Robert C. McLeod

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just very quickly, homelessness is an issue that’s facing all departments, I think, within this government, and it’s not just because they don’t have a home, there are many other reasons and we all need to do our part to deal with it. So as the Housing Corp, we do what we can to help deal with it and the other departments do what they can.

I like the Member’s point, though, and it’s something that we tried to do, is make the tenants aware of what it’s costing on that unit. I think it used to be right on their receipt, I believe, even on their power. A couple of years...

Thank you, Madam Chair. In response to Mr. Yakeleya’s concerns, the core need is something we use to determine where some of our allocations are. If you look at the numbers in core need, that includes all households in the community, not just the public housing portfolio in the community. So we have some challenges there. One of the questions they ask people is, do you think your housing is adequate, and nine times out of 10 people will say no. Every one of us in here can think of something that we need done in our house, so I’m not sure if it’s a true indicator. I suppose the only way to get...

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair, I would.

The Member is correct that we did introduce a Revised Mortgage Balance Program near the end of 2012. We gave homeowners with mortgages with the NWT Housing Corporation a chance to get a fresh start with predictable, fair monthly rent. Total arrears in the mortgage portfolio have been reduced from $16.5 million to $9.1 million over the last couple of years. A majority of the clients have actually opted into the new program and collection rates have been in the 70 to 80 percent range for these clients. We have about 115 clients that have not entered the new program for one reason or another and...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Lands has made significant progress since taking over the management of public land in the Northwest Territories as part of devolution last April.

Much of the department’s progress to date has been due to the hard work of its employees. While about 75 percent of our positions were filled by existing federal and GNWT staff when devolution came into effect, the remainder of the department’s positions had to be staffed.

Mr. Speaker, April 1st was just the beginning. Since its creation, the Department of Lands is setting priorities, planning and managing new issues as...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will provide a list of… I couldn’t answer offhand if we have any vacant units in the communities, but we can look that up and provide that information. The rents are basically in line with the public housing rents. We try to calculate it along the same line. For example, the monthly rent for a two-bedroom unit would be $1,250 in Trout Lake and $1,410 in Ulukhaktok.

Mr. Chair, 36 is year two of our goal of 100 over three years in the $21 million investment. We have locations picked for all of the units this year and the ones that we did last year, and I’d be pleased to provide that information to committee so they’ll know the whereabouts of all the market rental units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; the 40 are replacement public housing units and the 36 market housing are new units. Thank you.

The quick answer is no, we’re not looking at that particular type of program. It was a very successful program when it ran. We were able to get many people into homeownership units and some of them are still in there. Many of these units, through some of our other repair programs we’ve actually paid for all of the renovations to these units. I think at the time it was the right program at the right time and it did, I think, transition a lot of people out of public housing into their own homes. Off hand, I can’t think of how many we did across the Northwest Territories, these HAP units. There...