Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The initial allocations of the reductions were done on a pro rata basis, and given the amount of dollars involved here per each local housing organization, the dollar amounts are quite small. As a result of that, that is what makes this allocation methodology a viable approach.
We will continue to closely monitor the financial results for the coming fiscal year, and certainly, as part of the funding formula review, we could potentially be making adjustments on a case-by-case basis. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Further to that point, the Yellowknife Housing Authority had a fairly significant surplus, which they wanted to spend on creating more housing for their extensive waiting list. Has the Housing Corporation come to an agreement with the Yellowknife Housing Authority about how that money can be spent? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have worked with the Yellowknife local housing organization. They are using a lot of surplus, actually, to build an eight-plex within Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
That's good news. When is that going to happen? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We just have started the design work for that currently. As soon as we have got the design finished, construction will begin. It's not okay for LHOs to have $600,000 in reserves. I am not okay with that.
I do want to also state that, when we are doing the cuts across, like I said, over the two years, it has been 1 per cent last year and 1 per cent this year, some of the communities are only getting a reduction of $2,000 per year. Like Mr. Martin said, we are closely monitoring them on a case-by-case basis. If the smaller LHOs do run into a problem with that, a deficit, we will ensure that they have the funding to be able to provide the services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't think it is appropriate to scold the housing authorities for having surpluses. That is prudent management on their part. The money is used for housing. In the case of Yellowknife, it is used to address the waiting list, which is the most substantial in the NWT. It looks like the housing authority is actually doing work which the Housing Corporation is not up to. I recognize that that may not be an ideal situation from their point of view, but I guess I want the Minister to acknowledge that this isn't wasted money; this is housing money, whether it is spent by the housing authority or the Housing Corporation. Thank you.
Minister, any response?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In 2016-2017, the Yellowknife housing organization provided a year-to-date surplus of $3.4 million. That is a lot of money that can be used for services. We are not going to take it away and not provide other supports. We have asked them to reinvest that money into housing. They are building the eight-plex.
We have also started new programs. If they were using that to address the wait list, we have other programs now that will address the wait list. We have our rent supplement program in which any resident who is paying more than 30 per cent of their rent can actually get up to $500 in rent supplement. We are working with the City of Yellowknife on their Housing First project to have rent supplements for people. We are expanding that, and so we are working with the other non-profit organizations in the communities that are providing housing support so that there will be rent support to support people who are on the wait list who are paying more than 30 per cent. So, when that program takes off, and I advertise it as much as I can, we are projecting that our wait list within the market communities will go down because of that.
So we are not penalizing people on the wait list. We are actually providing better support for people on the wait list. Not all LHOs have that. It was nice that the Yellowknife Housing Authority did, but this rent supplement program and the NGO rent supplement program are across the market communities, so they address the needs in all of the market communities, not just one community that had such a huge surplus. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Mr. Chair, the Yellowknife Housing Authority has this surplus in order to meet the housing needs of Yellowknifers. Can the Minister guarantee that money that is taken away from the Yellowknife Housing Authority will be spent in Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As stated before, the surplus that they are looking at now is going to build a six-plex. The intent is to actually provide more housing supports in every community, so, yes, the intent is to keep the monies in the communities. It's not to penalize communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you. I appreciate that answer. Often, Yellowknife has been short-changed in public housing because of the fact that there is a market here for rental accommodation, and so I will just leave that where it is. The Minister referenced the CMHC decline. It was my understanding that the National Housing Strategy halted the decline in CMHC funding. Can the Minister confirm that, please?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, the CMHC, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, halted the cuts that they were taking every year, so now we will not be cut any further, but, in 2038, that money is still on the table to be chopped. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you for that clarification. My next question is about energy use. Are any of the NWT Housing Corporation units heated with electricity? Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly, looking at alternative energy is a must for the Housing Corporation for our assets. I do not think we have any units that are heated by electricity now, but we are looking at it. It might be something that we have to investigate further, especially in areas where they are serviced by the Taltson, so certainly Fort Smith. It was raised to me personally at the NWTAC by the mayor of Fort Smith as something that maybe we should look at, a pilot in Fort Smith, because of using the Taltson hydro as an option to heat our assets. Certainly, we are open to those suggestions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you. I asked that because I know a lot of the public housing stock is old and would not be energy efficient in terms of heating, but I guess that does not really apply to the power usage. It does lead me to ask what kinds of investments the Housing Corporation is making in energy efficiency in their units this year. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Thirty seconds, Minister.
Thank, Mr. Chair. So, currently, we are looking at not as many individual units. We are looking at more of a multi-unit design where the energy efficiency would be better. We are looking at boilers, biomass, solar heat. LED light bulbs have been but into all of the public housing units. So we are looking at a variety of energy-efficient means so that we can actually be more energy efficient. Within the day of climate change, it's important for us all to be conscious of what we are doing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green, your time has expired. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I think I am going on to my third business plan, and again I am going to wish to talk about the apprenticeships and how the department has expanded or developed better apprenticeships and, more, increased it. Can the Minister tell us if the department or corporation has developed more apprenticeships for the local housing authorities? Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Williams.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Certainly, the area of building capacity in our tradespeople across the Northwest Territories is important for us. We have increased the allocation for apprentices. I think we will be allocating up to 15 apprenticeships across the territories. It's certainly something that there is a need for. I know it's a small number, but, working with the LHOs, we support 15 LHOs on apprenticeships, and it used to be 12, so we have increased it by three this year, and we will continue to increase. There is also a program with CMHC that LHOs could subscribe to, that they could get funding to support youth training. It's a youth program run by CMHC, and it has been very successful in Nunavut and also in some of our Beaufort communities. Paulatuk, for example, has accessed this funding in the past. So, working with our federal partners, we are able to train a lot of people. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Don't get me wrong. I think going from 12 to 15 is huge. It does not sound like it, but it is, and I honestly think this is a very good step as we move forward. So, I guess in regards to this youth training and this opportunity to tap into federal funding, does the corporation work with the LHOs to get this information out there and access it? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we certainly make sure that the LHOs are aware of this program. We have our annual LHO managers conference, and we have invited CMHC to speak to the program and provide information. I think to date we have three applications in with CMHC to access funding. So, it's certainly an area that we want to promote along with CMHC because we both believe in building trade capacity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank Mr. Williams for that answer. I guess it's great that we are getting the housing managers and informing them, but is this information getting to the boards, as well? How is it getting shared to the boards? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, as stated, we do have the annual meetings, and the boards are well aware of it, of the programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I should state that we are working really diligently with all of the chairs in the local housing organizations because of the number of program and policy changes that we are implementing, so communicating with them on a regular basis is critical to make sure that this program renewal is effective. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the answer from Mr. Williams and the Minister. Can this information be shared with ordinary MLAs so that we then can also be advocates to our boards to look at tapping into this program? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would really appreciate if the MLAs from the different regions would be able to help to get that information out. It is available on the website for the CMHC, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, so, if you can access it there, that has the best description of the program and more than welcome to help to dissimilate that information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What the Minister is saying is that I have to go to CMHC and find this information and then share it because the department can't do that? Can they explain? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can commit to submitting the link for that tomorrow. If there is any difficulty for the Regular MLAs to be able to access it, we will provide the link tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
