comments. I’ll now turn it over to the Minister to offer replies to general comments.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate some of the positive comments from Members regarding housing, but Members also pointed out there’s still some work that needs to be done as far as housing goes, and we recognize that and we’re continuing to work on that. I’m sure we’ll have more questions when we get into detail.
Just to very quickly speak to some of the issues that were raised by a few of the Members. I believe Mr. Bromley had asked yesterday about the energy and the $700,000. It’s going to support 14 projects; it’s going to impact about 250 units. So I’m sure they’ll have more questions when we get to that particular page.
We had some questions on the home ownership side and we are looking at trying to get as many people into our home ownership program as possible and I think Ms. Bisaro and a couple of Members yesterday mentioned the vacant units. We actually started out with 135 a couple of years ago because of the federal investment. We’re down to 16 right now across the Northwest Territories, but we are always taking applications and trying to get people into those 16 units. Because of the investment we had, I think this particular year we were supposed to have quite an investment again in some of the units, but we’ve brought that down to four because we still had a few vacant units that we had to sell. So we’re looking forward to getting those units filled.
I think it was Mr. Nadli yesterday who spoke about trying to get people into their own homes that have been living there for a long time and it’s something that we would like to see as well. I mean, we would try and encourage it. Again, we have to be careful that a lot of these people have been living in these homes, in the public housing units for a number of years. So Housing has been covering most of their expenses. Once they get into the actual home ownership part of it and they take over the units, they have to recognize that there’s going to be costs for utilities and maintaining these units. So we need to work with them and see if they’d be good candidates for home ownership.
Mr. Yakeleya spoke about a few issues yesterday, again talking about not qualifying for some of the programs. Housing tries very hard to try and fit in as many people into programs as possible. A classic example is the HELP program, where we have tenants in there for a couple of years. It used to be that if you had any type of arrears or anything, you wouldn’t qualify just bang like that for one of the programs, but with the HELP program and recognizing we’re trying to get more people in there, we’re willing to overlook up to $5,000 in arrears, which is huge. Also land tenure used to be an issue and land taxes used to be an issue, but we’ve overlooked that. So I think it’s an indication of Housing’s desire to try and get as many people into home ownership. Again, I always go back to the bottom line, we have to make sure that we work with these people so we’re not just putting them in there and setting them up for failure and have them quit claim or give the unit back to Housing after a couple of years.
So we’ve seen some success and we tried a GAP program a couple of years ago, I think, if Members in the 16th recall, where we had tried to take some applications that were just over the core need income threshold and we were able to get maybe four or five more people into home ownership because of that. There were more people that were just over core need income threshold. There were a few people that were over but were turned down for other reasons. It may have been debt load and things like that. So we were able to get a few more people.
Mr. Blake had talked about the CARE program, and Care and Preventative Maintenance Program I think is the one he was referring to. That went up from $2,000 to $3,000 a proposal and that’s a good way of working with people to do a lot of preventative maintenance on their home. Seniors are some of our biggest clients as far as that program goes. He talked about the multiplexes and that’s our plan for the future, is try and go as many multiplex type units as possible, because it does cut down on expenses.
Mr. Moses had talked about arrears. Again, he made a very good point about the fact that arrears collection are quite important to the operation of the LHO because that money just goes back into their operation and if they’re having trouble collecting rent, then they don’t have as much money to invest into repair programs as they would like. I have to admit, though, we have seen some progress in that area and with the moratorium we just had we’ve had a few people step up to the plate and I think we’ve had some people in the communities also starting to step up to the plate. But that goes back to us working closely with the LHOs and monitoring the operations of their local.
We appreciate the comments on homelessness. Mr. Moses had asked about the start date. September 1st is the rollout date for that and we’re looking forward to seeing some good progress come out of that, because we have heard from a lot of Members where it’s awfully tough for somebody that’s just getting a start trying to get a foot in the door to get into public housing. They don’t qualify because they make too much and then they don’t quite make enough for market rent. So I think this is a good way to try and address that.
