Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak about the northern rental housing program. The northern rental purchase program had its origins in the Eskimo loan program of the 1950s where, in the eastern Arctic and northern Quebec, employees of the federal government and other interested parties were given the option of moving into rental/purchase units. Rents varied from $2 to $67 per month.
The program was then introduced into the western Arctic by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in the 1960s, basically to provide adequate, safe housing to returning TB patients. Before the introduction of public housing to the Northwest Territories in 1974, the housing stocks in the Northwest Territories were built by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
The northern rental purchase program which this government inherited upon taking responsibility for housing programs in the Northwest Territories was set up in such a way that tenants could apply money and rent towards the basic price. Credit from rent paid would then reduce the purchase price of the house. Major improvement costs would be added to the final purchase price and a depreciation amount would be reduced from that final purchase price. The house could then be purchased by the tenants using a combination of cash and credit. In some cases, a mortgage would have to be obtained. In all cases, the buyer would have to obtain some sort of title to the land that the house was to be situated on or have the unit moved to another lot.
This entire program, while it still does exist, has enjoyed a limited amount of success. The major reason for the lack of success of the program is the fact that the units the Housing Corporation inherited from DIAND were poorly constructed and hardly worth...
Madam Speaker, my time is up. I seek unanimous consent to continue.