Thank you, Madam Chair. When I was first elected, they said housing would be one of my biggest files and it certainly has been and continues to be to this day. In fact, I just got another letter today that I would like to table.
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There is a young family making a low income. They are living in an old house and want some help, but we can't help them. I don't know what happened to our program to help young families who want to do things by themselves, Madam Chair. That's kind of touchy when I get a letter like that.
So somehow our programs have gravitated away from social housing and it's something that I have been pressing, especially in this sitting of the Legislature. I don't know when or where it was that government decided to get away from social housing. I don't know how it came to be, but the fact remains that the people in the communities expect it and want it. If we are going to be a consensus government and listen to the people, then we are going to have to listen to them. They want social housing. They want programs like this to help out young families who want to renovate or get into new housing who have low income. That's the reality that's out there. Not everyone is making a good income and we gear all the programs towards them. We have EDAP and the rest of them. Not everyone can afford to buy a house in the communities. I don't know if they will be able to for a long time to come, Madam Chair.
I would like to urge the Minister to look at this and to seriously consider it. In fact, people are saying I am building a half house too. They come from the era when we had the HAP program, the Housing Assistance Program. People are just looking for help for their electrical, or for the plumbing or shingles, or the windows and doors which are very expensive nowadays. They are just looking for assistance to help them build the rest of their house, Madam Chair. Yet we don't have a program for that anymore. I believe it's detrimental to our communities, our people and the young people in the smaller communities. In larger communities, it's not that noticeable, but in smaller communities it certainly is.
I don't know how we are going to do it, but I will continue to urge this government towards social housing. At least in my riding, they are asking for social housing and I think we should listen to that and design something around that and use some of our resources. We have a bit of a window, so maybe we could do it for them.
Right now, the core needs are so high we are going to have to alleviate what we can right off the bat, just like for the community of Trout Lake. We are scheduling one house a year because they are a very small population. This year alone, we have three or maybe four young families who want their own accommodations and want to take on the responsibility of owning a house. We just cannot do it. If we are able to design a program right off the bat and put in four-plexes or six-plexes into communities and alleviate those core needs right off the bat and address four needs at once would be a very good use of our resources, Madam Chair. I would like the corporation to look at that because it would alleviate four families in Trout Lake and that takes care of everybody's needs. If you don't today, then it makes the need look that much more dire. So that's how much of a big impact we can have in a small community like that.
It's the same in Fort Simpson. The needs are high there. I noticed that in the capital plan, I think they want to do four units in a couple of years from now and six units three years from now. If there is a way, Madam Chair, that we can switch those long-term plans around and get those six units this fiscal year or the next fiscal year, we will get a bit of a jump on it. The way that inflation is, even though inflation looks low, every year that we put things off, things are costing more and more and has a big impact on the way we do business. In fact, just in Fort Liard alone the plan is to spend $2 million there and I am glad that we are going to do it all at once instead of waiting, because it is going to cost us that much more. To do a frame house nowadays is really expensive. I think we are being charged about $200,000. It never used to be that way. We used to build a frame house for $100,000, but for whatever reason the market is depressed so it is costing much more to build these same houses. If we can address those needs right away, that is one way of getting a jump on the forced growth that is happening.
Speaking of Fort Liard, Madam Chairperson, I mentioned we have a $2 million program going in there and the Minister is well aware and has been working with the community of Fort Liard. We do have to design the program, we have to get a competent manager in there and we need lots of inspections, we need adequate inspections to go in there as we are retrofitting, as we are building, as we are catching up to Fort Liard again. Because with $2 million, it would be a shame not to do it properly and waste all that money and resources that Fort
Liard has an opportunity to rebuild or rebase their community in terms of homes and housing.
There again, I would throw that out as well. Let's catch up to them. Liard has got a great need, let's do four-plexes or six-plexes. Let's get them in there. Let's use economies of scale so that as we are building, we can address as many needs as we can right off the bat.
I was thinking today, it's been a while since I spoke about mould.
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That is a huge impact that Fort Liard has and the reason why we are spending so many resources there is that we have to address it. I am not too sure what the department is doing there, but I was talking to a fellow back in Fort Simpson during my last visit and he said, look I've got this machine that helps kill the mould dead cold, it actually kills them and you can paint on it. What we have been doing in the past is that we have been painting over the mould and not seeing it, but it is still alive. This guy says that he has got a machine that actually kills the mould. I said that's nice, I wonder if the corporation is aware of it. But it's just taking little unique ideas like that and actually exploring them and seeing if there are some facts behind what he is talking about and test it. Where to better test it than Fort Liard? I would urge the department to at least look at that because if that is true, then they are going to save a lot of money because the mould is into a lot of wood and a lot of drywall. We are talking about actually tearing it out and if there is a way to save it and not actually have to tear walls out, Madam Chairperson, then I am certain that it is going to reduce the cost.
That is one way, especially in Fort Liard, that I see it happening. I have been working with the department too, to set up a project interim manager for a couple years to oversee this project. It's $2 million but, I'm not too certain about the plan of attack. Perhaps the Minister can address that for me. As well, I know a lot of it is into repairs, some may in fact be new units as well as some suggestions like let's do a four-plex or six-plex. I know that having a housing authority or a housing society is an important aspect of the department being able to assist the community. I'm not sure what stage that is at, if they are able to negotiate this contract for Fort Liard.
Even though we are building all these houses, Madam Chairperson, another thing that concerns me is that we are taking people that have been in low rental or rental units for so long, that when they do finally move into houses of their own, they do not have the skill set to take care of their own homes. For whatever reason -- and I don't want to belittle these people -- they get caught up in having others take care of their plumbing needs or their repair needs. I spoke to the Minister about actually doing a home maintenance program before we transfer these people over. Some people love that kind of stuff, they have been in the maintenance field or they've had a home before and this is a new home so they know how to take care of a home, but for the most part we see lots of homes getting destroyed quickly and I think that is part of it. The little holes that are happening are not being patched right away, they are just letting it add up and then the home gets damaged rather quickly and it's just hole after hole and then that whole room or that whole wall looks horrible.
It's just teaching them the basics and I know it's not going to be one time only, it will have to be an annual event. Perhaps I will just stop here now, Madam Chairperson, and let other committee members refer to the opening comments of the Minister. In fact, if the Minister can address some of the concerns that I did bring up. Thank you.