A couple of Members spoke about the evaluation. I think that’s something that it would be wise of us to do is not wait five years to evaluate a program. Especially with this particular budget year because I think we’ve seen more change in this particular year than any time in the past in the history of the NWT Housing Corporation. I think it would be wise for us after a year to evaluate a lot of the changes we’ve made to see where we could improve or see what’s working well and make some improvements as far as that goes. I will commit to the Members that that is something we will take into consideration and that it’s something that we should not only take into consideration but should do, and I will commit to that.
We’ve had a few good comments on the rent scale. We’re quite excited about that. Obviously, in the budget we’ve requested a few extra dollars to help with the initial rollout of the rent scale. Our vision long term, and I think it’s also the vision of all Members of this Assembly, is because we’ve eliminated some of the barriers that were there with people saying I don’t want to work because I’m going to get nailed with rent. We feel if we keep eliminating some of those barriers then it may encourage more and more people to get out and find some kind of employment and then start paying their share of the rent. I think maybe it won’t be this year and it may not be next year, but I think long term this is going to have some positive benefits not only for the bottom line of the NWT Housing Corporation but for the health and well-being of the residents across the Northwest Territories.
Tracking system. Robert Bouchard had talked about a tracking system and review and we’re rolling out the territorial housing system, and this is going to be a really good way for all the LHOs and headquarters to be linked so we can gather information at the flip of a switch. We will be able to monitor and work with the LHOs and those that do need some help. We recognize that. It goes back again to we have a lot of good LHOs out there, a lot of long-term employees that have been there for 25 or 30 years. We need to work with them a little closer and I think they recognize that and we also recognize that.
Ms. Bisaro talked about the recent framework and I have committed to doing an evaluation of a lot of the new programs that we’ve rolled out. We have tried to address a lot of the needs and filled in some of the gaps, as far as the housing continuum goes. The increased utility costs, our energy upgrades, we’re still trying to work on that. Unfortunately, the utilities costs just seem to be getting higher and higher. I think we’ve had some improvement in that over the last couple of years.
The Rent Supplement Program, I spoke to that before.
The homelessness coordinator, we’re quite excited about that program. I’ll just let Members know that the money for that program is not going to be coming out of the $325,000, it’s going to be funded from within. We’ll just re-profile some money from within the corporation to fund this particular position.
The declining federal funding obviously is a concern. The Member talked about the $990,000 I think the government’s had to put in this year to help offset some of that. We have committed to and will come back before committee in the fall with a plan as to moving forward. I think that answers a couple of questions the Members may have had as to when will we hear.
The rental arrears. Arrears are a huge problem and we’re still working on trying to address some of that. I am fairly encouraged by some of the progress we’ve seen as far as arrears go and I think we’re going to start taking steps in the right direction. I think more and more people out there are starting to recognize that they have a responsibility and if they want units maintained, if they keep up with some of the rental payments, then maybe we’re able to do that. So that takes a lot of pressure off our LHOs in trying to make the dollars go as far as they can. I’ve been in some communities, unfortunately, where there’s not much respect for the units that they have in that particular community. There’s a lot of damage and I’ve pointed it out to members of that particular community. We’re hoping to see an improvement in that. I think overall we’re seeing an improvement in tenants across the Northwest Territories realizing what their responsibilities are.
Some of the decisions we made – the seniors rent, I’ll touch on that – are obviously not the most popular, but we feel in our efforts to try to treat everybody across the NWT as fairly as possible, then these are steps where we have to go. This was a particular program that was started in 1995, I believe, and maybe it’s one that shouldn’t have been started in the first place because we’ve given people that expectation where it’s going to cost you nothing, regardless of how much you make. Given the $1,000 exemption, I think that puts a lot of our seniors right at the minimum and we’re just trying to pull some numbers here to find out the exact percentage of our seniors that will be at the minimum, but we think we’ve tried to address some of those. In conversations with some people out there, our seniors are used to paying their own way and there are some in every region and community that say I don’t mind paying my own way. There are also some that are going to be challenged by this and we recognize that. That’s why we went with... We thought a $1,000 exemption might be a good starting point.
