Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about the NWT housing survey, and I want to ask the Minister will there be another survey coming out, since 2009 was the last one?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have started work on the new housing needs survey and we’re anticipating early 2014 to start the survey.
I certainly look forward to the next survey. That leads me to my second question. With the 2014 survey, hopefully that will give us some measurements to let us know how we’re doing in regard to bringing down some of these numbers from 2009.
I want to ask the Minister, in his tenure as the Minister, has he been, I guess, getting a sneak peak of the housing issues in the Northwest Territories. Has he seen numbers coming down from the 2009 survey?
As far as the numbers coming down, I think we’re going to find out in 2014 that with the investments we’ve made since the last housing needs survey, I think we are going to see the numbers come down. I know in the Member’s riding alone, in the Sahtu, since 2009 when the report was done, we’ve spent approximately $14.7 million in trying to improve that, and we’re looking at a further $13 million investment within the next three years, so I think that will go a long way in addressing some of the concerns that were raised in the last housing needs survey. I think once we do the survey in 2014, I think it’s going to be reflective of the investment that we’ve made in the Northwest Territories.
I’m glad the Minister was able to indicate the amount of dollars that went into infrastructure for the Sahtu people. Even though those numbers are high, we still have a case in Colville Lake where there is a TB case. Why is that? What causes TB? You know, there are a number of factors in the case of TB or the homeless in Fort Good Hope or the couch surfing in Tulita. You know, there are issues in the Sahtu where these situations are still being dealt with today.
I want to ask the Minister, these types of situations in the Sahtu that we have, hopefully, with the new type of infrastructure, how can the Minister reassure me and the people in the Sahtu that these issues will be looked at where we won’t have to deal with them on a day-to-day basis.
There are many different reasons why we have these situations in some of the communities with the couch surfing and the other issues that they do have. I think one of the things that I’ve seen during my time as the Minister is a lot of people were being evicted because of arrears and that, but I have to admit that across the Northwest Territories the numbers of people that are honouring their commitments has gone up by quite a bit and we’re very encouraged by that, and we look forward to the next few years where we see less and less evictions because people are honouring their commitments.
As far as the other issues go, I mean, there are many other reasons why we have these particular issues in the small communities, and I don’t think it’s my place to touch on the TB question. But I think we’re seeing across the Northwest Territories a lot of the public housing tenants are actually starting to step up to the plate and honouring their commitments, and as we go forward, I think it’s going to be reflective with less and less evictions in many of the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just on the point of the TB case I made reference to is because I looked at the factors. One of the factors is the condition or suitability of the house and the high number in Colville Lake, where the percentage is 97 percent with housing problems. That could be a leading factor to the TB case that we had in Colville Lake.
Are there any types of initiatives where the people could challenge the people in the Sahtu, in the Northwest Territories, to look at how we can put more houses in the communities such as something that is a very well program run? They have a program we can get behind and the corporation can say we can do this, if you allow us to put some of our sweat equity and ideas into building housing in our small communities.
Mr. Speaker, I think, when the 2014 needs survey is being worked on, we are going to have to be more specific in some of the questions we ask. If you ask anybody anywhere, is there something wrong with your house, I’m sure all 19 of us in here could find something wrong with our house. So that affects the adequacy issue and I think sometimes the numbers aren’t truly reflective of the condition of the units.
As far as the overcrowding goes, we have a public housing replacement program where we’re trying to get as many housing units into the communities as possible where the need is the greatest. I think we’re going to see that our investment in the next few years is going to try and address that very issue.
Again, it’s been a work in progress. There has been a lot of good work done on this not only by the NWT Housing Corporation, but by the clients and tenants across the Northwest Territories. We have different homeownership programs that we’re hoping to see some uptake on those.
So work is being done. There has been a lot of progress. I think, once we do the needs survey in 2014, we’re going to see a decrease in the need across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
