Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table the following three documents. The first is an article from The Conversation, "Why Insurers are Wrong About Canada's Genetic Non-Discrimination Law." The second is a report of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada titled "The Potential Economic Impact of a Ban on the Use of Genetic Information for Life and Health Insurance." The third document is a background paper from the Library of Parliament titled "Genetic Discrimination and Canadian Law." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Monday, March 11, 2019, I will move that Bill 46, Public Land Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
WHEREAS Tabled Document 237-18(3), 2018 Review of Members' Compensation and Benefits Report, has been tabled in this House;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the Honourable Member for Great Slave, that Tabled Document 237-18(3), 2018 Review of Members' Compensation and Benefits Report, be referred to Committee of the Whole for consideration. Mahsi.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 42, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 42 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 43, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Committee would like to consider Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates 2019-2020, with the NWT Housing Corporation and the Department of Lands. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will consider the documents, but first, a brief recess.
---SHORT RECESS
I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates 2019-2020, beginning with the NWT Housing Corporation, which is found on page 365 of the document. I will turn to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation for opening comments. Minister Moses.
Mr. Chair, I am pleased to present the 2019-2020 Main Estimates for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Overall, the corporation's estimates propose an increase of $284,000 or 0.3 percent over the 2018-2019 Main Estimates.
The proposed estimates include forced growth of:
$515,000 for public housing water and sanitation services; and
$100,000 for Habitat for Humanity Northwest Territories, the first of three $100,000 annual contributions to assist Habitat for Humanity NWT with the delivery of their affordable housing program.
In 2019-2020, to assist with the strategic alignment of the government's emergency shelter programming, the responsibility for Northwest Territories emergency shelters will be transferred from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, along with new initiative funding of $397,000 for additional support personnel for emergency overnight shelters.
With respect to support under the National Housing Strategy, the federal government is allocating $1.9 million to address territorial housing priorities, including affordability, repair, and renewal, and $531,000 to protect and regenerate the social housing sector. These amounts will be cost-matched by the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. The Northwest Territories will also receive $3.6 million under the National Housing Fund to the Northwest Territories housing issues. This amount does not require a cost-match.
These estimates support the priorities of the 18th Legislative Assembly and address the cost-of-living priority, especially through our commitment to implementing northern solutions for northern housing:
This includes investing in energy efficient solutions for both new construction and repairs.
We will ensure that land is available for new housing by disposing of a minimum of 50 surplus Northwest Territories Housing Corporation units per year.
We are continuing to work with other governments to support the housing needs of their staff, and in so doing, ensure that community service levels are maintained. An example of this is the development of 45 rental units for use by the RCMP.
Another priority is continuing our success under the Community Housing Support Initiative. In partnership with Indigenous and local governments, such as the Jean Marie River First Nation and the Salt River First Nation, this initiative has led to the development of more affordable housing in communities.
To ensure that the network of Government of the Northwest Territories homelessness supports continue to be effective, a homelessness strategic plan will be completed in 2019-2020.
We will also continue to address the rising demand for seniors' housing by planning for the construction of new seniors' complexes, including mixed-rent projects.
Finally, we will continue our successful engagement with the federal government under the National Housing Strategy, focusing in 2019-2020 on clarifying federal Indigenous housing support for the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Chair, that does conclude my opening remarks. I would be happy to answer Members' questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Moses. I understand that you have witnesses to bring into the Chamber. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the House, and Minister, please take your seat at the witness table. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses for the room.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is our president and CEO of the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Tom Williams. On my right is Mr. Jim Martin, the vice president of finance and infrastructure services.
Thank you. Committee, the corporation begins on page 365. The total is found on page 369, but, as always, we will defer consideration of the total until consideration of the activities. There are four activities. The first is community housing services, which can be found starting on page 372. Does committee have questions or comments for the witnesses? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My questions in this area are pertaining to the public housing inventory. I am aware of the CMHC declining fund that exists, and this is causing the Housing Corporation to return to the Government of the Northwest Territories to get more funding as the various public housing units are paid off. They are assigned in groups of housing with a CMHC number. As they are paid off, CMHC quits providing the mortgage payment and the O and M to operate the home, thus the declining fund, which is scheduled to decline to nothing in, I guess, about 19 years from now. I am curious to know if the Housing Corporation has developed any strategy to divest themselves of public housing in all of the communities across the territory? That is my first question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Members know, and as I have mentioned in the House here, under our National Housing Strategy, we have about just over 1,300 units that we need to address, as a minimum, and as a government, we have looked at about 2,400 units that we address. I think that one of the big things here that we can be proud of is the bilateral agreement that we just did sign. O and M is a concern in terms of trying to add new stock, and I am going to leave questions around that in terms of our budget for O and M.
