Thanks. I'm sure the Minister's going to guess my next question. Does the housing corporation pay the carbon tax, and what proportion of this increase is related to the carbon tax? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd have to get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay. Is there a timeframe for the Minister to get back to us, and can that information be made public? Look, I'm just looking for some kind of a ballpark figure. Is it 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 percent, something like that? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have that number available for the Member tomorrow. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I'm not sure how else I can get the Minister to agree do this in a bit more timely fashion and make the information public, but if I don't get the information and it's not been made public I'll ask her on the floor of the House.
So the next line here, minor modernization and improvements, is going up by a little over $2 million. Can I get an explanation as to what the additional funding is for and what it's going to accomplish. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is for the replacement and the priority repairs for public housing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, thanks. Does the Minister have any information that she can make public on wait times, by community, for public housing? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The numbers do vary, and I just want to just express through one of my community visits that I did have, the wait time was between three and seven years. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Wow, three to seven years to get into public housing, that's pretty appalling. I don't know what to say.
I think this is part of the housing corporation that also helps people get into homeownership. One of the I think biggest barriers, or growing barriers for homeownership, is insurance. You know, look, I'll confess, I live in Yellowknife, my riding is in Yellowknife, but I, you know, had several constituents contact me over the last year about the difficulty of trying to get home insurance in Yellowknife let alone, you know, regional centres or the smaller communities. So what is NWT Housing Corporation doing about this problem, this barrier to homeownership? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. I think that goes under programs and district operation. This is LHO, public housing. But if the Minister has the answer, I'll...
Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. There has been conversations going back and forth with the Department of Finance to address the insurance issue. I don't have a solution for that, and I do understand that it is quite complex. I do come from a smaller community as well too, and to get home insurance is quite difficult. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Well, that seems to be one of the hottest potatoes here is this problem with home insurance. I raised it with the Department of Finance. I even made suggestions about looking at the Government of Saskatchewan insurance program because they actually provide insurance outside of Saskatchewan for homeowners in some of the provinces but nobody seems to want to actually do anything about this. And the reason I guess why I raised it is in the activity description, homeownership programs are mentioned here but I guess I'm not going to get any answers from the Minister on this either. Thanks, Madam Chair. That's it.
Thank you. Questions? Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I wanted to start off just in regards to a question that the MLA for Yellowknife North asked. It was in regards to operations and maintenance concerns for LHOs being able to purchase their own essentially enter into their own mortgages and source their own funding agreements to be able to really contribute to improving and increasing the housing landscape or the number of houses in the Northwest Territories and the number of homes. And one of the things that they do in BC through Indigenous Housing BC is they actually have the O and M of all of the units built into the mortgages. And they've had tremendous amount of success with this and so I just wanted to point to that solution there.
But one of the questions that I have in regards to community housing is the housing corporation is, thankfully, in the process of doing a government renewal right now, and that was in response to a motion that was put forward by this side of the House. And I have to say a huge thank you to the housing corporation because it was probably the motion that was most positively responded to in the lifetime of this Assembly and became an actual clear action item for the other side of the House. So kudos to housing corporation for taking that on. But my concern is that the roll out is supposed to happen on April 1st for this new suite of policies, and I'm wondering is there funding within this budget, and would it be within community housing services, to provide the training and communication material that not only LHOs will need but also the people of the Northwest Territories who use public housing services? They're going to need to understand how the rules and policies that govern their housing are changing and how they fit within that. And so I'm wondering I'll leave it at that. So is there funding for training within this budget for LHOs? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We are funding those changes through our existing budget. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So Madam Chair, I'm wondering why the housing corporation would not ask for more money to take that on when, from what it looks like from this side of the House, is housing corporation is already trying to stretch a budget, a very thin budget, farther than they can. And this House has been asking, since the beginning of the 19th Assembly, to please, please, please ask us for more money. We want to give more money to housing. Please, let us pay you. Let us on this side of the House say yes, we agree with the budget that's being asked for by housing corporation.
And so I have huge concern with the housing corporation stretching their existing dollars to pay for this training. And I guess my next question is will the housing corporation be producing resources for the people of the Northwest Territories to ensure that they are able to be connected to the services of the rest of the government? Because that's where this started from, was a need for the housing corporation to recognize its place in the social envelope departments of GNWT and to provide those connections to its residents that require other services from other government departments to make sure that they have a fair shot at establishing stable housing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to the Member for the question as well too. I really appreciate these comments coming forward as well. And I just wanted to mention that since the renewal, we were able to conduct workshops with the local housing authorities, the district offices, and the maintenance as well too, and identifying areas of improvement and training. I'll have Ms. Eleanor Young just elaborate on the response as well. Thank you.
Thank you. President Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll just give a couple examples but mention some of the other work that we are doing.
