Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’ll be doing some research, not only nationally but also internationally, to kind of see what initiatives are out there for energy conservation, so we will commit to that. We also really have to be careful that we’re not going to give it all out because part of the savings that we will be taking from the transferring the cost of the power over will actually be used to address our declining CMHC funding because we need to make sure that we have revenues to deal with the operating and maintenance costs that will be coming up, which are declining every year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O’Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that there’s going to be some research done on this, but could the Minister commit to get back to the standing committee later in 201617 with a plan to do this?
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. If people could keep their sidebar conversations down, it’s making it a bit difficult to hear. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the Member’s comment, yes we can commit to actually providing a report back to committee on that within this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Once again, if Members don’t mind keeping their conversations a little bit quieter, it’s making it difficult for some Members to hear. Mr. O’Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that commitment, and I’ll look forward to seeing that report. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Are there further comments or questions on page 361? Seeing none, I’ll call the page. Community housing services, operations expenditure summary, total activity, $54,017,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
We will proceed to page 364, Executive, operations expenditure summary. Do we have comments or questions on this page, page 364? I’ll give committee a moment. Ms. Green.
Mr. Chair, thank you. I think that the motion that we passed today and discussions we had during the business planning process points to a need to create a new strategic plan for the Housing Corporation, and I understand that they have committed to work on that. Can we get an idea of when that plan might be ready for us to review? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To actually set down a timeline would be difficult because the survey has to be completed first. I have committed to working with providing a survey to some of the local selfgovernments to be able to look at the survey questions. I have committed to actually providing it to the MLAs to get their input on the questions. Once we get the questions down, then we have to distribute the survey to every staff member, every LHO, every person that’s using it, so to nail down a definite date would be difficult at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister remind us what kinds of questions the survey is trying to answer and who the target for the survey is? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The survey is targeted to the communities. By “communities,” I mean the government if it’s selfgovernment and also the residents within each community. The needs assessments that we currently give is a breakdown and it’s an opinion survey, of course. It gives a breakdown on what basically people think are the core needs within their communities. It gives us something that’s statistical that says: this is what we should be basing our programs off. We’ve used it for many years, but it doesn’t really address what the community says. If the community is saying that, for example, there are 10 units that need to be fixed in the community but we don’t have a seniors’ home, the community needs assessment might put priority to the 10 homes, but the community, itself, may see the seniors’ home as more important for them. I just want to make sure, being communitybased, that we actually are meeting the needs of the community, not what a piece of paper that is done on opinionbased statistics would show us but actually what the community says they prioritize, what they need within their communities. Specific instants, like our needs assessment doesn’t talk about culturalbased housing, and I want to know what culturalbased housing means within each community so that, when we provide community houses and supports within those communities, we’re conscious of the cultural aspects and the needs to promote culture within each community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m just wondering, if the survey is going to cater to the needs of each community, how a strategic plan will come out of that? I don’t understand how the one will lead to the other. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. A strategic plan will be developed from the needs surveys in that it will be communitybased. Each community, 33 communities within our region, within our territory, will be identified individually, and then the longterm plan will be to address the needs individually within that community. It’s not a strategic plan that lumps all into one because I don’t believe in onesizefitsall. It will be a strategic plan that identifies within each community what are their goals and then strategically how do we address the goals within those communities. There will be community focus, and then there will be a Housing Corporation focus that prioritizes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What I’m concerned about is, with this approach, which sounds quite fragmented, how will the Minister be able to make the case to the federal government to increase their investment if there aren’t overarching goals of reducing homelessness, reducing core need, and other larger goals? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The strategic framework that we’re looking at internally for the Housing Corporation will be based on community needs defined within that, and that is to be as culturally appropriate as possible to the different communities within the territories. However, the territorial plan for the federal engagement will be looking at core needs throughout all three territories, and that information will be based off of our 2014 needs assessment which was done across Canada. We’ll be using that tool, as well, to promote the best interests. The federal government, in my opinion, doesn’t need to know that we want to have linoleum, for example, in a community because they’re hunters, in their homes, but they do need to know that we have a percentage of core need in the whole territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What I’m understanding now is there are two kinds of initiatives here. One is to have the communities to develop their own plan, and I’m not sure how, then, that plan is going to be funded. Then there’s another one where the three territories are putting their needs together for federal engagement based on the 2014 assessment. I think my question is: how will the individual community plans be funded? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The community survey, the community needs, will be funded as they are currently, by the funding provided by the federal government and provided by the GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m wondering if the Minister can tell us or commit to telling us how many empty but viable units there are in each community. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to start off with that comment. Because a lot of people, a lot of people actually, believe that every empty, boardedup home within the communities actually belongs to the NWT Housing Corporation, and that is a fallacy. In fact, there are a lot that are actually market houses people have had and they’ve left for other houses. People have left. We do have a listing of every community of all of the empty units that are boarded up that belong to the NWT Housing Corporation, and we can provide that to the committee, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was also some discussion, and this sort of folds into the motion that we passed today during the business plan process, of creating a plan that quantifies the costs of bringing all the housing up to date. Is there work going to be completed in this year that brings that about? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is work that will be done to address the core need within the communities as outlined within our budget. In all honesty, we’d need about $30 million to address our own stock at this point, within this fiscal year. Currently, we don’t have $30 million to provide for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister please expand on that idea, $30 million to bring the housing stock up to date? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
That assessment is made on if we were to renovate and to bring all of our stock up to a 50year life span. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s over what period of time?
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Year20 and year35 houses need to be renovated to bring them back up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you. I’ll make this my last question. I understand from the Minister that it would cost $30 million a year to bring the housing stock up to date. For how many years would the corporation have to spend $30 million to accomplish that goal? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s a 20year needs assessment, so we would need $30 million every year for 20 years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
