Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this moment, no, we are not. These are ideas. The home ownership ideas, the rent supplement ideas, all of those things are on the table. Once we compile all survey results, we will organizing them into categories and all of the suggestions will be considered, not only the ones that we have identified, because I am assuming that, out of 44,000 people within the Northwest Territories, people have incredible ideas that will assist us in the goal of helping people to obtain, retain, and maintain their homes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate where the Minister is coming from on this. Before this role, as an everybody member of the middle class, I made use of the transitional rent supplement program, and I think I was given something like $10 a month for my needs as a single parent in a very expensive apartment.
We have heard that this program isn't really working. At least, it is not working to meet the objectives that have been set out for it, so why are we retaining it? I think we have been looking at finding efficiencies throughout this budget. That has been a sticking point and an issue of debate. When I think we can all agree this program isn't working, why are we retaining it at all instead of repurposing the funds for something that actually works? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason that we are retaining it is that we will be phasing it out over a threeyear period because some people are still using that. Until we have moved into and have a defined program that will assist people in being able to afford market rents, then I am not willing to take it off the table. So it will be in place until we have something, a rent supplement program, which is better suited to the needs of the residents that can take its place. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, music to my years. When can we expect this new program to roll out, and will it require a supplementary appropriation? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The program renewal is the biggest priority of the corporation this fiscal year coming up, and so I see that the rent supplement program will be like I said, there are easy, medium, and hard ones to do; it is one of the easier ones. It is not something that we have to go crossdepartmental or crossjurisdictional, so I see it as happening within the first six months from today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the Minister's clear and, again, decisive answer. So, in six months I look forward to the new program and voting in favour of it if it meets the expectations that we have set out for it.
Finally, just a comment. I appreciate that the corporation and the Minister responsible have not eliminated a program completely that they recognize still meets a need but needs finetuning. Perhaps the Minister can share that wisdom with the Minister responsible for Education visàvis the Aurora College cuts and a number of the other programs that we have addressed that lack strategic direction but are going ahead as in favour of the reduction exercise. With that, I will end my line of questioning. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart, for those comments on the NWT Housing Corporation. Next, I have Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just looking at page 358, at infrastructure services, and wondering if this would be the appropriate time to ask a question related to the RCMP units. Can the Minister provide some comments on the progress of this initiative and basically where it is at? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Can the Minister advise if this is the appropriate section and provide comments?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The section is actually in capital, for the building of the units. There is some in here, as well, for land, et cetera. The update on what is happening with the RCMP units, though, is more important. At this point, we are waiting. The RCMP at first wanted to hand over all of its units to totally get out of housing of its members. At this point, they are rethinking that. They are looking at perhaps maintaining a couple of their units, so we are not sure. We actually are working with them, still, and we are waiting for them to decide which way they are going forward with it. It is still going to happen; however, it may not be full housing. They may decide to keep some of their units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We mentioned it earlier, the Minister mentioned, we budgeted some tax expenditures for this project. I don't really have a question. I just would like the Minister to brief us on it periodically or when commitments are made on progress by the federal counterpart? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize. I should have actually done an update. As soon as we hear more from the RCMP, we will do a Minister's statement to keep the Members informed of what is happening with the RCMP initiative. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Nothing further from Mr. McNeely. I have Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am looking at page 359. There are a couple of reductions on this page that I would like to better understand. Let's start with transitional supportive housing. The revised estimates for last year were $600,000. Now it is down to $375,000, so can the Minister explain the reduction here? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The transitional rent supplement program, like I said, was not one of my favourites. The uptake on that program was only a utilization of 30 per cent, so we have done a reduction, the $30,000 reduction, of year one of year three. Again, that money will be reprofiled. The transitional rent program will no longer exist. It will become, within six months, a rent supplement program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. The Member was indicating the transitional supportive housing. It is about four lines above the transitional rent supplement program. Would you like to answer again, Minister?
Sorry, I gave the wrong answer. I will let Mr. Martin speak to that one, then.
Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, there has been a decrease of $225,000 from the 20162017 Main Estimates to the 20172018 Main Estimates. The $600,000 is essentially committed and designated for a couple of initiatives that are under way this year. We do, obviously, recognize the importance of the transitional supportive housing investments. This is federal funding. This is a component of the federal funding that the Housing Corporation is receiving, has received from 201617, as well as will be receiving some additional funding in 201718. These are dollars set aside for additional investment in this area in 201718. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So the reason why our contribution is less: the federal government is getting out of this; the project is finished, or projects are finished? I am just trying to understand the reduction a little bit better. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is correct. The level of federal funding in a couple of pots actually did reduce from 2016-2017, so we have less funding to work within 2017-2018, and as a result of that, there is a reduction there. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m try to be kind here, but just because the feds are backing out of funding our programs, it is not necessarily an excuse for us to pull the plug on them. I will just leave my comment at that.
I want to go down to a different line, rental housing in rural and remote locations. Last year, it was $783,000. This year, zero. Perhaps I can get an explanation of that one as well? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This funding for rental housing in rural and remote locations, it was a three-year pilot program that has now concluded. The $783,000 will be sunsetting.
Thank you, Mr. Williams. I will just remind the witnesses and the Members to indicate when you are finished. Maybe a "thank you" just so that the tech team knows to change the microphones. I appreciate that. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the information about it being a pilot project. Does the corporation have any initial results of this pilot project? Is this something that we would look at continuing on our own? What happened there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This program, we had very low uptake in the program. Certainly, we will be evaluating it and looking at it. As you are well aware, we are doing a program renewal. If we could come up with a program that is more suitable for the residents, we would certainly look at that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Williams. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. The $783,000 sounds like a lot of money. There might have been other money that had been spread out over three years. Is there some kind of a report, a formal evaluation of the project and the money that was spent? Is that something that could be shared with the Regular MLAs? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we know exactly what we spent on the program. We do know that there has been low uptake on the program. We have not done a formal evaluation, but we can pull together a report that we can actually share with the Members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you very much. I appreciate that commitment from the Minister, and that is all the questions I have. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wanted to talk about on page 359, in particular, the line items respecting the Homelessness Assistance Fund, and also the Small Community Homelessness Fund. It seems very prominent that there has been some efforts in terms of tackling the homelessness issues. The most visible, of course, the efforts have been made here in Yellowknife. In light of that, there was the recent report of people moving from the small communities into the regional centres and, of course, Yellowknife as well. In light of that, I wanted to understand what features of perhaps successful programs or projects that this government has seen in respect of those two funds? I know for a large part, perhaps, these two funds are targeting programs that are NGOs that do exist in small communities in terms of whether it is just purely, at this point, a program supplement. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The monies that actually support homelessness are more than that. They are Housing First, the 150, then 125, 280 for Pathways, and 200 for Small Community Homelessness Fund. That is actually the operating and the provision of services that the funding is for. The rest is coming out of capital and other departments for the renovations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
