Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I spoke about housing issues in the Northwest Territories. I have questions for the Minister of housing.
Has the Minister given direction to the Housing Corporation to establish a long-term plan that specifically addresses the issue of the CMHC’s declining fund?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, that’s an issue of some complexity. We have engaged with the other provinces and territories. We passed a motion in this House recently for support and encouragement to the federal government. We’re going to work collectively with the other provinces and territories to encourage the federal government and Minister Solberg, and we acknowledged that in our Framework for Action. As we move forward with the business-planning process, we’re going to have to keep working on the political pressure to elevate this to the national table. The Ministers of Finance and the Premiers have also picked up the issue of housing as a critical national one for us. We have taken that offensive to address that issue.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister kind of answered my second question, about what the federal commitment has been so far, but I’m curious. I’m assuming that the decline is going to happen. I’m assuming that CMHC is not going to come back with long-term O&M dollars. My question is: has the Minister given direction to the Housing Corporation to address this issue of the CMHC declining fund?
Mr. Speaker, the intention is not to throw in the towel in terms of negotiations with and encouragement of the federal government. We’re convinced that sooner or later they’re going to have to recognize that they have a national crisis on their hands which they have to play a role in. In the meantime, as we go to our Framework for Action plan and our annual business-planning process, the issue of declining funding is going to become more and more evident, I believe, starting in 2010–2011.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister if he has considered looking at or reviewing the total allocation system to put efforts where the needs are greatest, not by numbers but by percentage of core need.
Mr. Speaker, we do a version of that already. There is a needs survey going to be taking place in 2009. As I’ve indicated to the Members of this House, there are issues where we need to review how we do business. We have to keep allocating and growing our resources, which are becoming more and more scarce. We’re going to have to look at how we do that so we get to the areas of highest need.
That’s an issue, I think, that is going to bear discussion as we move forward with the business-planning process.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a housing industry. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister is willing to work with the industry, where an industry is available, toward lowering the need across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we’re interested in working with all the components of the northern housing construction sector. We’re interested in building the most fuel-efficient, energy-efficient houses we can to cut our costs and to lower the cost of construction.
There are significant challenges before us, but very clearly, the more we can work with northern industry, the better. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
