Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, many communities face challenges in providing programs and services to their people because of a lack of affordable housing. The lack of housing makes it hard to recruit and retain staff. Lowering the cost of living is one of the priorities of this Assembly and increasing the availability of safe, affordable housing is one of the key actions to advance that priority.
The private market is not adequately meeting the need for more affordable rental housing, particularly in rural and remote communities. This is because the development and ongoing management of rental housing in small communities carries a capacity and risk profile that many developers are unwilling to meet. To help address this issue, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is developing more market rental housing units in our rural and remote communities. As new employment opportunities are created in communities through devolution and decentralization and job vacancies are filled, there must be available and affordable housing to support these workers. Currently, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has 133 market rentals in most non-market communities. This number will grow to 205 units by 2017.
The Housing Corporation is also working closely with education and health stakeholders, which are areas of particular concern, to improve the availability of information on Housing Corporation rentals. In the past, rents were based on individual unit costs and could vary significantly. There are now standardized rents using the same community zone system as other NWT Housing Corporation rental programs. The new rates are fairer and will give new staff more certainty about their housing costs. As the market rental rate is directly related to the cost of construction and therefore unsubsidized, the NWT Housing Corporation has been using modular homes for the first two years to make these units as affordable as we can for tenants. The NWT Housing Corporation has determined that this approach provides direct savings of up to 30 per cent compared to stick-built units.
This past year, the NWT Housing Corporation worked with several northern contractors in the delivery of the market housing units. Through the request for proposal process, proponents in the South Slave, Beaufort-Delta, and the Sahtu were awarded tenders. In the Sahtu, the units are under construction using an on-site structural insulated-panels approach, while the other two proponents offered factory-built modular housing. In this next phase, we will be looking to foster more innovation through a request for proposal process and will encourage the northern manufacturing sector and contractors to engage and participate in this process as we work towards the development of northern housing solutions to address our housing needs. Contractors and developers can expect a proposal call this spring for 2016-2017 projects.
Reducing barriers to staffing caused by a lack of housing in non-market communities is an important way that the NWT Housing Corporation can support community employment and address the high cost of living. The introduction of more available, quality, and affordable market housing units helps to ensure that our communities are able to attract people and provide important front-line services to our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Ministers' statements. Minister of Health and Social Services.
