Michael McLeod

Thank you, Madam Chair. Many of the first clients of the NWT Housing Corporation’s programs are now senior citizens. They no longer require the three or four-bedroom houses they had built for their young families. However, these people now find themselves unable to access any of the services of the corporation, because of the one house in a lifetime policy.

The committee is of the opinion that the corporation would be able to free up houses for the private market if it were to provide smaller housing packages/construction services or possible bridge financing for those elders who no longer...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The new department, based on previous numbers, would have a budget of approximately $90 million. That would go a long way to providing safe, adequate, and affordable housing. The CMHC funding is going to sunset over the next 30 years, meaning that the reason for keeping the NWT structure may no longer be needed. Would the Premier commit to taking this into consideration in creating a new department of housing whose sole mandate would be to provide safe, adequate, and affordable housing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before we can say yes or no, or I respond to the community’s request, we’d have to see a lot more detail. We are quite interested to sit down and talk to communities. Other communities have come forward and demonstrated that there is a cost savings of having some of the money fast-tracked into a one-year period where we would save on the mobilizations cost and also the demobilization. So we’d be very interested to sit down with them. Whatever we can arrange through a meeting with the community along with the Member, I’d be glad to sit down and have that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we’d be interested in sitting down with the community of Nahanni Butte to talk about the proposal for the public access road to the community. It’s something we’re in discussions with in the case of other communities, so we’d, of course, be glad to sit down and discuss this with them also. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation was established in the early 1970s to provide safe, adequate, and affordable housing to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Somewhere along the line, Mr. Speaker, they began to lose sight of the very reason for their existence. Providing housing, Mr. Speaker, is no easy task, as we found out during our pre-budget tour. Everyone has an opinion on the state of housing.

With the amount of complaints on housing, that has to tell us, Mr. Speaker, that something is seriously wrong with the direction that the NWT Housing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 14, Public Airports Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So $19.9 million. That answers one question. The second question was, is this going to affect the other programs the Housing Corporation runs because it’s another subsidy? I am all for people getting into their own homes, but if you know you can’t maintain a home, it just seems to be one program set up after another. EDAP, as far as I am concerned, is a pretty good program where people will go to the bank and get the money. If you know you can’t maintain the home, why bother going to apply? The Housing Corporation is going to recoup some of their money out of this instead of just providing...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Of the $32 million the Minister mentioned in his opening statement, I would like to know how much of that is going towards the 112 units. I am getting the feeling that this is starting to sound like another subsidy program. It almost appears to me like a second tier public housing type deal. I want to know from the Minister how this is affecting, or if this is affecting, the other programs that the Housing Corporation runs. I am sure they had a program called the Independent Housing Program, which was almost along the same lines. It just seems like they are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Last year, going through the same exercise, I spoke to a number of issues and concerns. I see this year I am going to be speaking to almost the same issues and concerns. We go travelling to the communities and it never fails, even in our day-to-day work in our constituencies, I am sure there is not a day or a couple of days that goes by that we don’t have people calling with concerns with housing, not so much the Housing Corporation, and the way the programs are delivered. I commend the Housing Corporation, as I did last year, for putting a lot of these programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

What is the number of clients assisted through EDAP in the Beaufort-Delta region in the past two years?

What are the amounts received by each client, by community?

Thank you.