Tom Beaulieu

Marci, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation if the policy of the Housing Corporation is to house as many people as possible with their social housing inventory? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With all the laughter, I think the deputy minister didn't hear the question; I was asking about Akaitcho. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The assessed value being applied to any piece of property when you're developing a tax, you use a mill rate; currently, the department is using 10 per cent as a mill rate. So effectively it's not really a mill rate; it's a rent, but they're essentially using 10 per cent of the value.

So you have a piece of property there that's appraised in accordance with the land policy at roughly $40,000, which is pretty standard across the small communities; the taxes or the rent or the lease on that property is $4,000. That's totally unreasonable. I don't want to talk about the increase to the minimums...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm just looking for a bit of clarification. I'm going to just indicate what I think PATH is going to try to do.

So when a public housing unit is determined for sale and the tenant in that public housing unit has an opportunity to buy it and the house is valued at $100,000 and the corporation makes a decision to apply PATH, and the person is making under a certain amount so that the tenants get 48 per cent of the cost of the house, so one house worth $100,000 would be $48,000. I'm wondering if that $48,000 is budgeted or if it's just a reduction on what...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, earlier the Minister talked about a user-pay program. I was wondering if that would have any direct impact on the actual rents. It would seem that, at the first look, the power bills are fairly significant across many of our communities, and I was wondering if, once the NWT Housing Corporation moves that cost from their books to the tenant, that tenant will pay less rent according to how much more power they are required to pay. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister how many apprentices the housing associations have and if they are getting any support from another department to pay for the salaries of the apprentices? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 26118(2): Northwest Territories Main Estimates, 20172018, and committee wishes to consider the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and the Department of Lands. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I was wondering if the Minister could advise the House when the current water licence for the Taltson River dam will be expiring?

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I talked about the Taltson River dam on the Taltson River. When the dam was built in the early 1960s, or maybe mid1960s, there were no public studies, consultations, or attempts to build relations with the people of Taltson River. Would the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation please describe the planning and consultation that would have to take place if the dam was proposed today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration on the main estimates of NWT Housing Corporation at this time.