I think I’ve touched on many of the main issues that were raised. Obviously, Members are going to have questions when we go detail-by-detail and I’ll not hold up that process any longer.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. It appears, committee, that we’re concluded with general comments. Does the committee wish to proceed to detail?
Agreed.
Thank you. I’d ask the committee to turn to page 5-41, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, financial summary information. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question on the housing for staff. I see it’s not going to be funded this year. I know there’s a huge need in the communities of Aklavik and Fort McPherson and I’m sure many other communities. I just wanted to know why that wasn’t being funded this year.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have had limited success with that. We’ve had some communities actually put some units in place. We are looking at other options as far as working with the communities to provide staff housing. It is part of the overall framework that we’ve come forward with. We’ll be having more discussions with committee on that. Recognizing the fact that we still have some communities where the incentive might have helped them try and put something in place for their professionals. We’re always willing to look at it on a case-by-case basis.
No further questions.
Page 5-41, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, financial summary information.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 5-43, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, corporate summary.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 5-44, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, active positions by region. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The tours that I’ve been having in the Sahtu region – and I know this came up in the 16th also – this issue here is with the district office in the Sahtu. One of the questions that came up in our communities was the value of having the district office in the Sahtu situated in Norman Wells.
I know the communities talked about moving some of the techies to the communities because the issue came that when the technician, it might improve. Some of the technical staff members come into the communities and they only stay the limited period of time and seem to watch the clock saying the plane is coming and they can’t stay very long. They come once in awhile. The advantage of having them stay there all the time would completely help them understand the programs, understand the applications, and having these positions moved to the communities under a universal partnership agreement. This is one level of bureaucracy that we have in the Sahtu and some of them see that these positions could be moved right into the communities and funded by people in the communities.
I know this request came some time ago and it didn’t get good traction with Housing as to not having these positions moved to the communities. I just want to raise that with the Minister.
I’m not making a request because I certainly haven’t done enough research, but I certainly know that this has been a long-standing issue in the Sahtu communities. I just want to make sure that this issue is still alive with the government, even if they don’t agree with it, that this is what the people want. Until we start making some improvements to having the technicians stay longer in the communities. They may have improved. I’m not too sure. I certainly get complaints from Colville Lake and some other communities.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think if you look at the active positions by region, you’ll notice that the Housing Corporation, probably within all departments, has most of our people spread out over the regions. Then if you count our LHO employees, we’ve got about 130 in all the communities across the Northwest Territories.
We have tried to provide more support to our district offices so our people can get out into the communities more. One of the things we’re working on, one of the initiatives we are working on right now, is working with our LHOs to try and get them more involved in all aspects of the Housing Corporation. We feel that we’re taking some steps to address some of that.
Our preference would be to have most of our technical folks in one central location within the region so they can all work together. It’s just a matter of trying to get them out to the communities and maybe stay a little longer and then work closely with the communities and LHOs to try to get them more involved in a lot of the programs that the Housing Corporation delivers. That is one of the initiatives that we’re working on right now. As soon as we have more information on that, I’d be willing to share it with the Members.
I certainly appreciate the Minister’s comments to look at the district office and to look at where the technical advisors could actually stay a little longer. They are making improvements. I made this point here because when I was in Deline, I talked to some of the people there, and basically one of the persons that I talked to actually had to tell the technical person – the techie they call him – to stay and come to my office because I need to talk to you and not to go back to Norman Wells. That’s the only way I got the attention of the techie.
We need to do something with the attitude of the technicians when they go into the community to stay and listen to the people. We can’t just say something and expect them to know this. They’re not around there.
