Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, the Hay River LHOs provide support to the Hay River Reserve. Like I say, we do have three communities in this fiscal budget that we are looking at developing LHOs in their communities. Hay River Reserve would be one of the ones that we would be examining within the next future budgets coming up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the corporate highlights in terms of the housing mission and corporate goals is to improve services that was for implementing and expanding community-based housing property management services in rural and remote communities. Would the First Nations have an opportunity to perhaps sit down with the Minister and her department in arranging at least some form of maintenance arrangement to ensure that those houses could be serviced perhaps if the opportunity exists? Or else maybe explore the opportunity to see if the services and maintenance could be done by First Nations people from the reserve? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, within this current budget, we have committed to setting up three LHOs within the community so we won’t be taking on any more within this current budget. We are more than happy to meet with the communities and see what we can do to best meet their needs. Again, like I had said before, we will be examining other communities within each fiscal budget coming up. The goal is to have LHOs in all communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.
This will be my final question on this section, Mr. Chair. Is the Minister indicating or stating that possibly in the near future there could be an existing LHO on the Hay River Reserve? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I reinstate that we are committed to trying to get in every community that has the capacity; we are looking to eventually have an LHO office. At this time, in this budget, no, we will not be providing LHOs in the Hay River Reserve. But, yes, I am willing to meet with them and, yes, we will consider it in future years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. Nadli? Nothing further from Mr. Nadli. Do we have any further comments or questions on page 362? Seeing none, we will return to the page 361. Are there comments or questions on the operations expenditure summary on page 361? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is my understanding that the Housing Corporation includes the cost of power in the rent that is charged. Is that correct? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, at this point, people pay nine cents towards the utilities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will take that to mean nine cents per kilowatt hour. My question is: what plans is the Housing Corporation making to reduce the costs of subsidizing power to the social housing units, to their units? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Green. If the Minister could clarify that it was nine cents per kilowatt hour. Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the Member’s comment and correction. It is nine cents per kilowatt hour. I apologize for that. What we are doing to try to address that, as well, is within this fiscal budget, we are looking at increasing it by another six cents per kilowatt hour to make it 15 cents per kilowatt hour, which is still lower than the general population is paying, but promotes independence within the population. There is also a cost savings when the public pays for their power versus the GNWT paying for the power. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister tell us that, with an increase of six cents per kilowatt hour up to now, 15 cents per kilowatt hour, what the impact would be on the rent scale? She could choose either the lowest rent or the highest rent just to giving us an idea of the impact. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There will be no impact on the rent scale, actually. This is above and beyond the rent scale. The average cost that will come to a family would be about $27 per month. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you very much, and I appreciate the Minister’s answer on that. Could she tell me what kind of communications plan will be implemented to inform residents about this increase and about ways that they can save costs on power? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The rate increases are usually done by the Power Corporation, so we’re working with them on that. We will be communicating to all the residents, though, because we’re hoping to implement this by August. There will be communication sent out to everyone that is using our units before that, to give them enough notice. The whole goal is to get people to do more of, just, conservation. We know that the biggest driver or the biggest savings for utilities is conservation, so we need to get people more focused in that.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister say how much this increase in power will bring in to the NWT Housing Corporation? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. For this year, we’ll actually save about $500,000 by transferring that six cents per kilowatt to each family member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m wondering if the Housing Corporation has any other energy efficiency or consumption efficiencies planned for their units, in the areas of heat and water for example. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Housing Corporation has really taken energy conservation really seriously, and so we have a number of measures. That goes back to the multi-units that we’re looking at doing, the four-plexes, in communities where they have one boiler system that serves all four units. We also support the Arctic Energy Alliance, who provides, for example, light bulbs to all community members. As well, we have solar on quite a few of our larger units that we have in the communities. Energy is a huge issue for all of us, and the Housing Corporation is trying make our units as energy efficient as possible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the Minister for that answer. Can the Minister say how much money is being invested in this energy efficiency in this budget? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, I can’t actually give you a figure at this point. It is millions of dollars. All of our new units are actually looking at being more energy efficient, so our whole construction going forward is looking at energy efficiency. I can’t really nail down a figure on that, but it is in the millions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that the Minister may not have that information to hand, but I’m wondering if she could commit to providing it. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can provide that to the Member and to committee if they would like it, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s everything.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. O’Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just a followup on my colleague’s questions: I think one of the best ways to promote energy conservation is to share some of those savings with people that are in public housing. Is there a plan or a way that that can be done to help encourage people in public housing to save energy? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we did commit within the business planning process that we would consider that. At this point, no one is paying their utilities, so once people… Once we give our limited payment of utilities… Once people have more ownership of their own, then we will look at initiatives to actually support that so that we can promote conservation, because that is the most efficient way to conserve energy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O’Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the commitment from the Minister. I’m just trying to figure out the timing of this. Is the Housing Corporation going to look at some way of sharing the cost savings with its tenants through energy conservation? Is that going to happen this year or next year or at some future point? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
