Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you are aware, one of our initiatives is called SOPHI, sale of public housing initiative, which in the smaller communities, if there are surplus unoccupied public housing units, our preference is to allow the residents of that community who would fall under one or two of our existing home-owner programs to take possession of that through a sale. I think that will give those individuals who have some form of income and who can afford to maintain those homes and pay the mortgage, although it may be small, the opportunity to purchase those homes that are surplus to our existing needs. Thank you.

Mr. Nitah.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Two points here that I think I need to elaborate on. One is if a tenant is indebted to a housing association and they want to move into some form of home-ownership, we are prepared to discuss the methods in which we can develop a debt recovery plan.

The other thing, if they cannot afford to do that and they remain as a tenant, then the only other choice we have is to encourage the LHOs to relocate that family into a larger unit, if there is such a need. Thank you.

Mr. Nitah.

The Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A number of concepts need to be developed here. Again, if the Member is just talking about family sizes and the lack of rooms or lack of adequately sized homes, then certainly we have to look at other options. If we are talking strictly about the sale of public housing units that are a maximum size of three bedrooms and the family needs four bedrooms, obviously we will have to look at other existing home-ownership programs to accommodate those needs. Thank you.

Mr. Nitah.

The Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is a very critical question we have been trying to answer for several years, the last couple of years, at least. What we are trying to do is expand our existing home-ownership funding to those smaller communities. Also, we have had several discussions in the past about how we may introduce market development into those communities with the high wage earners, so the idea is to, perhaps under this new affordable housing agreement, be able to assist further housing developments.

The other thing that we have to be cognizant of, Mr. Chairman, is the high cost. Even though we do have annual allocations in those communities, with the current cost of construction and procurement and transportation to those units, we may not get as many units on the ground as we would like. Our ambition is to work with the communities to look at the various partnership agreements. One we call the universal partnership agreement, where they take the funds and develop in accordance with their core need. The other one is called a project authority agreement, where they take over the responsibility for developing those projects that will meet, again, those who are in core need.

Those are two basic programs we feel will help facilitate market development in those smaller communities. Thank you.

Mr. Nitah.

The Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Member is aware, I did make a commitment to sit down and discuss internally that we will look at implementing a program of that nature where there are no vendors in the off-road communities. I think it is feasible. It is practical. We have made that commitment. We need to take a bit of time to help develop that policy. We feel that some of those were critical challenges. We acknowledge that. We are prepared to put something forward rather quickly, prior to the barging season. Thank you.

Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to bring up a number of different issues under the Housing Corporation's responsibility. First of all, I want to state that it is really a day that is very difficult for many members of the community of Fort Providence. As of noon today, we had seven families being evicted out of Housing Corporation units.

I have several concerns. First of all, that these evictions are happening during the winter months and there is a double standard. There are many communities in the Northwest Territories that do not have rental facilities. If the tenants who are living in these units have a problem paying for their O and M then income support kicks in. It is really difficult for me as an MLA to have to go home and have to sit down with all of these different families and let them know that there is really nothing we can do. As an MLA, I really cannot interfere in what is now a legal process. In my discussions with the Minister, I also realized he cannot interfere with this process.

A lot of these people have been in arrears for many years. A lot of them, given the economic state of our community with high unemployment, sometimes just cannot find employment or steady income to pay it back. If you are in that situation, if you are in the courts, if you have a charge or a fine, the Department of Justice has a program that will allow people to work off their arrears.

My first question to the Minister is, could the Housing Corporation not look at some type of methodology where people who are in arrears can work some of their balance that they owe and have it written off as they work it off? There must be a better system than just evicting people.

The Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since it is more of an operational question, I will ask the Chair's permission to allow the president to respond to that.

The president of the Housing Corporation, Mr. Beaulieu.