Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Housing.
Listening to the interesting debate we had between the Minister of ECE and the honourable Member, I have similar types of issues in terms of affordability of homes. I have to commend the Housing Corporation for increasing the housing stock in the Nahendeh riding, but we’re having affordability issues, meaning that people aren’t being approved or getting into these homes.
I think part of the issue there has to do with it being a non-market community. Government guidelines and procedures…. I believe they’re selling them at economic rents or at the economic rate it costs to construct them, but the issue is that in our small communities they’re being constructed at a high cost, and I think they should be sold at market cost. I’m not too sure how we’re going to get around this. Mr. Speaker, if the Minister could speak to that.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, we have a number of programs that have been incorporated in the last while to assist the people across the North to get into home ownership or, in the case of repairs, to apply for repairs. In each case there is a threshold that is established. We look at calculating the maximum construction cost. We look at factoring in the interest rate, land costs, shelter costs, and we also then amortize that over a 25 year period.
For the most part, Mr. Speaker, it seems to be working well. In the last while we’ve had a huge investment in home ownership through the Affordable Housing Initiative and the Housing Trust. That money was provided on a cost shared basis from the federal government. We’ve put a lot of units on the ground. We have heard from a number of people across the North that the opportunity to access this program is too limited. We are reviewing the thresholds to ensure that maybe we could open it up a little bit so that it’s a little more flexible.
That’s the absolute crux of the issues in many of the small communities. The affordability window is just so small and the income threshold, I believe, has to be reviewed. Is the department or is government going to look at reviewing the threshold this coming winter?
Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation, including myself, has sat down on a number of occasions now to look at some of the areas that have been causing issues to come forward. The threshold seems to be an area that we need to commit to doing a review on. It’s been a while now that this program’s been in place. We’re hearing a lot of feedback in this area, and we want to do that.
The other area, of course, is to be able to deal with the large number of questions and requests that come in from the general public to the MLAs and also to me as Minister. We are working on a new initiative there, also, to look at the appeal process. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do both of those things sometime over the winter.
Does the existing program take into account the remoteness of the smaller communities like Jean Marie? Is the income threshold lower, or is there more room for deduction, as it were, from the payment plan, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Speaker, the answer to that question is yes. Each community has a different income threshold, whether it’s the maximum or the minimum, and each income threshold is designed and calculated from the cost of living in that community.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Is that threshold limit applicable to all the programs that are there? Is that the same program available for CARE as it is in HELP? Is that the same income threshold?
Mr. Speaker, this program is designed towards the Homeownership program. The CARE program is a lot more open and fewer conditions are placed on it for homeowner repairs.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
