Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the housing issues in the community of Wrigley. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation what kind of follow up is being done from the results of the 2014 Community Housing Survey, which prove what my constituents are saying about the dismal state of housing in the community of Wrigley. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of NWT Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We use the results of the survey to assist us as we plan our capital budget going forward. We do recognize that there is a need in a lot of smaller communities, especially in the Member’s riding. There has been a reluctance in the past for them to welcome public housing into the community, but we’re seeing that attitude start to change now and they realize that the best way to house a lot of their residents is to go through the public housing portfolio. So we needed those numbers to assist us with our planning. Thank you.
I’m glad the Minister, during our last tour which he attended with me in Nahendeh, knows that people were in favour of public housing. What is the Minister doing to beef up the role in Nahendeh communities that will result in more public and even better housing? Thank you.
We have a number of programs to assist homeowners especially in upgrading some of their houses, and I think in the Member’s riding we’ve had some fairly good uptake on that. A lot of them do live in private homes.
We did hear from a number of the Member’s communities, when we did our tour, that they felt there was a need for public housing. We had a number of units that we had put there on speculation that we would have suitable clients for and that didn’t pan out. So our plan is to convert whatever units we have there into public housing.
Again, we will look at the numbers and plan it as we go forward to possibly adding more public housing into the communities because we see that’s the direction that they feel is the best direction to go at this moment. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Just specifically it’s for Wrigley, the needs of better stock of public housing.
I’d just like to ask the Minister going forward, what kind of plans does he have with the department in addressing the concerns out of Wrigley? Thank you.
In the next couple of seasons I believe we have a couple of affordable housing units that are going into Wrigley. We would have to go in there and do a complete survey as to what the inventory is like in there. I think we have maybe eight public housing units in the whole community of Wrigley and I think we’ve got a couple of affordable housing units.
So, again, we will have to use the numbers from the community survey in assisting us as we plan our capital budget going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Even though there was a recent survey, I really believe that Wrigley has got to be reassessed.
Just in general, I know that we increased our borrowing limit. I’d just like to know, is the Minister going to approach Cabinet and see if we can get additional money from our borrowing limit to help address infrastructure shortages in the community?
We’re always looking for opportunities to secure more money from not only our government. We’ve been very fortunate in the last couple of years that this government has stepped forward and I think we’ve put almost $20 million into affordable housing units to try and address some of the challenges we face in the small communities, and also this government has stepped up in providing, I think, an additional $1.2 million to try and offset some of the loss that we’re facing with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s declining funding. This government has stepped up and, again, any opportunities we have, if there are any federal opportunities for more public housing money through the Affordable Housing Initiative in the past and the Public Housing Initiative, I think it was called, we try to find every opportunity we can to secure more money that we can put into housing across the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
