Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The $1-billion Rapid Housing Initiative, which is complementary to the National Housing Strategy, was announced in September this year, and the applications are due at the end of this year, on December 31st. This is barely two months away, Mr. Speaker, and this makes me quite nervous, especially when I hear the Minister for the Housing Corporation talking to a colleague of mine about hoping to have the advisor person for the co-investment fund in place by the end of November. This does not leave somebody who is just potentially coming into the GNWT, coming into the Housing Corporation, to get their feet wet and to really be able to dive right into an application process in one month. I am wondering if the Minister of the Housing Corporation is willing to commit an existing employee of the Housing Corporation to do the application process for this Rapid Housing Initiative and have them assigned to the application process. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Member, for your comment. This is something that I am wanting to complete by the end of November. We do have an offer that is out there right now, and we are in the process. If we do have a decline with the offer, we are going to be looking to hire in-house. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I really want the Minister to see great success from these different federal housing initiatives. For this Rapid Housing Initiative, not the co-investment fund but for this Rapid Housing Initiative, will the Minister allocate an existing staff member from the Housing Corporation to do the application process, starting right away?
With the federal announcement with the rapid housing program that is offered to the Northwest Territories, Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and CMHC will be meeting next week on strategically how we are going to be program-delivering. Also, I will be meeting with my federal counterpart to speak about this program because he did not leave us a large amount of time to be dealing with this application. I just think that the timeline is honestly unrealistic, so I will be talking to the federal government, as well.
I am happy to hear that the Minister will be sitting down with the federal Minister for CMHC in order to discuss the Rapid Housing Initiative. I think it's really important, and I think that it's important that everybody in this House support the Housing Corporation and make sure that they have the resources that they need in order to be successful in putting housing on the ground. With that in mind, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister of housing please allocate a member of the Housing Corporation today to be the champion of the Rapid Housing Initiative?
We are in process. I will keep the Member updated. Should we be able to hire someone immediately, I will inform my colleagues of what the outcome was of the position, whether it was declined or accepted.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am tempted to try to put my remaining three questions into one, but I don't want to get in trouble, so I am going to pick one. What I would like to know is: has the Housing Corporation been able to reach out to any of the potential partners that would be involved in the rapid rehousing initiative? One of those key ones would be that the Rapid Housing Initiative favours applications that have received financial supports from municipalities, like in the form of property tax or permitting-fee waivers. I am wondering if the Housing Corporation has had the opportunity to reach out to the City of Yellowknife or had the opportunity to reach out and discuss this with people like the integrated case management, who would know what vulnerable populations in different communities desperately need for housing, in order to get houses on the ground? Thank you.
The announcement of this federal funding is very new. CMHC and the NWTHC will be meeting next week, and these meetings will be amongst the managerial staff here in the Northwest Territories. This is not a meeting that would be with the federal government at this time. Right now, I am just looking at the possibilities for this Rapid Rehousing Program initiative. Like I had said, three months to get these applications, and it takes us a year, 365 days, for us to complete a co-investment application. This is unrealistic. I will be talking to the federal government because this does not work for the Northwest Territories. We need an extension on the application process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