I’m glad the Minister is saying that the LHOs are maybe slowly going to start to know and assist through the district office what’s expected. Things are not always run according to the theory. In practicality, it’s a little more challenging. That’s what I want to keep the Minister apprised of that. These techies are very important. But if they’re always, their mind is on catching the 4:00 flight or 4:30, they’re not totally there with the client. They’re rushing through it. Fill out this application and go see. Some of the LHO staff don’t even know that they’ve got an additional job on there. That’s why I’m asking and I think the people are asking. These techies are very important and they’re good people. They’re good people. I like them because they mean well. For some things maybe they’re under pressure by the district office or the regional manager or financial constraints saying they’re costing extra fuel and more dollars if you stay longer in Tulita or Colville Lake. It’s going to cost us. It’s all on budget. That’s why I’m asking and that’s why the people are asking. If it’s not done properly, then maybe the techies should be coming out of the communities and not so much situated in one regional office in Norman Wells. Maybe we could look at cost-savings or making our money go more efficiently or effectively in the communities of Good Hope, Colville Lake and the other communities of Deline, Tulita and the Wells.
I’m just raising this as an issue, and that’s what the people are asking. Again, I believe the staff here is going to work on that issue. If not, rest assured, I’ll bring it up again at the next budget time.
I’ve heard the Member’s comments and I’m told that we will have some discussions and work with our district office and try to give more support to our district office so they can spend more time out in the region. Then again, working with the LHOs and seeking a lot of input from the LHOs, because they do have a lot of local expertise that we need to tap into. Thank you.
Page 5-44, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, active positions by region. Any questions? Page 5-47, NWT Housing Corporation, information item, executive. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions here are on policy development. I know the Minister is aware of the interest and the financial incentives of having wood heat in our public housing. Somehow there are a lot of jurisdictions around the world that have figured that out so that there is off-the-shelf technology, and insurance companies and liabilities are adjusted with the reliability of those systems. My first question is: Can we not find a way? I know this is a challenge but I also know it’s being done elsewhere. Can we not find a way to develop a policy and start realizing this opportunity by way of, I guess, engaging our tenants in part of the utility costs, as well as reducing our energy costs, total energy costs and other benefits? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have to look at all options as far as the NWT Housing Corporation goes. I would be very careful, and we have to do our homework obviously, I’d be very careful as far as putting woodstoves into every public housing unit. If there are other options we could look at like a biomass central heating system for some of our multiplexes, then we need to start going in that direction first.
We’d have to do some research to see what other jurisdictions are doing. We’re a whole different kettle of fish up here and our situation is not quite the same as what they are in other jurisdictions, but it would warrant, I think, more research as far as our looking at different sources of heating. Wood pellet, as the Member has raised on a number of occasions, would be one option, but at the same time, we have to make sure they’re cost competitive.
I believe in alternate energy as much as the next guy, but I want to make sure these are all cost competitive without massive subsidies that we’d have to be paying out. It is one though that warrants, I think, more research.
One of the things we want to look at right away is how could we incorporate biomass into a central heating system and use that in some of our multiplex units, which is the direction we’re going in the future. Thank you.
Thanks for the comments from the Minister. Those are good comments and I totally agree, you know, if we can do it on a larger scale than just individual units, that’s definitely where the Housing Corporation should be coming from. He also said we would have to do the work. I think that’s what I and others have been asking for all along, is to do the work required to… Actually, I’m not saying throw an individual woodstove into every house without the work being done. I am asking for that work to be done.
My next question is sort of related to that. I’m very pleased to hear the Minister’s comments on his interest in the central heating systems, though, and I hope he will bring that to committee soon and follow up on that. I think it’s a real opportunity for saving money and so on with due diligence on the economics of it and so on.
The option for a work/rent exchange or some other mechanism of engaging tenants, as we’ve discussed in the past, did not come through strongly in the new strategy I’ve seen, and I still see lots of opportunities for that sort of thing, engaging our tenants. Is there any further work being done at the policy level to explore options there? Thank you.
