Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Kam Lake is home to two of the Northwest Territories' housing cooperatives. These are great communitydriven housing communities that allow for housing options that are below market rent. In fact, the average price for a threebedroom apartment in Yellowknife is around $2,300 a month in rent, whereas, at one of the housing co-ops in my riding, it is $1,400. That is an incredible amount of savings. I am wondering if the Minister has looked into starting a pilot project to develop more housing cooperatives here in Yellowknife and across the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, the cooperative housing unit that the Member does speak to, I used to live in that just a couple of years ago, so I am very familiar with that unit that he addresses, and it is a nice unit. We, the NWT Housing Corporation, actually provides partial funding for those, as well. We provide funding to most of the cooperatives. In all honestly, I had never thought about that, but I am hoping that it will come up within the housing survey. Now that it has been brought to my attention, I will consider that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister. Ask and you shall receive. Just a few more points on this: the Minister spoke to her own personal experience in one of these particular housing cooperatives. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation did a study of the Borealis Housing Cooperative, and they found that over 2,500 hours of voluntary labour are produced by the housing cooperative every year, which results in considerable savings for the community. These projects, they also found that to get a new project like this, it requires the goodwill of the community. So if the Housing Corporation could commit to more than just looking at this but actually actively engage community members who want a change, perhaps through that survey, will the Minister actively engage survey participants and forge a new housing cooperative from those respondents?
As stated, being a resident of that cooperative, I do remember the volunteer hours, and sometimes it was not eagerly volunteered. It was more of a requirement of being in the cooperative, but it does give back to the community, and it is a way of working together, and it does build community relations. It made me actually go out and meet my neighbours, so I am an advocate of that type of housing unit.
However, I have committed to doing this survey and, depending on the results of the survey, we will be defining what I do within the coming year. It would be disrespectful of me to put my needs above the survey, so I will be waiting until the results are compiled before I define my action plan in the future.
I am unsure what the Minister's needs are, but the needs of my constituents are lower rents and more affordable housing. Mr. Speaker, it is not just the Housing Corporation that provides support for co-ops. It is also the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the Department of Justice who all provide either administrative support or are some way responsible. Will the Minister commit to forming a working group with those three departments to build on the success of housing cooperatives?
I have already committed to exploring the idea of more cooperatives as an option. I will also commit to bringing that to the other departments.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally, the Minister, in my honourable friend's questions, the Member for the Sahtu, she did make a commitment to a certain amount of shelters by the end of the year. Can she make a commitment to me today, Mr. Speaker, that we will double the number of housing cooperatives in the Northwest Territories by next year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, like I said, that would be, in my opinion, disrespectful if I make commitments before the results of the surveys were in, so the answer is no.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
