Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Housing. Mr. Speaker, there were some questions on the power rates that were eventually increased to where, I believe, that the tenants in public housing are paying their own power. At one point, it used to be a payment of a small amount per kilowatt hour, and then it continued to grow until they are paying everything. One of our mandates is to lower the cost of living. I would like to ask the Minister: the benches that are set for rent, it depends on your income; you pay a certain bench. If the power that the tenants are paying is over and above that bench or if that bench is adjusted to accommodate for the fact that they are paying their own power? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the NWT Housing Corporation is not planning to address the subsidized public housing rent scale. We are going to continue with this program as a user-pay power program. As I mentioned yesterday, we have seen a decrease of about eight percent in consumption, which means that tenants are actually taking responsibility. They are conserving more energy. It is a good program. We are seeing some good results. At this time, we are not planning to adjust the subsidized public housing rent scale. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to ask the Minister if he would consider making that adjustment for the bottom and, like, the power subsidy program, where, in the wintertime, everybody is subsidized at the Yellowknife rate, up to $1,000, and, in the summertime, everybody is adjusted to the Yellowknife rate, up to $600. I would like to ask the Minister if that portion of the power bill could make an adjustment to the actual benches of the rent.
As I mentioned, right now, we are not looking at adjusting that. I just want to remind Members of the House here, as well, that our shelter costs that our tenants pay are much lower than the national affordable standard of 30 percent of their income. Our tenants are still paying a lot lower than what the national standard is. Currently, we are not going to be looking at adjusting it.
We are looking at ways we can be more energy efficient. We have a lot of other programs that will offset that. We are continuing to work with our partners at ECE, Health. There are a lot of programs that we are working to try to lift people out of poverty but also give them the basic needs that they need to succeed.
The NWT Housing Corporation has developed some great programs over the last couple of governments. We will continue to support those programs, promote those programs, and strengthen out partnerships with local governments as well as our stakeholders.
I agree with the Minister. I realize that the maximum amount set in the rent scale is 19.4 percent, not 30 percent. The reason it is there is because they are public housing tenants. They have low incomes. They have to be below a certain income threshold in order to be in public housing. I am asking the Minister again to look at the power subsidy portion, which is that subsidy I referred to where everyone is brought to the Yellowknife rate up to a certain amount, if the Minister would look at making the adjustments based on that number. I think that would be the more appropriate way that would continue to have people be conservative with their power. I ask the Minister again if he would look at that. I am not expecting a commitment here on the floor but if he could look at that.
Yes, I can take a look at that. We do want our tenants and our residents of the Northwest Territories to be a little bit more energy efficient in how they conserve energy in their units. Obviously, some of our communities only have a set number of fuel. We want to make sure that we can continue to support and make sure our communities have the adequate fuel sources to keep their houses warm, especially during the winter months. We definitely can take a look at that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for that. That is very good. I guess one more thing on that is that I am asking the Minister to do that adjustment so that individuals who are hitting a certain income threshold and then they are maxing out at a certain percentage do not start to exceed that once they start paying their own power. I don’t know if that is more of a comment, I suppose. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
