Thank you, Madam Speaker. In follow up to my Member’s statement, I have questions for the Minister of Housing.
Will the Minister make changes to the CARE program right away so that the northern communities can take advantage of this this summer? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The CARE program has been in existence for awhile. There are opportunities for those that are in need of repairs to access the program. The CARE program, as it sits right now, is fairly sufficient and people are given a lot of opportunity to apply for the program. Thank you.
It doesn’t seem fair that the maximum amount of assistance available through the CARE program is the same everywhere. You will get a lot more done for $3,000 in Yellowknife than in Aklavik. Will the Minister take local costs into account and adjust the CARE program? Thank you.
The Member makes a good point and it’s one that we’ve had discussions about as a corporation, the fact that it does cost more to do business in some of the higher arctic communities than it does in some of the South Slave communities.
We are looking at it. The Member referencing the $3,000, that would be the Preventative Maintenance Program. The CARE program actually has a maximum of $92,000 that folks can access to do repairs on their home. But the Preventative Maintenance Program is one that is designed and a lot of seniors take us up on that, for some maintenance on their homes. We are looking at the option of funding communities where the costs are a lot greater than some of the South Slave communities. Thank you.
When the Housing Corporation does repairs for public housing in small communities, could arrangements be made for its crew to assist private homeowners? Thank you.
We’re quite proud of the fact that in some of our small communities a lot of the work that is done on public housing units is from people within the community. As far as assisting, I mean, there are opportunities there to assist people that need to repair their own homes. Obviously, there is going to be a cost to it, because it’s not part of our mandate. It is home ownership and homeowners are responsible for all maintenance of their unit. However, we do have a lot of programs that are designed to assist homeowners wanting to do some repairs on their units. The option is there but it’s not one that we would consider because we need those folks to be doing the work on the public housing units and then home ownership can make other arrangements. Or they may use them, but again, it’s the cost to the homeowner. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have no further questions at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
