Thank you, Madam Chair. Should the corporation be successful in securing federal financing under the aboriginal housing Initiative and for the Novel housing project, they will be faced with the problem of a lack of suitable, developed land in virtually every community in the Northwest Territories.

Our discussions indicate that the corporation is alive to this issue, but Members were concerned that there was no specific mention in the business plan narrative about the need to cooperate with other departments and levels of government.

When the committee looks at the problems the corporation had and is having in securing land for the 45 units under the market housing initiative, we cannot help but have feelings of trepidation when the corporation is proposing building or placing 1,600 units in the communities over the next 10 or so years.

It is very important the Housing Corporation makes sure that communities and governments understand the magnitude and expectations that will be placed on them, should the corporation secure federal funding. At minimum this would require concentrated and coordinated partnerships and firm agreements with municipal and aboriginal governments to be reached beforehand.

David Krutko

Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, as you know from the budget, we are approving the $38 million and that money will be expended on the delivery of the 185 units. Yes, there may be a delay in delivery because already the winter road access and whatnot. There will be delays. There's our mandate change that will possibly cause some delays. We have land issues we have to deal with. So there will be technical delays through the process. We are still committed to meet the goal where the motion passed in this House to deliver the housing needs to bring down our core needs by 2007. How we get there, yes, it will mean we do have to have resources. But this year we feel that we can deliver on the amount of money that is going to be approved here before the House and the other dollars we have internally.

With the question of the federal support, I feel pretty positive that it is there and that will be carried forward. The allocation we were looking at is that we were looking at over three years because the federal obligation under Bill C-48 has to be expended in two years. So we were going to look at putting our money at the back end of this delivery process in year three. So because of that, we'll just have to readjust our funding so we're funded at the front end, and use federal funding to pick it up at the back end. Thank you.

David Krutko

Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in regards to the different housing programs that we do deliver, we do have to try to be fair to different people. Yes, there is a question about confidentiality, but I think it’s just like anything else. If you’re dealing with the banks, in which a large portion of these dollars we do give to the clients, through EDAP, is bank financing. Out of 600 clients, we’ve been able to access almost $46 million from the banks for these units by way of…and it’s another avenue for us to be able to get houses on the ground, but also be able to assist people in need. A lot of these people that are in need basically are single mothers in regards to having four or five kids. You have to take into account what the real cost is in regard to what it’s going to cost for you to take care of not only your shelter needs, but also your day-to-day needs to accommodate a family of whatever size it may be. So we do have to keep that into account, but also realizing that we are doing a process to review the different programs we are delivering.

In regards to the maintenance management systems, we do use that program in house for our local housing authorities through our maintenance program, which has proven to be very useful in order to realize the situation we find our housing units in our communities so that we can determine where we spend our money to do the different repairs that have to be done based on the management program we have in place. Again, it’s only used internally, in house.

In regard to the issue the Member raised about land administration, I was at a meeting with the Member, Mr. Yakeleya, MACA and myself, and at that meeting it was pretty clear that we, MACA and even ourselves, are having problems just trying to deal with the land issues in regards to the question about titles, in regards to the new self-government agreements that are in place, who do you deal with, who are the people that you have to be able to get permission from to develop these lands and under what conditions? We do have a major problem in regards to the area of lands and I think it’s something that’s identified not only in the Housing Corporation, but also MACA is realizing that it’s a problem.

We do have to work together with the different departments and the local governments and municipalities and community governments to find solutions to these problems. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.