Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are a follow-up on my statement earlier today on public housing. First, I want to confirm this government’s philosophy towards housing. In face of the fact that renting or owning housing is beyond the means of most people in most communities, doesn’t the government agree that the government must meet this need by the progressive redistribution of public funds in recognition that this is a social need? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation recognize our obligations to provide public housing to residents across the Northwest Territories. We have over 2,400 public housing units in our stock and with all the other units that we have, we have over 4,500 units that we have been responsible for getting on the ground to provide housing. So obviously this government, our Housing Corp in particular, recognizes its obligation to provide housing to residents in the Northwest Territories.
Well said to the Minister. The second fact is this: no matter how much rent an LHO collects or doesn’t, people still need housing. Piling up these annual funding penalties does nothing but reduce LHOs’ ability to meet that need. Since housing is a basic social need, how does the Minister propose to meet reality and close the gap between what LHOs should and can collect so that service to all doesn’t suffer? Mahsi.
Thank you. We can work closely with some of our LHOs that have found themselves in a bit of a deficit and we have a Deficit Recovery Plan we’re working on with the LHOs. We do ask the LHOs to collect 90 percent in rental arrears or rent revenue up to 90 percent. The accumulated deficit of all our LHOs across the Northwest Territories at this particular time is $2.4 million. The accumulated arrears of all tenants of LHOs across the Northwest Territories at this particular moment are $13 million. So we have $11.6 million that these LHOs could be using to put towards their deficits and put back into their housing stock. Thank you.
Thank you. There’s quite a bit that could be explored in that statement, but I appreciate that those are the facts. The Minister will get no argument from me on the need to collect rent. People who can pay rent must pay it, but the reality is penalizing LHOs for uncollected rent does nothing but dig LHOs into debt, because the reality is all rents can’t be collected, despite best efforts. How does the Minister again propose to get assessed rents in line with the reality of rental collections? Mahsi.
Thank you. We are working with those LHOs that find themselves in deficit and we’ll continue to work with them. With the support of this government and this committee, we have identified funds that go towards alleviating some of the LHOs’ deficits and that’s something that was just recently approved and we have identified more funds in future years, because we recognize that there are some uncontrollables that we have to work with that the LHOs are trying to overcome and we recognize the responsibility that we have as the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to help these LHOs. Again, we also have been trying to educate residents across the Northwest Territories on the importance of rent and paying their rent. I think the message is starting to get out there.
I would expect that we will see the situation improve. We have been dealing with the situation that had come to a head through this transfer we had just recently. We’re starting to identify all the outstanding issues and we’re starting to deal with them.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The time for question period has expired. I will allow the Member a short supplementary. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s response there. I think we do need to look for progressive solutions, perhaps setting collectable rents at 5 or 10 percent more than the previous year’s actual rather than 100 percent, building in incentives that reward success. I’m hoping that the Minister... I guess I ask if the Minister will come to us soon with some of the specifics to respond to this dilemma.
We look forward to any opportunity to brief committee on some of the initiatives that we’re working on. Also in the course of our business here, we have private meetings where we can inform the Members, especially in their constituencies, some of the initiatives that we’re working on. I will commit to keeping all Members informed and up to date on all the progress that we’ve made with working with the LHOs and their deficit recovery plans.
