Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. In the last session there was a document tabled regarding the housing needs in the Northwest Territories. It showed that we are not meeting the needs of the residents of the Northwest Territories. If anything, things are getting worse. I think it’s important to realize that, as a corporation whose responsibility it is to deliver social housing in the Northwest Territories and to ensure that we’re able to bring down the needs of our residents and meet the challenges that we are facing.
One of the biggest challenges we’re facing, as I stated, in our term in the area of Fort Wrigley was a problem they are facing with overcrowding and mould in a lot of their residences. This is a problem not only to the health effects of the residents but also to the social effects of overcrowding.
One of the things that I’ve also mentioned in my statement was the number of houses that are sitting empty and boarded up, not being used. I think we have to do everything that we can to fill those residences. We’re hearing problems with staffing challenges with regard to staff housing. I know they’ve found a solution for Fort Resolution and hopefully they can implement that solution in other communities.
People in our communities are paying over $2,000 a month for rent in a social housing unit. Why aren’t those people qualified for lease units in those communities so they can occupy them so they are not left empty? Why is that the case?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Housing Needs Survey that was recently completed does show that the needs have gone up, and I’ve said in this House before that our capital budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year will use the Housing Needs Survey to determine where we allocate a lot of our capital projects.
We do have a lot of units that are vacant right now. I think at last count we had 224 across the Northwest Territories and 130 of them are under repair. We did have quite a significant investment from the federal government as far as the Housing Fund goes, so we have 130 under repair and we have some that are up for sale and some that are slated for demolition. So we are trying very hard to address the needs in the community and the Housing Needs Survey will go a long way in determining how we allocate our money.
Again, I believe one of the challenges we’re facing is dealing with the applications for these units and the length of time it’s taking to get people into these units. I’d like to ask the Minister, in light of the solution he found for Fort Resolution with regard to professional housing development where they put teachers into public housing, is that something we can look at for other communities? Can we look at the clients in social housing who are paying over $2,000 a month? Can we get them into a mortgage program, get them into these housing units so that these units are being occupied?
That is our goal. This was a gap in the housing programs that I’ve referred to in the past. We do have some people that are in the public housing system that are paying fairly significant rent. It is our desire to get them in. We have some options that we’re exploring for that right now. It is something that’s out there.
As far as the housing for staff goes, we have had real good uptake from a lot of the community groups that are looking at providing housing for staff. There is an incentive that we provide to them if they want to see that come about. They would be the ones that would be the landlord and they would be providing the housing for staff. I think we have about 64 units across the Northwest Territories that have been identified by these community groups as possible housing for staff.
I’d like to ask the Minister if it’s possible for his department to come forward with quarterly reporting to this House regarding the vacancies of these units, where they are, and what efforts are being made to fill out those vacancies so that we have houses in the communities that are being occupied.
I can commit to the Member and the Members of this House that I’ll provide some statistics every three or four months as to the status of the vacant units.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to ask the Minister regarding the Housing Needs Survey that was completed, if the Minister can also report back to this House on exactly what action is going to be taken by the department in light of the report on housing needs showing that we do have a major problem in the Northwest Territories with housing.
I will commit to providing regular updates on our plans to deal with the Housing Needs Survey. We do have a couple of things that we’re working on right now. The investment that’s being made on housing repairs I think will bring the core need down, because adequacy is one of the conditions of the needs survey. I’ll make a commitment to the Members that I’ll provide regular updates on how we’re addressing the needs survey.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
