Debates of May 27, 2005 (day 3)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I’m still concerned with this EDAP program that we’re not really getting anywhere, and I’d like to hear some real solid answers from the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. I want to start hearing some real details of how we’re helping honest people out there to get them into houses, and I want to see some reasonability of this program, because I still think it’s out of touch and it’s only helping certain people. The reason I say that is because the program is structured in such a way that if you have two incomes, you’re practically exempt from this program the way the structure is set up. So I am overly concerned that it could be looked as the program of the well connected, and it has the appearance of only helping very few. That being said, I did a little calculation on Canadamortgage.com and if you have a purchase price for a house of $200,000 and you have a down payment of $72,000 your mortgage payment is under $800 a month. So what is the methodology of this program? Is it to ensure that people have payments as little as possible? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Return To Question 34-15(4): Expanded Downpayment Assistance Program

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, as we know, this program, the Expanded Downpayment Assistance Program, is to assist people wishing to get into their own homes through home ownership because they are paying well in excess of 25 or almost 30 percent of their income, which could be better served by getting into home ownership. This is not only for people in the high income bracket, this is also there to assist people and get them out of social housing and get them into home ownership, but only where their income shows that they able to pay to maintain a home, and also be able to ensure that they are paying well in excess of 30 percent of social housing. This is not only intended for people with high incomes. The subsidy program that’s being delivered through this program is a subsidy, which is depreciated over 15 years when that individual occupies that unit. It’s not automatic that you get $70,000. It’s a subsidy that’s provided to those individuals to subsidize them so they can get into home ownership, knowing that they are better off in home ownership than they would be in social housing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. I have two more people on the list for oral questions and the clock is running out. So I would just ask Members to be brief and Ministers to be brief, so we can get those two Members’ questions on the floor today. Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 34-15(4): Expanded Downpayment Assistance Program

Thank you, Madam Speaker. With that in mind then I’ll just ask directly is it the design of this program to get people out of social housing, which is a good thing, but is it designed to get them out of social housing at any cost? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 34-15(4): Expanded Downpayment Assistance Program

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, as I stated, this program has assisted 570 people in which we were able to leverage $42 million through bank financing to assist us with these 570 people. Yes, the goal of the program is to get people into home ownership and give people independence so that they are not stuck in social housing. In a lot of communities 90 percent of our houses are social housing facilities. We have to get them into a home ownership program. One of the programs we have is EDAP. The other program is the Independent Housing Program. We have programs designed to assist people to become homeowners. The large portion of the cost of these facilities is based on where you do your assessment. In Yellowknife everyone knows the cost of building in Yellowknife you are looking at $250,000 to $300,000 for a home. In the program we can support people up to 40 percent of the value of the home and the property it is on. So there are maximums of how far you can go with this program. So if you are looking at a $300,000 home, then you can see how 40 percent of that will fall into the number that the Member is talking about. But we hear from this House, we have passed a motion for ourselves to bring down our core needs by 10 percent by 2007 and this is one way that we are going to do that. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 34-15(4): Expanded Downpayment Assistance Program

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will agree with the Minister that putting 570 from social housing into home ownership is a great thing, it really is. But we were only able to help 14 people last year. If the Minister wants to mention that we are going to start putting people from social housing into outrageous $400,000 houses, that is a little out of touch. I think the program needs to be cut in half and we could help 28 people with reasonable payments. Would the Minister table the sliding scale of this program, so we can all clearly see how it applies to families so we can get a real sense for this program? Would he table that? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 34-15(4): Expanded Downpayment Assistance Program

Yes, Madam Speaker.