Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and my next question is on page 354. There are allowances there for workshops, training, administration for the LHOs. Has there been any community-based workshops between the LHO and the regional office and with Lands, like a joint workshop directed to land tenure and how it works to access the appropriate programs, an educational-type workshop at the community level? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The corporation itself does work with Lands, so when they offer workshops we do attend those and we offer them out to the communities. Currently, though, we meet with their local housing organizations once a year to provide training opportunities. So I will take that into consideration. The big focus, though, this year with our training of local housing organizations will be on customer service. I do agree with the Member who says we need to get out and knock on people's doors and reach out to people more. So part of that is actually making sure that people have the tools, and that means we need to focus on customer service training as a priority. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In most communities they have an interagency group. I would suggest that the department maybe use that group to get the word out through education on land tenure. My other question is related to the previous page 353. I am just looking at the historical statements, and there really has not been a lot of change to the bottom line, but in some cases some funding has been increased or decreased, and I am thinking about the property taxes and land lease. It is budgeted to go higher. Could you explain that a little bit there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The additional money for the property tax and land leases, there is a $92,000 increase and it is for the additional property tax that will be for the lots for the planned RCMP units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will have my question related to the RCMP units later. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Next I have Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister how many apprentices the housing associations have and if they are getting any support from another department to pay for the salaries of the apprentices? Thank you.
Thank you, Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, we have positions for 10 to 15 apprenticeships. At this point, nine of them are filled, but it will be an area that we will be looking going within our program renewal because providing capacity within the communities is part of the answer. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to the sale of public housing, also on page 353, I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister actually had a target on the amount of public housing they wish to divest in this coming year.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point we do not have a defined number in the department. They have been talking about the pilot project of at least 10. I have been moving them and saying a pilot project with at least 33. One per community would be my pilot project goal. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, earlier the Minister talked about a user-pay program. I was wondering if that would have any direct impact on the actual rents. It would seem that, at the first look, the power bills are fairly significant across many of our communities, and I was wondering if, once the NWT Housing Corporation moves that cost from their books to the tenant, that tenant will pay less rent according to how much more power they are required to pay. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we are investing in energy-efficiency things that will actually help save money. For example, replacing fuel tanks, hot water tanks, putting LED lightbulbs in every single public housing unit. So we are expecting that there may be an increased cost until people learn to close their windows and to conserve energy. What we have decided not to do is that we will not be increasing our rent. I need to point out that the Northwest Territories, between 4 and 14.5 per cent of income goes to public housing. The standard across Canada is 30 per cent. So even though we have a lot of room that we could actually charge people more rent, we have made a decision not to. Once we do the utilities, we will be watching them very closely over the time to make sure that people can still afford to keep them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just back on the rent scale, did I hear correctly that the rent scale is now maxed out at 14.5 per cent? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am really glad that the Member asked that question because I thought it was, but the actual answer is between 4 and 19.5 per cent and it is maxed out at 19.5 per cent. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for asking the clarifying question.
Thank you, Minister. I see nothing further from Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to build on my colleague's questions about the apprenticeship program. In regards to the apprenticeship program, how many have we done in the last three years, how many positions have been filled? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Jim Martin.
Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The NWT Housing Corporation targets between 10 to 15 positions for apprentices. We have three apprentices who were journey certified in 2014, bringing the total journey certified apprentices to 12 since the program began in 2007. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have got 12 certified journeymen apprentices for nine years. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct that we only have 12 certified. It does, again, lead an area that we need to look at. We do have nine who are in currently in our apprenticeship programs, and it does identify that we need to look at the reasons that people are not completing our apprenticeship programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will probably come back to this part a little bit later on, but I am going to ask the next question with regards to the apprenticeship. What areas are we looking at identifying apprentices? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The areas of apprenticeship that we are working with are carpenters, oil burner mechanics, and housing maintenance serviceperson. I should also state that many apprenticeships actually take a four-year period, so even though you have only 12 over the term, it does take four years for people to finish their apprenticeship. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for her answer. I am well aware that it takes four years to do this, but I guess I am looking at this apprenticeship. We have 2,800 rental units across the Northwest Territories, and we have a large discrepancy in the skilled workforce in these areas. My big concern is, if we have nine taking the program, we still have six outstanding positions. What type of plan is the Corporation looking at to make sure we have maxed out at 15 per year in this area, and realizing that some people may be there for four years to finish their apprenticeship? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are working very closely with the local housing organizations to identify the apprenticeship needs within their communities. We do have funds for it, and we will be rolling out the extra positions right away, as soon as we can get people. Like I said, training in itself is a huge focus that we will be looking at within our program renewal, not only on training people to maintain their own homes, but training community people to be able to provide the services within their communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that answer. Is the Minister able to provide us a breakdown on how many positions are allocated into each of the LHOs? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Specifically, I guess, Mr. Chair, each LHO? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our aim is to try to spread out the apprenticeship programs throughout the whole of the NWT as best as possible. However, in saying that, though, we do take a more of a community focused needs. If, for example, in one community, we already have two or three oil burner mechanics, we might not look at that community for an apprenticeship program at that time. We might focus it more on a community that has no oil burning mechanics at the moment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe I am naive, but you need a Red Seal Journeyman to actually apprentice under. If you do not have an oil burning mechanic in the community, you cannot actually do an apprenticeship. I guess what I am looking for is if the corporation can identify, or provide us with a breakdown of how the apprenticeship program is utilized across the territories. Well, we have 12 certified, and nine in the program, so that is only 21. Can the Minister identify where these 21 are, the graduates and the nine who are taking the program? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
