Good afternoon, colleagues. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform the Members and the general public of a change to the planned implementation of the new rent scale.

Mr. Speaker, in 1995, the public housing rent scale moved from a flat rate of 25 percent of income to a sliding scale of between 6.4 percent and 30 percent. This was done to bring our public housing sector more in line with other jurisdictions across the country and to ensure that public housing remained available to clients in need. This change was originally scheduled to take place over a four-year period from 1995 to 1998 but was halted after only the second year by the government-of-the-day.

As Members are aware, the 2005-06 budget for the NWT Housing Corporation calls for this moratorium to be lifted and for the final phase-in to be completed. Our original plan was to make this final change over a two-year period with the largest element of the change taking place in year one. Based on concerns raised by Members, I am pleased to announce a new implementation schedule which will spread any changes equally over a two-year period.

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Under this new schedule, Mr. Speaker, tenant rent will average 13 percent of household income. This is well below rents in other jurisdictions where 25 percent to 30 percent of household income is charged for public housing. Over 86 percent of our tenants will see increases of less than $100 a month and over 66 percent of tenants, including all students and people receiving income support, will see no rent increases.

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As always, Mr. Speaker, seniors will continue to pay no rent for public housing.

It is my hope that the Members of this Legislature will support this new implementation plan. Information on the rent scale implementation is available by contacting local housing organizations or through my office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to talk about shelters or what some people in this House might call housing.

---Laughter

I like to use the term "shelter," because in many instances, that is exactly what people are living in, not a home or a house but an enclosure that protects the occupants from the natural elements.

Mr. Speaker, many of my constituents, especially families with children, are housed in squalid and unhealthy conditions. Their living conditions negatively affect their family fabric which holds them together. By this, I mean families are considering splitting because this will make public housing more accessible for them to move into.

Mr. Speaker, this is not an isolated incident and it's certainly not an issue that's new to the local housing authorities in our communities. People are taking drastic measures to deal with housing issues, measures that have long-term effects on all family members of the household, especially the children.

In most cases where I have been informed from conversations with my constituents, it's solely based on the lack of community consultation and support from the housing department for families who are living in extremely old and deteriorated housing units. It seems like the Housing Corporation is still revelling about the fact that they gave a family a house 15 years ago for a mere $5,000 and that they should be happy with that. Well, Mr. Speaker, many of these houses were 40-years-old 15 years ago and because the cost to bring them to an acceptable living standard today is considered too high for the Housing Corporation to invest in, people are left with no other option than to stay where they are or to fix the house themselves. That can be very difficult for a family with three or four kids, with no definite source of income because of high unemployment and little economic development in many of our small communities.

Mr. Speaker, everybody has the right to live in a safe, decent and healthy environment. I will ask the Minister of Housing to make a commitment to the residents of the NWT for a fair and impartial process in the consideration of housing needs of the people regardless of past

dealings, a commitment ensuring that housing clients receive solid service reflective of a good government devoid of any prejudice, bias and subjectivity. This is what my constituents ask of this government, to be mindful of the concerns of the residents of this territory to whom the government serves. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today we are attempting to shed some light on the challenges of affordable and accessible housing for northerners. Mr. Speaker, shelter is a basic necessity in life common to every person. In some circumstances, it is necessary for governments to become involved in meeting the needs of our people for adequate housing. As with everything we attempt to do, we are confined by fiscal realities. It is incumbent on us as legislators when developing programs, policies and investing in capital infrastructure, to ensure we balance the need for accountability with the need for flexibility and sensitivity to the realities of the very people we are trying to help.

Our role in meeting the needs of our constituents for basic housing should be a role that provides for fairness in affordability for those with financial challenges, adequacy for persons with special needs related to physical challenges and availability, where options are limited. All of these considerations must be applied with the ever constant factor of the diversity of our communities, urban or remote, market or non-market, et cetera.

Mr. Speaker, we also need to consider whether the shelter we provide is more appropriate through ownership incentives or on the basis of rental. A couple of areas I would like to focus on today are the flexibility that we allow local housing organizations to operate within, in meeting what can be sometimes the unique circumstances in their community and the needs of their clients; and two, how responsive are delivery of housing and investment in capital to the needs of our communities. For example, I believe that some policies have been developed and implemented which have created a serious hardship for public housing tenants. The application in the new rent scale in non-market communities did not provide enough time for tenants to make the transition from rents assessed for low incomes to the higher incomes many have experienced from opportunities created by development that's taking place.

If there are no houses on the market for sale, we did not give tenants enough time to transition into homeownership without assessing rents that were excessively high. For example, we know that when applying for mortgage financing, the first question asked is related to income: How long have you been employed? So a young couple suddenly blessed with a good job at the diamond mine would need time to consider construction and homeownership or rental options.

To my second point, we can't afford any housing boondoggles with our limited available capital. Too often we have gone into communities with the government-knows-best attitude to solving housing problems, only to find out later that there weren't any updates.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, this has resulted in situations like seniors' complexes sitting empty or underutilized and then market housing mobile units sitting empty.

Much planning and consultation must go into these types of initiatives with the clients they are intended to serve, prior to investing. Capital investment should be approached with a business plan no less thorough than if we were investing our own private money.

