Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is responsible for administering several programs to help families and individuals obtain homes to meet their specific needs. These programs include assisted rental programs and home ownership programs. Many of these programs are cost-shared with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The NWT Housing Corporation has $48.5 million budgeted for the 2002-2003 year for support to programs and subsidies targeted at low and middle income Northerners. Although the corporation has a range of programs to assist individuals, families, seniors and people with disabilities, there appear to be gaps between program thresholds and the result is that some families in need may be falling through the cracks.
Mr. Speaker, the committee acknowledges and agrees with the statements made by the Minister responsible for Housing that program criteria need to be flexible in their application. That flexibility needs to apply to eligibility criteria for rental assistance programs; it needs to apply to the types of housing units that the corporation will approve under the home ownership programs, and it needs to apply in creative ways to assist homeowners to keep their houses in good repair. For instance, in communities where there are no private sector contractors to carry out repairs for private homeowners, perhaps local housing authorities could enter into arrangements with homeowners to provide materials and labour.
In urban areas such as Inuvik, Hay River and Yellowknife, the need is more focused on assistance to developers in order to lower the initial costs for new affordable housing. Because of the high cost of land development, sewer and water, there is an increase in the amount that a developer needs to borrow. This means increased borrowing costs, which in turn leads to higher rents or mortgages to the consumer in order that the developers may recover their costs within a reasonable time frame.