Thank you, Madam Chair. I wasn't going to comment on the flat rent scale rate, but I kind of got dragged into the debate here, Madam Chair. If you really look at the cost effectiveness of housing in the Northwest Territories you really must look at your pro forma income statement, and talk about the social housing expenditures, and go back down into the financing sources, and talk about your LHO rent recoveries and the revenue. I think it has to be clearly advocated to the Minister and his officials that the decline in actuals on the rent recoveries, that certainly has to allow us, as Members of the Assembly, to point that out. With the number of houses you currently have and based on your rent recoveries based on your rent geared to income, must allow us to advocate to you that you really have to change your philosophy and your
policy. I don't beg to differ. I just want to go back to my Member's statement, Madam Chair, and I talk about having to being able to manage to make the transition from one economy to another. I'm going to leave it at that, because it's going to be an ongoing debate, I am sure, because we bring different philosophies to the table. So that's my philosophical statement.
What interests me even more, Madam Chair, on February 23rd there was a press lease by CMHC saying that finding down payments just got a lot easier. I'm going to refer to points here, because I'm just wondering if the ministry had looked at the number of options that had been announced to try to encourage homeownership through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to enable many Canadians to move into affordable housing and homeownership. It talks about the down payment, and it says that they may get from any sources, such as...(inaudible)...incentives and borrowed funds, however borrowers will still have to prove their ability to meet their debt requirements in order to qualify for mortgage insurance. The mortgage insurance was raised last fall with the federal Minister, and I am just wondering if he had committed. I recall he made a commitment to cover the mortgage insurance for the Northwest Territories, and I'm just wondering if there was any follow-up to that with the federal counterparts.
Again, I believe that it's worth talking about the principles of economic freedom in the North. I think we need to really look at the investment portfolio, and I'm glad to see that the Minister had spoken about previous attempts to establish buyer/seller markets in the North, not only in tax-based but also non-tax-based communities, and allow the free market to dictate, because I think the individuals, from my analysis of your pro forma income statement, very few people now have the capability of moving to homeownership from the public housing portfolio. That's a concern I think we have from a fiscal perspective.
I'm going to concentrate on two elements here on page 2 of your statement, and that's the continued federal commitment to housing across the Northwest Territories. I'm wondering if you're looking at perhaps using this zero percent down payment as a mechanism to encourage that level of homeownership and homeownership investment. I also refer again on page 2 to your fourth point where you talk about to ensure that developing private housing market in non-market communities. I think that's probably one avenue you may want to address and see if there is a partnership with CMHC to come into invest in those non-market communities. Recognizing you also have some difficulty in trying to improve the markets in small non-tax-based communities, I'm pleased to see that you still have under your mandate and also under your policy and framework that you are promoting the sale of public housing to those who can afford it. I think that's the first step for first-time home buyers. In my many travels, as Tom would know and Jeff would know, it works very well in other jurisdictions in the small rural communities across Canada. So I am pleased to see that you had made reference to this in your comments on page 3.
I'm glad to see that the ongoing work is to make sure that those tenants who have stable employment have the capability of paying and are now intending to move into homeownership.
One area that has been of great concern across the North is the high cost of utilities: home heating and electrical power. As you know, the temperatures dip below normal and I am of the understanding from my constituents that some of their power bills have jumped 100 percent. On average, last year they say they were paying $130 a month, for January and February it jumped to $260. Another issue is the heating fuel. They were saying some of the home heating costs went from an average of $240 up to about $454, and that's something we should look at again.
So in the overall context, I'm pleased to see the Minister has addressed several key points to promote homeownership, but on the other hand I think it still remains a question of whether at some point in the next several weeks or months the NWT Housing Corporation will look at other mechanisms to deal with what is really important in the context of their pro forma income statement, and the fact that social housing expenditures continue to rise and the LHO recoveries remain relatively low on a percentage basis. So I will leave that, Madam Chair, as a question I would like the Minister to respond to. Thank you.