Mr. Speaker, I am not suggesting that there are simple solutions to the housing needs. These needs require careful exploration from the benefit of input from affected stakeholders. We can't afford investments and policies that miss the target of meeting the needs and assuring adequate, affordable and accessible housing for those who depend on us for it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Zoe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today, Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House to focus on a serious issue in my riding, and that is the transition from public housing to homeownership. The current NWT Housing Corporation policy on homeownership programs is creating an impossible environment for people to become homeowners.

Mr. Speaker, many of my people are employed with the diamond mines. According to the rent scale increase policy, anyone working at a diamond mine basically has no alternative but to consider homeownership. With household income, their rent will go through the roof with the new rent scale. Until such time as they find alternative solutions, they will be paying the maximum allowable rent for their unit; a huge increase in cost for them.

On the other hand, Mr. Speaker, if they owe arrears, they have to pay that off, on top of paying the high rent on their public housing unit before they will be considered in good standing with the corporation and eligible for a Homeownership Program. Sounds confusing, doesn't it?

In addition, Mr. Speaker, many people in my riding, because of their employment, were able to purchase trucks, skidoos, et cetera, for travel and hunting. These people didn't realize that these payments would put them in an undesirable situation of carrying a high debt load. Because of the impact on their net worth, banks won't even look at them for financing and, depending on the corporation's calculations, neither will they.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Pokiak.

Qujannamiik, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You may have noticed that we are having a theme day on housing today. I will be speaking on the need to educate public housing tenants, who may have the financial ability to own their own home, on the dangers and pitfalls of purchasing their unit from the NWT Housing Corporation.

Over the last few years, Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation has decided to sell off a number of their older units to those tenants or persons who can afford to maintain their own home. I know of a few elders in Nunakput who have taken on the responsibility of these units, Mr. Speaker.

The Housing Corporation has held a number of workshops for the local housing authority tenant relation officers in their regions and in Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, the most important thing we have to do is make sure tenants are educated as to the true costs of running a household, paying a mortgage and paying for ongoing maintenance. I know there are a number of people in serious financial trouble because they did not understand the ramifications of signing a long-term mortgage.

Mr. Speaker, these people have told me that it might have worked if the program advisors did an adequate job in explaining that they will be totally responsible for the costs of the mortgages, land leases, taxes, fuel, electricity, water and sewer and ongoing maintenance costs. The point I'm trying to make, Mr. Speaker, is that all the new housing programs in the world will not work if there is not an adequate counselling and education program in place.

Mr. Speaker, we need to do more training of the staff at the local housing authorities, the district offices and headquarters to make sure everyone is adequately trained and ready to effectively counsel and educate public housing tenants who may be ready to move into homeownership. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As some of you know, in another life I had quite a bit to do with the provision of maintenance of housing in the Beaufort-Delta, so I am comfortable in providing my thoughts on what we need to do to provide public housing and affordable housing for those who can afford it.

As I see it, Mr. Speaker, the mandate of the NWT Housing Corporation is very simple: Make sure that there is an adequate amount of public housing for people who need it, and have programs and services available to make housing affordable to northerners. We have enough to do in the Northwest Territories, never mind past mistakes like trying to sell housing packages to Alaska and having the deal fall through and having to pay shipping both ways.

The NWT Housing Corporation should not be in business. I am also not in favour of the market housing initiatives, as I believe that local housing authorities do not have the manpower to take on additional duties. They spend too much time right now trying to extend the life of social housing units. I believe we could save money by replacing these old units and then there might be time to take on additional work.

There are some simple truths in government, Mr. Speaker. Too much administration costs take away from program delivery. Decisions made in the interest of the people, from the safety of Yellowknife, often have unintended consequences for frontline workers.

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This needs to be taken into account whenever new programs or initiatives are introduced. Now I am aware that the NWT Housing Corporation will be redefining its mandate over the course of this upcoming fiscal year. I would like to see them remember what they should be doing: providing and maintaining public housing stocks and helping with affordable homeownership options for the NWT residents. I stress, Mr. Speaker, options for NWT residents, not Russians, not Alaskans.

Let's keep the new mandate simple so people can understand the programs and services that fall out of the mandate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker...(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak with you today about the need in Nahendeh for housing; housing for singles and single parents in particular. Mr. Speaker, in my constituency, 25 percent of our households have a core need for housing. This means that there is an issue with suitability, adequacy or affordability with about 200 of the 754 households surveyed by the Housing Corporation; or, in the most simple terms, the types of housing we have now is inappropriate, too expensive, and there is just not enough of it. Yet over the next three years, Fort Simpson will only get 10 new single housing units and then that is it for Nahendeh for the foreseeable future, Mr. Speaker.

I am concerned that low-priced, single units are the most in demand for the disadvantaged person. However, income support no longer covers the cost of single unit housing, Mr. Speaker.

The solution is so simple. For instance, if the government would only consider building a little four-plex in Jean Marie River, that would cure 90 percent of all their housing issues, Mr. Speaker.

I am also concerned about single parents; the picture is even worse for them. The Northwest Territories has the fastest-growing single-parent population in the country. In the 1998 National Child Poverty Profile, it stated that children living with single mothers are more likely to be poor and, in fact, live in deep poverty and will remain this way longer. More aboriginal children live with single mothers. But instead of increasing our efforts to appropriately house them, the government revises the Housing Corporation's mandates away from social housing, Mr. Speaker. There are some simple solutions to our housing crisis in Nahendeh, but we need help for single people, especially those with children, and we need it right away. Mahsi cho.

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