Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I think it gives me a clear picture or understanding of how this is being work done. Recently, there was an effort, as I stated in my opening comments, to tackle and address the homelessness issue. One particular community, there was an organized body and organized effort to try, at least, to work in cooperation with the Housing Corporation to address fundamentally the homelessness issue, and to try and bring some resolve to the matter. I understood, then, there has been a part from the program supplements that have been successfully delivered in communities. I just wanted to come to an understanding. There were some pilot projects, and whether those pilot projects were focused on, either been program supplements or building projects in small communities, I understood there were a few communities that were working with the Housing Corporation in addressing this matter? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there was a request for proposals out to support three communities; actually, four communities. Only three communities actually applied for that funding at the time. We did save the money for a fourth community, which allows us to branch into the Sahtu to deal with that money. We are open to all ideas to address homelessness. Homelessness is not only about having shelters. Homelessness is about having permanent residents to support people. Within that continuum of care, you need to look at shelters. You need to look at single units. You need to look at training for people to be able to maintain their units. It's a huge continuum to deal with homelessness. It's not easy to save this alone. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One thing that I am curious about. In terms of the attempts of defining homelessness issue, especially homelessness in the context of communities, they could be presumed that people who are homeless are not homeless per se, but because the system that is there, sometimes they don't fit the criteria. One of the challenges that people face in the communities is that they have gone through the public rental system. For some reason or another, they have defaulted on their rent. Over time, they have accumulated their arrears. Sometimes, it works against them. They cannot qualify for public housing units. Especially, these people are single. Sometimes, they are bachelors, and they are looking for a place to stay. I wonder if, perhaps, part of the homeless initiatives that this department could maybe review, like instances where people have arrears, and whether there may be some ideas to try to resolve the challenge, and at least bring more opportunities for people to access the housing program, including homelessness for that matter? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. People who currently owe arrears to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, we try not to penalize anyone. Although at the same time, we do have to be fair to all residents in the Northwest Territories, so we cannot allow people not to pay their rent and then expect their neighbour to be paying their rent, and we have people waiting to get into units. People do need to know that if they come in and they make a repayment plan, and they pay for six months consecutively, they get back on the waiting list, so nobody actually should be penalized for longer than a six-month period.
We are looking at other ways to address the arrears because it is not acceptable when people have arrears that are $50,000. That is not something that I am comfortable with. We are looking at ideas that we have come up with such as programs that people can actually provide sweat equity into some work programs so that people can actually look at arrears, and I am hoping that. There are some ideas that we have come up with. We are not going to write off arrears. That is not fair to everyone, but I am hoping that the survey results will actually show us more productive ways that we can actually support people in addressing the issue of arrears.
I should say that, hopefully, in the future this will not be an issue at all. I have given direction that after two months we automatically start the eviction process. It is not that I want to evict people, but if someone is paying $70 a month, it is a lot easier to pay off a $140 bill than it is to pay off thousands of dollars in bills. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have no further question. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am wondering, on page 358, the debt repayment, is that the total amount of money that is owed to the Housing Corporation by tenants?
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, that actually is the annual pay-down of the CMHC, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, debt. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Thank you for clarifying that acronym. Ms. Green.
Thank you. In that case, where will I find the number of the amount of money that is owed to the NWT Housing Corporation by current or former tenants? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That information is not in this. This is about money we are spending, not money we are collecting. That is in our audited financial statements. That amount is in there as a receivable. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Okay. It sounds like I need to find that information in another place. I am going to just ask now a little bit about the transitional supportive housing. Is this the money for the capital upgrades to the Salvation Army and the Centre for Northern Families to create the semiindependent units? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we are talking about page 359 and it is the $600,000, then that answer is correct, yes.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, has work started on either of these projects? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sadly, at this point, we are still waiting for both organizations. The Salvation Army is still waiting for land tenure from the City of Yellowknife. I have tried to talk to Mayor Heyck and asked him if there is any way that he could speed that process up. The Yellowknife Women's Society, when they were doing the renovations to the daycare that they are moving into, found asbestos, so that is just being cleared up. We are expecting that, by the end of this month, their renovations will be done. At that point, they will need the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to go in and approve it because it is a daycare, a licensed daycare, so there will be some paperwork with that.
I should also point out, though, that within our mains, we do have an extra $375,000 that we will actually be looking at utilizing to build more and maybe to work in partnership with other organizations to provide the same support in this coming year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wonder if the Minister could tell me what happens if we get to March 31st and these renovations at the Centre for Northern Families and the Salvation Army have not been started or not completed? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any amount of work that is not started, completed, by the end of March 31st, and that is right around the corner, actually, so it will not be completed, those will be carried over into the new fiscal year. That money will not disappear. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the line above, there is the shelter enhancement fund. It was $416,000 last year, and it is $256,000 for the coming fiscal year. Could the Minister tell us the source of this money, what it is used for, and why it went down? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is federal money, and that was the shelter enhancement fund for the victims of family violence federal funding. It decreased from $316,000 to $156,000, so that meant a decrease of $160,000. Again, with the family violence, even though the federal government has decreased, we are still providing support.
One of the communities in Tuktoyaktuk didn't have a suitable unit. Their victims of family violence unit was at such a point that it was nonrepairable, so even though the federal government money did not cover it, we have given them accommodations through the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation so that they could have a shelter within the community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, if I understand the Minister correctly, for $160,000, the difference between the current year and the next year, they were able to obtain a family violence shelter in Tuktoyaktuk? I must be missing something. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize for the miscommunication. No, the money that the federal government gave us we used to renovate the other four family violence shelters. Tuktoyaktuk actually, above and beyond the federal money, the Government of the Northwest Territories through the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, so outside of this money, we provided them a unit that they can use for their shelter because their shelter was beyond economical repair. That is on top of the federal money. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, this shelter enhancement program, is it now in its last year? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the victims of family violence component has one year left. We are expecting that the federal government will renew that after the term, though. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No further questions.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Seeing no further comments or questions, I will call this activity. NWT Housing Corporation, finance and infrastructure services, operation expenditure summary, total activity, $19,432,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the activity, finance and infrastructure services, under the NWT Housing Corporation Main Estimates 20172018 on page 358 at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. The motion is on the floor and being distributed. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed?
Carried
Thank you, committee. We will defer this activity. Moving on, activity four, programs and district operations. This activity is on page 361; well, beginning on page 360 to page 362. Committee, do we have comments or questions on programs and district operations? Page 360 to 362, programs and district operations. Ms. Green.
