Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we haven't actually made a formalized plan on what we are going to be doing because I did make a commitment to listening to the community members, but we have talked in draft about different areas, mortgages, lease to own, a variety of different options for home ownership that we will be expanding on once the survey results are in. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as general comments, without asking questions, I apologize. In general, I know that the Housing Corporation has this infrastructure plan for, for the most part, improving the public housing inventory that they have on hand. I think it's very good. I notice that in my community where the Housing Corporation has been slowly renovating all of their inventory. It is getting to a stage where the authorities almost have new inventory.
One of the things that has become a point of contention or a difficult one to pin down seems to be the contribution as opposed to the capital, the programs that contribute to the community's housing inventory but it is not necessarily owned or is not for sure owned by the NWT housing corporation. I know that that is something that we, at some point, need to have a dialogue between ourselves here in this open House to discuss this with the Minister, but there doesn't seem to be a place to do it. I take this opportunity now to talk a little bit about that. If the Minister doesn't respond to me -- really just opening comments.
I think that is what the Housing Corporation needs, more than anything else, is to look at their contribution programs and look at all of the programs that are repaired, that are designated for home ownership, and look at the delivery of those programs. In light, I said, it is not really a venue at this point for that type of discussion, but just my comment is that we look at the programs, if it is under subscribed, at this point, I think that the corporation should maybe redevelop the programs or renew the programs so they are really something that would be applicable for what is on the ground today in our communities.
I know that it is a difficult time for individuals for all kinds of reasons that the Minister and I have been discussing for some of these programs to be delivered. I just hope that if this is not the time and place to discuss that, the Minister and I have lots of discussions anyway, but for the record I think it is important for people to know that when they are in their home communities and they are trying to apply for programs and they are having a difficult time getting assistance because of various obstacles like I have mentioned, insurance, land title -- land tenure I guess I should say -- mainly because of those two factors, it becomes very difficult. Even the houses that were at a time owned by the corporation or even houses that were built by the corporation under the same thing.
Overall, some way the housing inventory that doesn't belong to NWT Housing Corporation, I think they are doing a good job of maintaining these units, but the housing that does not belong to the corporation are deteriorating. That is all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Minister like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Since 2006, the Housing Corporation has invested approximately $50 million towards home ownership, not renovations, but actually purchasing homes. I too have issues with the co-payment allocations. That is one of the areas that we will be looking at in depth to try to assist people. Today I was having a conversation with one of the MLAs, and he spoke to me and said one of the elders actually had been paying for years and was wondering why he didn't own his house. That really resonated with me and told me that we need to look at alternatives so that people can move into home ownership. It is something I am taking seriously and will be moving to action. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for that, Minister. Next I have Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. A number of these projects are classified as affordable housing: seven units in Fort Simpson, six units in Hay River, three units in Norman Wells. Can the Minister provide a definition of affordable housing as understood by the Housing Corporation? Thank you.
Mr. Testart, there are no general comments right now on the department. Would you like to hold your questions until we get into the detail? Thank you. Next I have Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, committee. We agree that we have concluded general comments on the NWT Housing Corporation.
Agreed.
If committee would turn to page 67 in the capital estimates, I will let committee know that this is an information item only. It reflects a 2017-2018 planned expenditures of the NWT Housing Corporation for the infrastructure acquisition plan. The financing of these expenditures include funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and various other sources. Contribution funding is provided by the GNWT by the NWTHC's sponsoring department, the Department of Finance in the annual main estimates. This information is intended for review purposes only. We will not be voting on it, but we will be deliberating. The detail is contained on pages 68 through 71. If committee has comments, please indicate which page you are talking about. First I have Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize for my earlier error. This would be on page 70. Again, there are three affordable housing projects in Fort Simpson, Hay River, and Norman Wells. Can the department provide its definition of affordable housing? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Affordable housing is defined as market housing and the HELP program, which is a home ownership program. Just to add on, the "PH" is public housing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are these units being constructed for the purposes of accommodating the RCMP? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is correct. These units are to accommodate the RCMP members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to reiterate my strong opposition to the use of affordable housing for these units. These are market housing units, and they are designed to produce revenue for the GNWT as stated by the department. I disagree with the use of affordable housing on these item lines. I would encourage the department to re-evaluate its definitions.
I have another question, however. Recently, at the City of Yellowknife's Roadmap presentation, the Minister mentioned that Housing First models were being rolled out in other communities in the form of four-plex units. Are these contained anywhere on this list? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will address both of them actually. We will change the name from affordable housing for the RCMP. That is an easy fix. We won't do it in this, but we will do it moving forward. The second question was the units that are the four-plexes. They aren't in this business plan because actually they are in this current year's business plan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister for being sensitive to that concern. I look forward to these documents, when they are voted on, containing the correct terminology. I appreciate that the four-plex projects are now considered Housing First. I will look forward to reviewing that as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next I have Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the whole area of procurement and capitalization for these capital projects and moving forward here, does the department, as part of the capital process, look at joint land tenure with Department of Lands so it will be more identified prior to the new building coming in sort of thing? I guess my question is, is it a current process to have a land tenure workshop between Housing Corporation and the Department of Lands in all regions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The NWT Housing Corporation, as part of our annual capital planning process, does take into consideration land requirements for the next three years of actual capital delivery. So, as part of that process, we certainly work closely with the Department of Lands as well as municipalities and other interests to identify land availability.
As part of that process, we can then more accurately plan our capital delivery for the threeyear cycle that we follow, so, to answer the specific question, in terms of working with the Department of Lands, yes, we work very closely with the Department of Lands and would be open to continuing to participate in workshops. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. McNeely.
Yes, my last question related to landtenure workshops: are these held on a scheduled basis in each region? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our staff has participated in the past in workshops with the Department of Lands. To the best of my knowledge, these are not regularly held, but certainly, as we hear about these opportunities, we would certainly be participating. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One more comment: I would urge the department as part of the capital planning process to have joint landtenure workshops with the Departments of Lands and Housing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Would the Minister like to respond?
Thank you. I take that as a comment.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Next, I have Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm looking at page 70, and I see that the community of Gameti has one unit that will be retrofitted. I know that Gameti has one of the highest core needs in housing in the NWT, so I'm wondering what the relationship is between the core need and the allocation of retrofit dollars. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Cochrane.
I'll let Mr. Martin answer the question.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, with regards to Gameti, just to step back for a moment, the NWT Housing Corporation in determining its capital allocations for 20172018 in this case did consider a number of variables, such as age and condition of our units. In particular here, with Gameti, the unit conditions right now are quite high, and, as a result of that, there was no need to invest additional dollars into our existing housing stock. That's reflective in our current allocations for 20172018. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have the housing survey in front of me, so I just remember that their core need number was in the high 40s. Is the witness then saying that most of that core need is that the houses are too small rather than the houses are in need of repair? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One other point to add here, related to this, would be that the Housing Corporation, although it's not investing in additional units in Gameti at this time, our corporation is investing over $158,000 into home ownership programs to support private homeowners, which will contribute to supporting core need in the community. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the witness for his response. I'm still not really sure how the core need numbers are worked into the plan for retrofits in places like Gameti or anywhere else for that matter. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Would Mr. Martin like to clarify?
