Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have worked with the Yellowknife local housing organization. They are using a lot of surplus, actually, to build an eight-plex within Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, it is really important that we verify annual income to confirm that people are paying appropriate rent. It is not fair if somebody is not filing their taxes and paying a minimum charge and the neighbour who is paying their taxes is actually paying more. We need to verify that. These are usually public housing units. Market rent, of course, is different. They are paying the market rent.

Within the public housing, we do ask them to file their taxes. There are a number of supports within communities that will help them with that. We stress to them that it is important. A last resort would...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, if that does go over, we will accommodate within. It's important to note that homelessness is one of the major concerns of mine and the corporation. It's the reason I ran for politics.

We're currently doing a homelessness review to look all the programs that we offer to ensure that we're providing the proper supports and at that point, if we need to increase on certain areas, we will be looking at doing that. Everything is under the microscope, and homelessness supports is one of my critical and most important aspects within this policy review. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the idea is that residents would be paying their full power, which would be at residential rates, which would actually be more economically viable, but the important thing to also recognize is that we're just currently looking at the rent that we are charging within the zones. We'll be taking that into consideration and that's one of the policy renewals that we're doing just currently at this time.

The goal is not to make people poor. The goal is to actually make people more energy efficient and responsible for their electricity and to realize that there is a cost...

I want to step back for a minute and talk about the process for accessing the information from the Canada Revenue Agency. It is really important to note that this is actually the most private way that people can share their income information. It is important to get income information, as these are tenants who are usually in public housing.

Only 10 people within the corporation have access to this information, excluding myself. I don't even have access as the Minister. It is really confidential. Although, some people, like I say, weren't comfortable with us doing that, so we provide the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are watching it carefully. It is important to note that people who need additional income support, who are at the lowest end of income, in fact, have no jobs or very minimal income, can qualify for other programs that are offered through ECE, such as income support. Income support rules, I hate to speak on behalf of the Minister, my understanding that if it is a family, they will pay for the cost. Individuals, there is a set amount that can be paid for. There is other support besides the Housing Corporation for people who have no jobs or very minimal employment. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct. We are moving towards a more user pay. We did realize that, in a lot of communities when people are -- and not everyone, so I want to justify that -- but a lot of community members, when the Housing Corporation was paying for all the utilities, the lights were left on, the windows were left open in the winter months. The public housing units were used as the local car washes. We are trying to bring more people more responsibility within that, so the user pay is the reason for it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, there are budgets. I don't know the exact number. We'd have to pull them all through, but like I said, there is a budget for building of the homeless shelters within the community. We provide the operating money with that. We have food security initiatives that we provide to people. That comes with a budget. We also have a homeless assistance program. Again, I'm not sure of the total budget, but that is just people with up to $1,500, a one-time funding that they can actually use to repatriate, if they wish to go back to their communities, if they need to pay off a little bit of debt so...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As stated, this is just a new entity. We are working with the board sustainability, making sure they know rule and procedures and getting the support. We are looking at what will be needed. We will need an office. We will need a warehouse. Once we look at the various options, we will be putting that out for a request for proposal. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have a surplus and deficit policy in effect already. The policy states that if any local housing organization is over $100,000 in surplus that they need to re-invest that into housing. My goal is that housing organizations should not have a surplus. They need to be using that money. We have critical needs in the community, so I'm trying to just let them know that building a surplus is not acceptable, that they need to actually put those into the housing and repairs that are needed in communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.