Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I made my statement on Market Housing in Small Communities, so my question is to the Minister of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. The disruption of existing local markets are a fact to consider when the Housing Corporation is considering bringing new units into a non-market community. Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I would like to be able to say, yes, we do consider it. There have been a few mistakes on the department's side. We were asked many years ago to actually bring in market housing to the communities to support professionals, nurses, doctors, social workers, school teachers. The reality is once we did the assessment, and then it took a couple years to actually build the units there, some of the gaps were filled. So we're actually currently looking at the communities that have market rentals we're actually looking at our own rentals and seeing if we can reallocate those.
I've heard of potential rental rates of up to $1,400 per month for a market rental unit in Fort Providence. Can the Minister confirm the rental rate for a market rental unit in this community?
I can't confirm the actual market rental in Fort Providence itself because each community is different, but I can confirm that as part of this survey, and actually even before the survey, we are conducting a total review of all of our rental for accommodations in every single community, so we're in the process of doing that now.
I'd like to thank the Minister for her reply. The unfortunate reality is we have an empty unit in Fort Providence. Who has been paying for fuel, utilities, and other maintenance in the empty modular unit in Fort Providence since it was brought into the community in January 2016?
The NWT Housing Corporation is responsible for making sure that any unit that we have, usable or not, is actually maintained. So we provide the cost of the utilities when they aren't occupied.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is to the Minister. The Minister had indicated that mistakes were made in terms of communicating the intentions of the market housing in small communities. Could the Minister commit to embarking upon improving communications, and at same time perhaps reviewing its consultations with small communities on market housing? Mahsi.
I should clarify. When I say mistakes were made, it's not that we made a mistake in asking if we needed them at the time. It's just that it does take a couple of years for us to do the business plan and then get the units constructed, so we did err in that way. But it wasn't a mistake to put the units in.
Can we consult on the small communities? Absolutely. We are just in the process, like I had done in my Minister's statement earlier, that we're in the process of rolling out our engagement survey, which will ask each community what type of housing that they need in their community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
