Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll have vicepresident Jim Martin respond. Thank you.
Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This payment here relates to the mortgage payments that Housing NWT makes to CMHC for the housing assets that were transferred under the social housing agreement. We pay each year $955,000 under that arrangement or loan, and the interest portion of that is $313,000, and that is the amount that gets recognized as expenditures under the Actuals 20212022. The difference is the principal portion which is applied to the debt, which doesn't show up in this case. But we do have to budget $955,000 each year to cover both the principal and the interest. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi for that. Member for Monfwi.
Yes, thank you for the information, because I was just wondering what was happening over there, you know, from 313, because in the small communities we have a lot of issues with mortgage. We have there's a lot of people that have mortgage and a lot of them they had to refinance agreement. And some of these mortgage are old. You know, like they're over 20 years old and they're still on their books. And they were recently refinanced. And I just wanted to ask the Minister and they did some they forgave some of the arrears before. Why not do the same with the mortgage arrears? Will the Minister commit to forgiving the old outstanding mortgages from ten to 20 years ago? Thank you.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do follow a process when we are forgiving our debts as well too. We do have to follow FMB. I'll have vicepresident Jim Martin respond as we do forgive some of these accounts annually. Thank you.
Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, as the Minister mentioned, Housing NWT participates in an annual review process with the Department of Finance and undertakes a review of all our accounts, both on the mortgage side as well as the tenant arrears side. And we look at these accounts and we determine which one of those would meet the strict criteria of the financial management board under the Financial Administration Act to qualify for forgiveness. So we do consider both mortgages and tenant arrears in this process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Member for Monfwi.
Yes, thank you. I know I spoke in this House before regarding the BDIC, and they do forgive millions and millions of dollars of business loans. And why not do the same for the housing those who have outstanding mortgage or the old mortgage, you know, and I think across the territory there's like 247 outstanding old mortgages. If they can do a writeoff, they can do it. It's just that they're not they're not making an effort to do it. That's how we feel because a lot of people are asking. And some of the people were saying or they said to me that, from the outlying communities, they told us that we live in a house for 15 years and it's ours and we're still paying mortgage. Some of those people have been paying faithfully, you know. And so that's a concern for them. And a lot of them they want to get out of the mortgage; they want it to be written off because they're old mortgage. And so even some are saying too that for lease to own I think this has to do with some of the administration too as well. But some of them were told if you're a good tenant for at least five years, no arrears, etcetera, we will do lease to own. So and some of those people they're still paying faithfully, and they don't have arrears, and they're still waiting for the North Slave district office call them to do the mortgage agreement.
And they say we're tired of paying this mortgage or this rent. We're still waiting for them to come and they're having you know, we're still waiting. How long we have to wait? How long are we going to wait, because they've been living in there for many years. So I know the administration needs to do a better job at the North Slave district office or at the executive office. They need to get in contact with the people because it's mostly that, that it's an outstanding agreement that we’re verbally promised ten to 15 years ago. And people are saying we can't keep paying rent. And they've been in those units for many years. Not only that, I have some constituents that apply for the homeownership program through NWT Housing. So some of those tenants that are living in the mortgage or in a rental unit, they apply, and they were told they were denied based on the income, income threshold, because they were told that they're making too much money.
And another couple applied, they say they were they told them that you're your income threshold is low. And many of these people, like they're working. Some of them are two income and it's hard to maintain to meet because of the high cost of living in the small community, especially in the small communities, that it's hard it's difficult because of the increase in fuel, groceries, and on top of that the rent. And many of them are paying max rent. I have a constituent that are like for three years they pay like $109,000 in rent. And I think that should be taken into consideration for them to be homeowners. And it's not just them. There are a lot of other ones too in my community who are who have been living in these units for almost 20 years and are paying the same thing, and they probably paid over $500,000. That's what a based on their rent and they have all the documents and everything. And they don't have a major arrears but they still cannot get an agreement in place. So they're still waiting for them to come.
