Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's the only problem that I have with the Housing Corporation and an evaluation of the access program would certainly help. You mentioned catching up and there is still catching up going on in my constituency as well. I think it's a little bit better now.

Whenever I do my constituency travel, a lot of the small problems which are big problems to home owners, are brought to my attention and I move them forward either through you or the district office. There is a long list in each community of things that have to be taken care of.

I'm told that the department is taking care of that, trying to deal with the little problems that exist in the communities. I think once we clear that up, we can get on with the building of units that are required in the communities. The special units that have been introduced is a very good program. It takes care of elders and their concerns and needs. But there is one concern I have with the program and that is, it has a furnace system and a lot of elders would like to have wood heat at the same time, to have constant heat. That is one of the things that has been brought to my attention.

Other than that, overall, the Housing Corporation seems to be doing its work. I will stop there, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe those were just points you were making, Mr. Antoine. Was there a question there? Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Through our consultation process and taking into consideration what Members have said to us, we have already changed the program. The delivery has been changed for this year. For example, with access units, there are now two doors, porches in the east and wind breaks. In the west, where they can burn wood, they are going to be able to get a wood stove as well. We are looking at running water for alternate units so that pipes aren't on the surface. They are actually small hot water tanks, approximately 10 gallons, and small pressure pumps so the system will be more self-contained. We have directed them to do that already. Thank you.

Thank you. I have on the list the honourable Member for High Arctic and also the honourable Rebecca Mike. Ms. Mike.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What page are we on, page 03-12?

Ms. Mike, we're on page 03-10 of the 1995 main estimates. We are reviewing the NWT Housing Corporation and are on general comments. We have not gone into details yet.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On Friday, when I made general comments, I had made a comment about high- income earners becoming home owners. Some of the housing association staff who are living in public housing at the present time are, I understand, receiving a little bit of housing allowance. Another thing, too, as a result of increased rent that was implemented some time ago, GNWT staff earnings have become considerably less because of the increase and there is shelter assistance provided to them. I wonder if these expenses have been analyzed.

I have a paper before me that was prepared by an SAO at the request of the hamlet council of Cape Dorset. He says in the hamlet of Cape Dorset alone, it would require approximately an additional $300,000 to meet this benefit on the scale that the GNWT does. That's why I was asking if this kind of thing has been analyzed. Mr. Chairman, I think what I'm going to do is provide this paper to the Minister so he and his staff can have a copy of what I'm talking about. It's titled: "Rent Scale Options for Alternative Implementation."

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand what the Member is saying and I will look at this and get the staff to look at it as well.

Qujannamiik. Any further general comments from the committee? Shall we go into detail?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Line By Line

Qujannamiik. Oh, somebody must have forgotten a page here. It was me, I forgot. Thank you. Page 03-12, NWT Housing Corporation, total O and M, $62.035 million. Agreed? Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for straining your neck to see me. Mr. Chairman, I think I did mention in my opening remarks. I would like to learn more about the exciting new directions that are being pursued by the Housing Corporation as part of its adjustment to the new realities of today. I would be grateful if we could get a progress report on some of the restructuring that is being considered under the direction of the president at the moment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As everyone knows, the Housing Corporation underwent many changes in the past three years. I guess one of the things that started to drive changes was the main ability to access federal government dollars, but also it was time for change. We had been carrying out business in a certain way for a number of years and it was time to start doing business in a different way.

What we are going to attempt to do, or what we will do in the following year, we will restructure the Housing Corporation so that it is set up better to serve the community, at the community level. We have already entered into some agreements with the local housing authorities, to give them more authority in the delivery of the programs. We want to restructure the Housing Corporation so that it basically designs, builds and finances houses; not necessarily all of them the way we are doing them now. We work with the clients and the community groups toward flexibility and innovative approaches to housing all northerners. To provide training advice and support and financial assistance to northerners. To promote individual independence with increased responsibility and accountability. To promote and establish the growth of the private housing markets in the northern economy. That is basically our mission, and guiding principles will be to strengthen the local authority, responsibility as well as accountability; to empower the client through knowledge and support; to develop and manage the human resource team approach to work; quality products at affordable costs.

Long-term corporate goals will be to provide opportunities for more homes; to improve service to our clients; to strengthen our partnerships with the local housing organizations; and, to provide the communities with greater authority and accountability.

But what we have to do is restructure the corporation at the headquarters level so that we can get an evaluation of our programs as they are now. Even with less federal government money, it doesn't mean that we are doing less work at the corporate level. Our workload has increased quite dramatically over the past three years for the simple reason that we have many more programs, we have changed many more things. So we still have to work within a financial budget that you vote here, as well as what we get from the federal government and other sources, and try to do the same thing.

But what we would like to try to do is strengthen our regions. And then, give more authority to the regions and ultimately that authority will go to the community. That is the bottom line. Thank you.

Thank you. NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the spirit of transferring more responsibilities to the community, I would like to ask the Minister how many communities have undertaken negotiations with the corporation to take over responsibility for delivering housing programs under the community transfer initiative? Thank you.

Qujannamiik. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One, Cape Dorset.

Thank you. Mr. Patterson.

I think the corporation has a challenge ahead of it, if it wants to give communities more authority, if only one of 65 has taken up the opportunity to get control of housing through the community transfer initiative. There may be other ways of doing it; perhaps through strengthening the present local housing authorities or housing associations. I think that will be a challenge if housing hasn't been taken up by municipal governments, as I would have thought it might have been.

Mr. Chairman, I have another unrelated question I would like to ask the Minister. The Minister will recall that I was interested in the northern content of the rent supp project constructed in my constituency last year and I was pleased to receive some detailed information on the breakdown of that contract, which I had asked some questions about in the House. Has that kind of analysis been done of other rent supp or construction projects undertaken by the corporation in the past year? Have you done a post-mortem analysis of whether contractors delivered what they said they would when they were bidding on these projects in communities other than mine? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It may not be done in exactly the same way that one was handled, Mr. Patterson, but every contract is evaluated to see if the contractor carried out their responsibility. That is the responsibility of the staff who supervise those contractors. They are to make sure those contractors are carrying out their responsibility. Negotiated contracts are far more detailed. Every cent has to be accounted for and reported. Thank you.

Thank you. Total operations and maintenance. Mr. Patterson.