We are in the process of preparing a tenant handbook, you know, which would also be available online, which would be a tool for how to, you know, support successful tenancy; you know, to overcome some of the issues that we have encountered working with tenants. But also, we need to train our staff to be able to have those conversations oneonone. So it will also involve staff training. And getting to some of the examples that the Member mentions, you know, also training our staff on how to access or where programs and services exist within the other social envelope departments so that if they recognize an issue but it's not something that housing itself has the solution to but we know that there is, whether it's mental health support, other types of support that the client may need, just making sure that our folks know where that access point is and how to do that. And without getting too far into it, this is also a key part of the homelessness conversation because we're having the same conversations there on how to work together to make sure that we're supporting clients to get the programs and services that they need. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake. Are there any further questions on community housing services? Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Madam Chair. I'm wondering about your O and M costs. You were talking about it a bit there. There could be a lot in there; I'm not sure what's all entailed in there. I'm just wondering if the O and M costs, if the majority are having to pay utilities versus others. If you could answer that. Mahsi.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll have President Young respond. Thank you.
Thank you. President Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So, yes, of course a huge component of the O and M costs for public housing units is utilities. I think right now when we are budgeting, we're estimating about $21,000 a year for a unit to be operated. And most of that is utilities. And, of course, with increased utility rates we are seeing increases in those costs significantly. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi for that. So I guess CMHC, when they put a deadline of the year 2038 to cut O and M funding, I guess they're looking at a business model in the sense that we're not generating any revenue to cover the costs for ourselves. So I see where CMHC is coming from there. But at the same time, we don't see Housing NWT as a business model but a social program. I'm wondering if you could just maybe elaborate on that. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to the Member for the question. I want to just respond to the operation and maintenance cost, that we do have several service agreements within Housing NWT as well and we do have to become very strategic when we're looking at generating income for the operation and maintenance and for the programming within housing. For an example, I just want to point out the almost completion of the RCMP units where we will be generating a little over a million annually that will go right back into public housing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi for that. Yes, you're not generating enough anyways in business and I always mention that we treat housing, in our communities anyways, as a social program because of the fiduciary responsibility of the federal government to First Nations to provide housing. And that's the premise that we go on. I realize that too as a private homeowner, I pay for my own fuel and now the cost has jumped from, you know, 1.90s previously, now it's over $2. I don't know, $2 and something per litre, so that's becoming significant. And it's going to, you know, only increase to your heating fuels. So I'm wondering if there's like, I can't believe myself too, when I see the federal government programs with your copayment ones and the rapid housing initiatives, Number 1, where they're just pumping them out really quickly, but at the same time they're not thinking about the greenhouse gas emissions through the use of fuels. That's really surprising that they'll throw out their programs yet not follow their own directives, you know, related to climate change as we should be ourselves. So, you know, I don't know why they don't incorporate, whether it's solar power or a wood pellet boiler system or different source of alternate energy into their designs and into their systems that they pump out. Even the housing corporation right now is pumping out units into the communities. I think I have I know I got a fourplex or singles units coming up. There's nothing in that regard there. We're looking at two more duplexes coming into our community. I don't see anything there. It doesn't seem like the corporation wants to help the whole government probably save on utility costs. And I'm wondering if there's any outlook in the near future to, you know, incorporating these designs and these initiatives into your new designs. Mahsi.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Prior to these units being delivered, there was significant changes being made and the design that was put forward are energy efficient designs as well. And we are looking at how can we further look at the cost savings right through building our units. And one of the other things that we have done as well too is with our unit delivery, we have taken part in a consultation throughout the Northwest Territories as well too, when building these units, when communities are going to be receiving a new unit be constructed, there is those conversations that do happen. They are a part of our design conversation as well too. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Madam Chair. Yeah, I know that the Minister talks a lot like that, saying that yeah, they're incorporated, they're in this design, they're in that design. When they come to our communities, the units, we don't see that. And I say the price of diesel has gone over $2. I don't think it's ever may never come down the way things are going. Even my landlord, they just raised the rent for my place and I'm asking why are you you know, increasing the rent? And they state well, cost of living. That's the landlord. What about that little person that has to pay that rent? They have to deal with the cost of living too. And I've been trying to get housing corporation to really start an aggressive campaign and start looking at alternate energy sources because either way, you know, you take out 240volt electric hot water heater and put 110volt oil fire electric heater, you don't win either way because now you've gone to diesel. You're burning more diesel than anything. And housing corporation should start from all their offices in all the communities and start incorporating wood pellet boilers and start from there. And like I've always said, put a cluster into one. What is preventing housing corporation from doing such an initiative? Mahsi.
Thank you. Minister Chinna.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I just wanted you know, right now the energy strategy is out for consultation. We do have it all over Facebook. We did put this in the newspaper as well too. So we do have the public to engage. And I think the consultation is for two weeks I want to say? I think we're supposed to be receiving that, I want to say back on the I think it closes on the 28th of February. And in looking at the energy strategy as well too, we are looking at the fuel tank replacements for all public housing units as well too and making sure that they're upgraded in their fuel efficiency and whatever. And also the biomass projects. I think we have I don't have the communities in front of me right now but there was about eight communities that were listed that received those energy savings initiatives. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
