Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, indeed, we do need to do a better job at administering our housing programs and supporting our residents. And with that in mind, Mr. Speaker, if we give people a home and they continue to build arrears and are unable to pay their mortgage, that means our program is not working.
Can the Minister tell this House how they are working with residents who currently have a mortgage with Housing NWT to ensure they are able to pay that mortgage while having resources for other things, such as food? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for raising this question as well too, because right now Housing NWT is reviewing. We have 268 mortgages throughout the Northwest Territories. This was a program that was available to the Northwest Territories through CMHC about over 20 years ago. At that time, we did come out with the subsidized mortgages throughout the Northwest Territories. We have run into some issues where we have not had clients pay consistently throughout the territories. But we do enter into payment plans, and we do work with each of the clients considering their financial changes and trying to make them become and help support them to become successful homeowners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have mortgages that we know people cannot pay. We have a collection policy that shows our ability to forgive residents who are in this situation.
Can the Minister explain how Housing NWT administers its collection policy and how often people are assessed and forgiven from their debts based on their ability to pay those back, those debts? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the lifetime of this government, the Housing NWT has forgiven $8 million in housing mortgage arrears throughout the Northwest Territories, and they consist of several different financial situations that the client may be entering into. And we try to do our best to try to work with the client prior to them receiving the eviction notices. That is the absolute last resort. And if that that we do have public housing that is available to the tenants as well if they're not able to afford their homeownership program.
We also do work with our collections within Housing NWT, but we also do have to submit to FMB as well too with the financial analysis as to why we are going to be submitting a forgiveness and a writeoff of those debts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the moment, Housing NWT is owed almost $5 million in mortgage payment. The current process of refinancing and owning a house through Housing NWT is proving not sustainable. Can the Minister commit to forgiving the current outstanding mortgage payments owed to NWT Housing, particularly for those that have recently refinanced, so we can help our residents get out of poverty by having a stable home they know is theirs? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member as well too. It is not just as simple as just writing off all of these debts throughout the Northwest Territories for housing. A lot of our programming does recycle, and it does go back in to programming for homeownership repair and programs available to support homes throughout the Northwest Territories.
I will have to take a look at what we have so far and looking at the current debt status that we do have, and I have to work with the Member as well too for her riding. But this is an issue throughout the Northwest Territories, and Housing is really trying to work with each and every one of these clients so they can be successful homeowners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have some elders in the community who they did they entered into refinance agreement, and some of these elders are in their 70s. I mean, that should have been forgiven long time ago. I mean, that is not acceptable. That is unacceptable, Mr. Speaker. And we have some refinancing that was done with 20 years old and that the agreement is not in their name; it is in the parent's name. The family moved into the house before the child was born, and this is where they are doing refinancing agreement with a child that who got their first job. There's quite a few of that in my community, in my region. So I just it's more of a statement. It's more of a comment. So I don't have any questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Taken as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