Going forward, we do have a lot of programs in place to address this. I think that. with the community housing plans that we have discussed, so that we can meet with leadership and talk with community members and NGOs on what their priorities are, we can start addressing this. You heard earlier today during question period that I did mention that we also have the Community Support Initiative that is going to help communities. Communities can apply for that program so that they can address it. There are a few things that we have in place, but really, it is going to take partnerships and working with communities so that we can help them in their needs in their communities. There are a lot of programs, but maybe for a little bit further detail, I will ask the president and CEO to speak to that through you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly public housing stock in the territories, as the Minister said, we are funded to preserve up to 1,231 units. Right now we have 2,400 public housing units in our inventory that we are paying for ourselves as a government. To increase the stock on the ground, probably one of the best ways to do it is with the announcement of the $60-million co-investment fund. That is going to allow for private investment to assist us to put more houses on the ground. It is unfortunate that, unless we get more money from the federal government to increase the public housing stock, due to the O and M costs, as the Minister alluded to, we are unable to do it at this time.
We are looking at different ways as part of our strategy. How do we divert public housing and divest in public housing in the regions? We are working hard with our partners. Our direct funding with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation allows acceleration of delivery in the ISR, where certainly the units are getting repaired faster. We are getting more units on the ground as replacement units and more units demolished over the past year. The Inuvialuit are helping us with a direct flow of money. Getting that extra money, it is incremental money to the system and it allows us to accelerate delivery, but we are looking forward to private investors to come to the plate. When we do the Northern Housing Summit up in Inuvik in April, we are looking to get the information out to private investors on how they could be part of the housing solution in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I refer to divesting public housing, I am essentially asking the Minister if he has developed a strategy to either sell the public housing at a market rate in the communities where there is a market or a quasi-market or give the houses away to the public housing tenants themselves in communities where there is no market.
Right now, as it stands, the public housing units are for sale, but it is not feasible in the small communities for individuals to go to the bank to buy public housing units. They are appraised higher than they are worth. We have units that are written off and sold on a private bid for $4,000 or $5,000, but the exact same unit standing next door could be worth $75,000. My question is: would the Housing Corporation develop a plan to divest themselves of public housing? That would cut the cost down, and it would also start to create a bit of a market.
The Housing Corporation has gotten into the market just a bit. They have introduced some market housing in all of the communities, essentially to house, let's say, nurses and teachers. Now, there is a beginning of a market, but they haven't rounded it off by trying to sell or divest themselves of public housing units. Sell where you can and sign the rest over for nothing to people who have been in public housing for years and years, or even new tenants; it really doesn't matter. The bottom line is that it is going to save a lot of money for the government if they were no longer running public housing units that they don't have to be running. Plus, it will create a bit of a market, and a bit of a market is important. Once we create a bit of a market, whether we refer to it as a quasi-market, or not, what will happen is individuals will then be able to sell and buy houses and be more mobile from community to community. So that was my question, if the Minister is planning to divest themselves, the Housing Corporation, of public housing units. Thank you.
Thank you. The Member has about two minutes left on the clock. I am just noting that. Minister.
Okay, I will try to be really quick. I know he answered quite a bit, but obviously one of the couple of things that we are doing is the lease-to-own program. We want to make sure that people who are in public housing can have that opportunity to lease to own, and then that would help us create more public housing inventory. We are also looking at the new home ownership program. Every year, we are doing 50 disposable units so that, when we demolish units, we are able to create more. The Member makes a good point. We want to create a market, but at the same time we don't want to disrupt some of the private industry and the work that they are doing, but it is something that we are looking into and we are working with private investors.
In your case, Mr. Chair, we are looking at something in Hay River, where there is a big need. Then, like I said, the biggest thing is O and M for any new units, but we do have a plan. We are working with it and we just have to stay on top of it. We will keep committee and Members apprised as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, I am not really clearly finding this section here, and that is the needs survey. Maybe just a simple question to ask the Minister: when will we see the results of the next needs survey? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That needs survey will be available this summer and, going obviously into the transition and the new government, it is something that we will definitely take a look at. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the Minister, based on the community housing development plans or community housing plans referred to the by the Housing Corporation, if there is any consideration to start working with the Indigenous governments to sign contribution agreements to have them take over some parts of the delivery of home ownership programs, not public housing. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister, the time has expired, but you may respond.
Yes. Thank you. At this moment, we don't, just to let the Member know, but that would be an interesting discussion when we have the Northern Housing Summit. It is going to be an opportunity for all leadership community members sitting in one room talking about the considerations and challenges that they are seeing, but we definitely will be looking into something like that. We have a great partnership with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, and I think one thing that is coming out of this Northern Housing Summit is we are going to have one voice of hopefully the whole territory to send to Ottawa, because on top of that, we are still trying to get Indigenous housing funding for some of our self-governments and our Indigenous governments and we will continue to seek that, too.
Thank you, Minister. Next, we have Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just need a clarification here in these main estimates there. It says that we have approximately 2,800 rental units in 33 communities, but now I am hearing you say it is 24, so which is correct? In the document here that we are looking at, it says 2,800: "It operates approximately 2,800 rental housing units in 33 communities." Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The Member is referring to the first sentence on page 372. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When I did answer questions on the 2,400 public housing units, the 2,800 rental housing units also include market and HELP units. Some communities, we will obviously provide market units and HELP units, but, specific to the former Member's questions, the reference to 2,400 was our public housing units. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
