Michael McLeod

I’ll answer that question again, Mr. Chairman. I indicated earlier that we did this year set aside $2,000 per community to assist some of the communities to deal with the issues challenging the seniors in terms of preventative maintenance, furnaces, water tanks, things of that nature. We have also opened up our programs so that it’s more accommodating for seniors. We no longer provide a cap on the amount that they can apply for; they can apply for the whole $90,000 that’s available for repairs. Mr. Chairman, we always place the seniors and the disabled at the top of the priority list when...

Mr. Chairman, it’s the first time that I’m committing to do a review. I’ve been here seven months and I was not aware that there were other commitments made. I know ECE did some work that was worked on also by the Housing Corporation, but I don’t believe it’s the same review that the Member is talking about. It was on this process but more how to tweak the system that’s in place to make it more effective. What we’re talking about is doing a complete analysis along the same lines that the Member is referring to. We’d be glad to share this information with the committee. I’m not sure where the...

Mr. Chairman, I am told it’s around 600 to 700 per household on the average.

Mr. Chair, this is an initiative that the Refocusing Government has been working on. We’re also working with the Executive to develop a program that would go out to the communities. There are still a number of issues that we have to work out before we come forward with an actual package. These dollars have been placed in the budget as a placeholder. We’d like to start delivering this program as soon as possible but there are a number of challenges and some legal issues that we have to overcome.

Mr. Chairman, it is certainly a challenge. The number of people on the ground doing the front-line work in terms of keeping the facilities running and responding to emergencies is always very difficult and quite expensive to run. The people we do have we always encourage to upgrade, whether it’s through internal programs or external programs. We’ve really encouraged our staff to broaden their horizons in terms of dealing with new issues and issues that are starting to become common, such as mould issues. We’re also encouraging our staff to be able to deal with the energy efficiency, as our...

Mr. Chairman, that is an ongoing issue that we wrestle with. How do we keep the politics out of trying to deliver the units, the houses and the programs that are required in communities? We haven’t looked at trying to make it more arm’s length. I think that’s going to be very difficult at this point. But we have looked at trying to find solutions where our constituents are not running on a daily basis to the MLAs, so we are introducing more training and to our staff and in the communities. We are offering more communication so the people know what the programs are, know where the deadlines are...

Mr. Chairman, it’s a flat rate. Each client is required to pay six cents a kilowatt hour.

Mr. Chairman, these are all programs that we had inherited historically from the federal government. We do have a listing and we’d be glad to share it with the Members.

Mr. Chairman, right now with our housing program choices, we don’t have any intention of bringing the HAP program back per se. We are bringing a close cousin to this program. We haven’t titled it or given it any name yet. It is probably a basic housing package or traditional housing package that would allow people to work with us and build their own home, something that would fall within the criteria of forgivable mortgage. It has been raised by a number of the Members, Mr. Yakeleya and Mr. Krutko, and also members of the Small Communities committee, so we are trying to put a design together...

Mr. Chairman, we are anticipating that by 2038 we will no longer have the debt.

Mr. Chairman, this is the issue of dispute from our side of things, including other jurisdictions, that as the money falls off the table we would expect the federal government does realize this as a savings now to put it back into social housing. They have not agreed to do that at this point, so it is really affecting our ability to increase our housing stock. As I indicated to Mr. Bromley with this question, we are very much short of what we need in public housing. These are the dollars that allow us to operate our...