So I just wanted to ask the Minister that will they commit to contact and work with these people to be homeowners because she said that there was 52 applicants received. How many of those are from Tlicho region? Thank you.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I hear where the Member is coming from as well too, and I found this an area that I would have liked to concentrate on immediately. And there's so many different areas that we've been trying to work on within the portfolio. But the outstanding mortgages is one of them, and what I've learned to see is that we do look at refinancing. We do look at trying to work with the client and trying to forgive the interest is one of the bigger barriers that we're able to kind of be successful with the client on. I'm just going to have vicepresident Jim Martin speak about the forgiveness of debts as well and how much we've forgiven over the lifetime of this government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So since the start of the 19th Legislative Assembly, Housing NWT has brought forward for approval 202 debt files that were approved for forgiveness. And that was approximately $12 million in total. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi for that. Any further questions from the Members on this section? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm not quite sure this is the exact section to ask this but since it's about infrastructure services, I'll go ahead. What's the policy on smoking tobacco and cannabis in public housing? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right now we don't have a policy that addresses smoking in our units. But through the strategic renewal, we will be addressing this issue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So the strategic renewal has been going on for at least a year, maybe a couple years. What are the options that the housing corporation is looking at and when is this process going to be finished, at least in terms of the smoking policy? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This has been brought up to us, and we are aware of it. But there's work that's being done on this policy and also looking at the high traffic areas as well. And hopefully we're able to address those too within the lifetime of this government. But we do have 42 policies that will be brought forward and tabled April 1st. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.
Okay, thanks, Mr. Chair. So one of the these 42 policies that are going to be tabled apparently on April 1st, the House is not sitting, but I imagine then that the Minister's going to find a way to release them somehow, is one of those policies going to deal with smoking in public housing? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll have President Young respond. Thank you.
Ms. Young.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there won't be a policy enacted April 1st for smoking. We are currently working to determine whether using house rules, which is a conversation we've been having with the Ombud, or whether legislative fix is the more effective and efficient way to do this. But trying to get an answer on that as quickly as possible so we can implement a solution, as the Minister said, by the end of this government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.
Okay, thanks for that. I think I have a little bit better understanding of that. But, look, I would have thought it would be pretty much common sense that people should not be able to smoke cannabis or tobacco in hallways, entranceways into buildings. There's no policy, nothing on this right now; is that the case? Thanks.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's correct.
Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks. Wow. If you didn't hear me the first time. I just find that really hard to believe that we don't have any policy about access public spaces into public housing, that people are just allowed to smoke cannabis, tobacco there. That's just not in anybody's interest, especially kids. I'll leave it at that. So I really want you folks to sort that out now.
The other issue I guess I'd like to raise here is free WiFi. I think this has been raised before in the House as a way of trying to improve people's quality of life, access to programs and services, and so on. Does the housing corporation provide any WiFi services in any of its public housing now? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi for that. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, we don't. Thank you.
Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Has the housing corporation ever considered this and have you calculated a cost for what it would be in I guess I'm particularly interested in multifamily dwellings where there might be, you know, some efficiency in offering that kind of service as well? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I remember this being brought up earlier in the lifetime of this government. The number that was brought forward was $1.9 million if we were to offer WiFi in each of our public housing units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.
Okay, thanks. Yeah, that's a useful number to know and something I think folks on my side might want to think a little bit more about. I appreciate the responses. That's all I have, Mr. Chair.
Any further questions? Mr. Edjericon.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just got a few questions. You already mentioned that they're going to be completing the housing strategy renewal by April 1st, 2023. Are we on track to have that completed on April 1st? Thank you.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we are on track.
Mahsi. Mr. Edjericon.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For some time now in the housing corporation inventory, there's what we call the northern rental units and the Webber homes that's dating back 40 to 50 years. And there are a lot of families that were living in these homes. And, you know, I guess I'm not really sure how the housing corporation is going to look at returning these units over to the homeowners. Say if the unit is 40 years old and if you do a unit condition rating, the thing comes back at 40 percent. And if that's a nonmarket community, then how do you appraise that unit so that it could be sold to the tenant? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mahsi. Minister.