Just going back to Mr. Bromley’s original… We have some initiatives that we are working on as far as the energy efficiency part. I have a partial list here. Probably the easiest thing to do instead of me reading if off with the numbers and everything, I’ll supply it to committee, and I think you’re going to be pleased with some of the initiatives and the first steps we’re taking.
As far as the policy on working off arrears – and I think that’s where the Member was going – we have had some discussions on that. We are putting something together here to see how it works. There are issues we have to work through, but I think that at the end of the day, we’re looking forward to trying to get some initiative like that going, because a couple of pilot projects in the past have worked fairly well. There are other outstanding issues that go along with this particular one, but we need to work through those and see if we can get this one on the ground so we give tenants an opportunity to work off a portion of their arrears. Thank you.
Thanks for the Minister’s comments again. That wasn’t exactly where I was headed. I think, when we have able-bodied people who are paying $32 per month or whatever the new amount might be, who are unemployed but willing to work, it seems legitimate to either require their participation if there is a way we can responsibly ask for them to contribute, and in a way, I’m thinking almost like an informal apprenticeship program or something, that both contribute to the maintenance of our housing infrastructure and the development of our tenants’ skills for those that are willing and able.
Another option would be a rent exchange, so instead of paying rent, to have the opportunity to provide the rent in forms of labour and at the same time, again, improve their skills and so on. That’s sort of where I was going and wondering if there was any inclination or activity in the policy development area in that respect. Thank you.
Those are discussions we’ve had at the senior level. We want to start off with maybe a pilot project as far as the arrears go and see how that works and then continue to develop the next part of it. I think, in some cases, there are places where they do take people that are living in public housing and they take a portion of what they earn, maybe 50 percent, put that towards the arrears and then they’re paid a small fee. There may have been cases like that in the past, but in the overall picture as far as the overall NWT Housing Corporation and all our communities, it’s something we need to look at. But the one we want to start off is arrears and see how that’s working and see if there’s more merit in trying to advance the next part of it forward. But it is on the radar. I can let the Member know that, and it’s one that we are discussing, as well as a lot of the issues that the Members have brought to our attention in the past couple of years. Thank you.
My last question is along the same lines. Are we offering any incentives for power conservation, for example, recognizing that tenants are paying much less than the actual cost of power? It seems like it would be worthwhile to offer incentives that would get us a net gain there and I’m wondering if we are doing any policy development in that area. Thank you.
As far as offering incentives, I think one of the incentives is the less power they use, the less it’s going to cost them in the long run. Part of our new approach and part of the framework is we’re going to go from six cents to nine cents that we charge tenants. We’re hoping having them pay a little bit of a higher fee will cause them to consume less power. It’s a start and it’s one that we are looking at.
As far as policy development and incentives, again, any initiatives brought forward by the Member, I think we’d be wise as a corporation to at least do some exploring and see if there’s merit to many of these initiatives. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. One final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you. Just to add to that a little bit, Mr. Chair, the tenant is paying six cents, going to be nine cents. The government is paying an average of a buck fifty, so it seems like there is an awful lot of room for incentive there to get beyond that modest three cents or nine cents to get the tenant to conserve electrical power and still be a net gain for the government. I’ll just leave it at that. Just a comment. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I’ll treat it as a comment. Moving on, we have Mr. Yakeleya.
Can the Minister provide us with small communities for shelters or homeless funding? I know the Minister talked about that in his opening comments. I appreciate the small community homeless funding that’s coming forward. It’s much needed in our communities in the Sahtu. I know some of these communities have this type of support. There are 27 communities that will receive this type of funding in the amount of 300 and some-odd thousand dollars. I wonder if the Minister can provide a written document to me and I’ll ask how these communities are eligible, first-come, first-served. What is the highest criteria? How does this money get divvied up within in the year of this homeless funding?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There’s an application process that should be coming out pretty soon. They can put in an application for specific projects in their community. In 2011-12 we had about eight different initiatives out there from Bailey Hot Soup Lunch Program to Food Bank to Shelter Enhancement Project, Soup Kitchen. So there are some opportunities there. Again, there is an application process and it’s going to be coming out very shortly here. Thank you.
