Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, one of the options is the community can seek hamlet status or they can incorporate an interim corporation that would be able to hold real property on behalf of the community until the land claims are resolved. We have seven of the eight band communities that are already in that process, some have formed their interim corporations and some are just in the process. If you go to hamlet status, that process could take several months to get completed. If you were to form an interim corporation, that whole process could take as little as a month. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the decline of funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the challenges this decline will cause in the delivery of the Public Housing Program, as well as the potential negative impact on the condition of our housing stock.

There are clear signs that core need continues to be on the rise in Canada and in our own Territory. Earlier in this session I tabled the results of our housing needs portion of the 2009 NWT Community Survey showing that we continue to experience a growth in core housing need. This is in spite of investments made by the...

The report doesn’t necessarily break it down into seniors and homeownership and that, but in the research that was done, I’m sure that I would be able to get some numbers and share those with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community needs survey will go a long way in determining the allocation for repairs. We are planning on directing a lot of money to the communities that are in highest need so we can address the core need issue. Thank you.

The liaison program that was in the community was a valuable service to the district operations and it is something we would be willing to look at again. Unfortunately, these positions were eliminated through budget reduction exercises a few years ago, but we have heard the concerns from Members in communities, so this is something we would be willing to look at again. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are a few factors in determining numbers for the need survey; suitability, adequacy and affordability are three of them. We are planning on undertaking a review of our programs starting in this fiscal year. We are hoping to have the results, and we can share that with the Members, and hopefully that will take steps to address some of the core needs in the communities. Thank you.

There used to be a program in place where if you were on untenured land, you were eligible for up to $25,000. We changed that. You are eligible to up to $40,000 now. As Members are well aware, part of the criteria for accessing any of these programs is to have title to the land. So we are continuing to try to take steps to work with those that don’t have proper tenure to the land and there are a lot of other issues that we continuing to deal with. One of the first issues that we are always deal with when we do get calls, the first question we ask them is did you apply. Five times out of ten...

As I was saying before, the results from the core needs survey will determine how we allocate a lot of the money and if that includes allocating more money to seniors, then that’s the direction that we’d be willing to take. We do have a lot of programs in place for seniors and there is a fairly good uptake on it, but we are always looking at ways to improve our product. Thank you.

The last fiscal year and this coming 2010-2011 fiscal year there is more money going into repairs than we’ve seen in a long time. We are working and trying to get more people eligible for repairs, whether they’ve had assistance before or not. You can even carry up to $5,000 in arrears and still qualify for the Home Repair Program. We are taking steps to try and get as many people into the programs as possible. We have to be careful that we don’t just start handing out keys. There are a lot of people out there who have met all the commitments that they’ve signed for. We have to be careful that...

The Member is correct; that is going to be one of the things that we plan on reviewing, as well as the core need income threshold that was raised recently. There are still a lot of questions as to some of the gaps in the program, and I’ve instructed officials over at the Housing Corporation to see if we can come up with some ideas to address some of those gaps, so the people that deserve to get into the program are not hindered by their core need income threshold. Thank you.