Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I am wondering if the Minister can explain how the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation calculates the core need income threshold, otherwise known as CNIT, and what programs use the CNIT to determine eligibility? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Housing Corporation does have a silly acronym, CNIT, but it is the core income need threshold for the Northwest Territories. It is determined by zones throughout the territory and looking at the specific needs for household incomes, as well, based on household income and also looking at the power, the water, the heat, and basically the utilities and the insurances for the core income threshold. I will be able to provide the Member with documentation just to further explain how we come up with the calculations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
NWT residents often identify barriers they experience in qualifying for NWT Housing Corporation's funding for home ownership, repair, or market rental program as being related to CNIT. In some cases, due to the income targets under CNIT, seniors or people with disabilities do not meet eligibility requirements, even though they desperately require the funding supports that the GNWT does have. Will the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation conduct a review of the current CNIT to create a modern way of prioritizing Northerners for housing in the Northwest Territories?
The Housing Corporation had last looked at the core need income threshold in 2015. We are currently looking at reviewing the core need income threshold for the Northwest Territories and also for the seniors, as well, we do have $1 thousand dollars deduction of the calculated grant. As I said previously, I will provide further documentation for the Member just to further elaborate and explain how we work with the CNIT program throughout the Northwest Territories because it does vary depending on jurisdiction.
Thank you to the Minister for further documentation and also the willingness to review that. When it comes to public housing, Yellowknife is considered a zone A community. This means that a person who makes a base salary of an MLA can live in public housing for $890 a month, that a manager with the GNWT is eligible for public housing for $1295 a month, and a Minister would pay a rent of $1625 per month. This is all found in the public housing brochure. It's valuable to remember that Yellowknife also currently has more people on its housing list than the total number of housing units available in the entire city. Given the highest income identified in the NWT Housing Corporation's rent scale is $8,334 and up, I'm wondering if there is a maximum eligible income for public housing in Yellowknife.
Yes. Looking at the core need for the Yellowknife area and also looking at the minimum and the maximum, the minimum of core need income threshold is $20,000, the max is $100,000. I do hear the Member speaking about we do have high income earners in public housing. Right now, the Housing Corporation has a number of 248 clients that we are looking at to work with throughout the Northwest Territories and transferring them into home ownership. The Housing Corporation, as of right now, we are looking our single-family dwellings in the smaller communities, they are up for sale and we are working with our clients to provide programming for home ownership.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
