Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I stated in my Member's statement, some residents of the K'atlodeeche First Nation want to repair their homes but do not have home insurance and so were denied assistance. My question is to the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. What kind of education or information does the NWT Housing Corporation offer for home-ownership clients, to encourage the need for home insurance? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As part of our education courses for home-ownership clients, we do provide information on the importance and need for home insurance. As all Members know and residents know, that is a big investment for any family, and we want to make sure that they are provided the services and are able to have that insurance should something happen to them. We are working with our financial partners, though, Mr. Speaker, to look at areas such as financial literacy and also increasing the accessibility on insurance coverage for our residents and exploring options around discounts on the cost of insurance plans. I would also want to let the Member know that this past weekend we did sit down with the district office managers and board chairs and members to address this issue, and they brought it up, and I did let the board chairs know that all MLAs within this government have been bringing up housing issues, and this is one of them that we are looking at addressing.
The second question is: does the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation deny public housing applicants who do not qualify for tenants' insurance?
Before anything, we always try to provide the best services for our residents and tenants that reply for housing throughout the Northwest Territories. We give all of our residents every opportunity to stay in their homes. We do not deny public housing applications to those who can't afford insurance. We strongly recommend that public housing tenants do get insurance, though, and we work with our partners to try to address that.
It is also mentioned in the lease agreements that tenants are advised to obtain some type of insurance moving forward, not only for the housing complex, but for their own assets that they have. We continue to work with our tenants to provide the education that is needed moving forward.
Has the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation done any analysis to determine what its annual losses might be if it provided these programs to low-income clients without the need for homeowners' insurance? In other words, is the valley of investment so high that it is worth denying low-income clients who need home ownership assistance just because they don't have insurance?
The majority of our programming for homeowners do not require home ownership insurance. Also, many of our low-income homeowners will not be denied our programming if they do not have insurance. As I said earlier, we want to make sure that our residents and people of the Northwest Territories have an opportunity to have a roof over their heads. However, we really do want to see homeowners having up-to-date insurance on their homes, as many of us do.
We do have two programs, CARE Major and CARE Mobility, where we do require homeowners insurance, and it goes back to the Member's question earlier. We need to get that education out, and we need to make sure that our managers and our board members give that information to residents of the Northwest Territories. This is due to the fact that these programs provide a considerable amount of financial assistance, up to $100,000.
I will make a commitment here, that we will start working on getting that information out. As I said, last weekend was the first time that we did meet with the board chairs, the first time ever, and also with our district managers. It is ground-breaking. I mentioned, and our staff mentioned, that we do need to get that information out to our residents, so that they know what kind of programs they can access.
Masi. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Has the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation considered any alternatives, like allowing applicants to use some of the funds they receive to purchase homeowners insurance, or what about organizing group insurance for low-income clients through the district office; perhaps the idea of a credit union? Mahsi.
Really quickly, we are working with our partners to see what options are out there that allow our clients to face fewer barriers around insurance. I think that education is going to be a part of that. We need to work with our financial partners to address this. I think that, moving into the 19th Assembly, because we are right on the tail end of this session, that is something that we need to look at addressing. Members coming into the 19th, I think, should continue to have these types of questions moving forward for our residents across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