I’ll look forward to the application process coming out and notifying the communities in the Sahtu that they can apply for this and where to go.
Another issue I think over time the Minister has informed me of his community of Inuvik, there’s a project – I stand to be corrected – where people work off their arrears. I’m not sure if that’s something that’s a general standard or is that something that they’ll give to the LHOs. There’s some people who have a hard time paying cash, but they can actually work off the arrears, either clean up around their yard or do something that will bring the value of that housing unit back to what it once was when it was first built. There are lots of things that they can do around the public housing unit. Sometimes these tenants just don’t care. The house looks pretty shabby. We could fix it up. We can fix up these lots. Is that something Housing could look at as a thing they could do to help them work off their arrears? Thank you.
In my response to Mr. Bromley, I said it was something we were willing to explore. There have been some projects in some communities where we allowed them to do that. We have to be very careful that when the Member talks about the grounds, to make sure he means grounds of a person’s particular unit. It would be awfully hard to tell somebody to clean up your own yard and we’ll adjust some of your arrears. It’s something we need to explore is what I’m trying to say.
I’ve committed to Member Bromley that it’s something on the Housing Corporation’s radar. I know in a couple of communities they have had some pilot projects where there’s been some success to it. We need to explore that. There are other issues, as I responded to Mr. Bromley, surrounding this and I think we need to make sure we are okay with all liability insurances and things like that before we proceed any further, but it is on the radar. Thank you.
I say this in all earnestness, some of the units that Housing operates, their yards are not looking very good unless the Housing staff says to the tenants clean up your yard. It looks pretty terrible. You say that’s a Housing house. I guess maybe that’s a bad example I use. Some of them need to paint their house or steps or do something. Housing staff always say they’re too busy, they don’t have time or whatever. I’m saying is there any way that the tenants could help out. I’m exploring all avenues, just keep digging and digging until we have something that works. Right now I’m just saying this and I’m not too sure how far it will go. The Minister has brought up some examples and I certainly agree with him. I haven’t even thought about them, so I want this type of discussion where some of these things could help in our small communities to get the people out there and start taking pride in their units. If they are in arrears, there are ways to help them get out of arrears, not only by having cash in hand. That’s what I wanted to ask the Minister to see if he could look at some of these other ways that we can help. Thank you.
I appreciate the Member’s desire to help. It is, as I responded a couple of times before, an option we are looking at. It has been tried in the past. There are opportunities there for some of our LHOs to get creative. We need to start getting creative in situations.
One of the things we are looking at and I can point out right now, is having people with arrears maybe work with a community group and some of it would count towards their arrears. That way they are more involved with the community. So we are being creative and we are looking at different options. We go back to liabilities. We can work through that and come up with a pretty solid plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one question here and it’s a follow-up to my comments about the homelessness coordinator and the evaluation of the current programs. I don’t believe I heard anywhere when the Housing Corp expects to have the results of their evaluation of the current programs and when they’ll have some info for Members on what they might do with the money if they change the programs. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first step is we want to staff that position and then do an evaluation of the work they’re going to be doing. We have two different programs right now. So one of the first duties of the new homelessness coordinator will be to do an evaluation of programs and see how we can enhance them or make some changes that might be fairly effective. We’re committed to coming back in the fall when we go through the business plans and share that with committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Ms. Bisaro. Next on the list I have Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I was just doing some of the budget considerations and I notice in there, with the committee’s indulgence, in an earlier page there’s a reduction in job positions in the regional allocations in the Sahtu and the Deh Cho. Could I get the Minister to explain that?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Before we go, Mr. Menicoche, can you please indicate which page? We did conclude, by agreement. Which page is that, Mr. Menicoche?
As a general question, yes.
We’ll allow a general question. I’ll put that question to Minister McLeod. Thank you.
