Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned at the end of my statement, my questions are directed to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.
During the review of the budget of the NWT Housing Corporation, the president of the Corporation, Mr. Polakoff, made a couple of statements. He said, in terms of transition housing, the Housing Corporation has provided significant funding to a number of facilities in the past. Further on he said there’s an opportunity for transitional housing through the overall housing continuum. I’d like to ask the Minister for Housing, the transitional housing is typically operated outside of the GNWT, so I’d like to ask him what types of support exist within the Housing Corporation to provide support to the operators of transitional housing. Thank you.
The Minister of Housing, Robert C. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have that particular information right now but I’d be happy to get it and relay it on to the Member. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I look forward to that. Further on in his remarks, Mr. Polakoff mentioned that NGOs can provide a good source of support in terms of administering things like transitional housing. I’d like to ask the Minister, and hopefully he has at least some of this information, but under what program could the Housing Corporation provide operational funds to NGOs who provide transitional housing, new programs, existing programs, programs from another department? Any information would be helpful. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there are some programs that we administer, on behalf of CMHC, that assist some of the folks that provide some of the houses with maintenance and upkeep on the units. Thank you.
I guess I’ll have to ask the Minister if he can commit to provide me with that information since he hasn’t mentioned what that is. One of the things that happened during the building of Bailey House was that the units were designed to a certain size and the Housing Corporation came along and said that they needed to be larger. By making those units larger, that increased the cost of running that facility. It led them to the situation where they are right now, where their revenues don’t meet their expenses. The tenants at Bailey House can’t afford any more than the $800 or $900 that they’re being charged at the moment. I’d like to know, in terms of that situation, where the Housing Corporation requires units to be larger and, therefore, more expensive than what the building is originally designed for, what will the Housing Corporation do to help the people operating the transitional housing to have their revenue meet their expenses. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Member has provided me with a lot of detail and she’s looking for some answers on some of the detail. If I had an opportunity to meet with the Member and listen to some of her concerns I’d be in a better position to supply the detail that’s she looking for, but I can assure the Member that we do what we can to assist those folks that are operating units. We have money that we sometimes do allocate to them, on behalf of CMHC, for some of the repairs on their unit. I would imagine if the Housing Corporation said the unit had to be larger, then we would have to look at maybe how we would be able to support that. Thank you.
Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister, I think. As Mrs. Groenewegen has said once or twice, it would be nice if you just sort of said, yeah, that’s a good idea, we’ll look into it. I heard the Minister say that he’d like to sit down and talk. Absolutely. I’m going to ask him if he would commit to meet with me to talk about this idea so that we can try and find some sort of a solution. I would also like to ask the Minister if he would commit to work with other departments within the government to find the right funding for NGOs so that the people within transitional housing don’t have to go on to income support.
Mr. Speaker, the fact that there are some good ideas over there, we don’t have to say it. Obviously, the fact that we’re willing to sit and meet with Members and try and address some of the concerns shows them that there are some good ideas and we’re willing to listen. I will commit to the Member that we’re willing to listen to any ideas, any suggestions. It helps us do our job, it obviously helps the Members do their jobs, and most importantly, it helps the folks out there that we’re representing. I will commit to the Member that I’d be more than happy to sit down and meet with her. I will meet with whoever I need to, to try and find a good resolution to some of the issues that they’re facing. Thank you.
Thank you. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
