Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier, in light of my Member’s statement and the practice that was seen in the 13th Assembly, which still originates in our communities, especially in the areas of programs and services, in regard to services in general, from health care services, education services, and having the ability to access professions in our communities.
In regard to the biggest challenge, we hear from a lot of our professions in the area of housing. I think as a government we have to try something different, so I’d like to ask the Premier: have you considered looking at an alternative for retention and recruitment in communities outside the regional centres by way of some sort of housing initiative? I’ll use an example: in most communities we have accommodations in the health centres for the nurses, but we don’t have accommodations in our communities for teachers. Is it a possibility of looking at that, by way of precedence, and working with the private sector and working with the local education boards to see if there’s a possibility of implementing that type of program?
The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
We all are aware of the reductions that happened in 1995–1996. For the record, back then the government of the day looked at $150 million worth of reductions, and those were peer reductions. I believe the numbers back then for employees affected were in the neighbourhood of 700 to 800. Our scenario at this stage: we’ve minimized that to the largest extent possible.
The housing piece is something we’re still affected with, as the Member has pointed out. We have looked at.... For example, in the last Assembly there was the Market Housing Initiative to try to get units into communities for professionals. This government, the Minister of the Housing Corporation along with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment have been working on, for example, the guaranteed program for development corporations to get into that market and provide housing at that level.
Again, the problem seems to be around the area of collective bargaining in regard to the northern allowance that’s offered and with regard to a housing subsidy. I think we have to work around that. Like I say, through the nursing staff that we have in our communities who worry about the work — that’s through the precedence that’s there. Can we work either through the collective bargaining agreement or with the different professions to have some sort of universal program in isolated communities outside regional centres where there is no real housing market? It is having a major effect on delivering programs and services in our communities. Will the Premier consider looking at...? I know we’ve gone through discussions with the unions, but again, we have to find ways of working out this problem. I’d like to ask the Premier: is he open to those type of suggestions?
Back in 1995–1996, the housing package, along with the VTAs that were in place, at that time tallied close to $30 million. In today’s environment I wouldn’t even speculate as to how high it’s gone from that area. We are looking at ways of trying to have development corporations, the private sector, get involved in the housing in those communities. We’re trying to find that option.
When it comes to collective agreements, if the roles participating, the negotiators for the unions, ask to discuss it, there’s no stopping us from having the discussion. The fact will come in as: can we afford anything of that nature?
We also have to also recognize the northern allowance was put in place to make up the difference and each community has different rates. Some communities have a substantial northern allowance rate to try to mitigate those higher costs.
Again, working with the private sector with regard to housing we have the development corporations, community corporations, and also a few individuals who are looking at that by way of business opportunities. It is a major capital investment in a lot of our communities. You’re talking about a very high cost to construct in a lot of these communities. If anyone wants to take on this endeavour, they are going to be on a long term, being able to recoup their investments.
I’d like to ask the Premier: are there any programs that we may have where we can invest in these type of projects where the corporations could maybe look at it, knowing they’re going to have to probably wait a while before they get paid back for their investment within a long-term lease or long-term financial commitment, either by this government or the divisional boards to help their education?
Much like we did during the Market Housing strategy, the two-year pilot program that started bringing modular units into communities for the professionals, that was done on a cost-mutual basis in the sense that full recovery of having that unit there, utilities and so on, had to be a part of the package. That actually worked out fairly well for the most part. Some of those units came in at a lower cost than what we were having paid to rent for those in our communities living in standard public housing units. So that was an initiative. It’s something we can look at again.
The Housing Corporation in today’s environment has a loan guarantee program that would help development corporations get involved in that area, but we’d expect part of that solution would have to be made up from their rent structure.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Can the Premier commit to come back to this House with some of those types of initiatives, so that we can also take them back to our constituencies and meet with the district education boards and health boards to find solutions to these problems we’re having with recruiting?
We’re willing to sit down and look at those types of options with the Members and committees to see what avenues we can look at. We realize there are pressures there and we’re trying to find ways to mitigate that.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
