Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand that some of the Members are hearing from their constituents the concerns around the transfer of social housing to the assessment part from the Housing Corporation to ECE. I know that housing is an important issue for all of our constituents in all of our communities, so I understand the reason for wanting to bring this item forward.
I like to point out that we are fairly early in the process of this transfer. It has only been some seven months since ECE has had full responsibility for administering the Public Housing Rental Subsidy Program. Part of the transfer that seems to have gotten wrapped up in the transfer is the fact that the Housing Corporation instituted the last phase of the rent scale change on April 1st as well. So there has been a change in the rent scales that happen that was brought in on units. It was brought in by the Housing Corporation. I think, in many cases, that is getting wrapped up in tenant concerns about the way the program is rolling out in the communities.
I think also that we have to remember that when you change a program of this magnitude, you are going to have some unexpected problems that are going to come about with the transfer. I know that, within three months of the start of the program, we set up a working group that involved people from LHOs, from the Housing Corporation, the regional managers from Education, Culture and Employment. We met in July. They set up a work plan. They have identified from the LHO side, the tenant side, from the ECE side, where the problems are. They have a list of tasks that they need to address. The plan is that they will meet in about two weeks from now to take a look at that work plan, see how far they have come along. But I would be quite happy to report to the Standing Committee on Social Programs what that work plan looks like and give an update on the progress that is being made.
Part of what has been frustrating, too, is that we have been under some pressure from Members in this House to make some changes, but before the transfer was made, Members asked that we not make any changes to the housing subsidy for at least the first year to make sure that ECE was aware of the program and how it was working. For this year, we have followed the exact same policies that were in place for years, set up by the Housing Corporation.
I think it is also important to remember that the transfer of the Public Housing Rental Subsidy Program is a critical part of a much larger project which is to address income security redesign. The focus of that program is to create a system that supports self-reliance for people to the greatest extent possible while ensuring we have support available for those who need it. We have, in this government, $128 million in subsidies that we pay out directly to people. The largest single part of that is the public housing rental subsidy. We know that these programs, because they were developed at different times by different departments and with different goals in mind when they were developed, we know that not all of our programs work very well together. I have heard many times from Members of this House, they have talked about how the rent scale doesn't encourage self-reliance. It doesn't help that the program is set up so there are clawbacks that don't engender that self-reliance when people get into work. As we are redesigning the Income Security Program, those are the sorts of issues that we are hoping that we are going to be able to address.
I am hoping to be able to come forward to the Standing Committee on Social Programs within the year, before Christmas, to outline some of the options we have to be able to better streamline our programs and better make sure the programs like the public housing rental subsidy do, in fact, not penalize people who go out and become more productive.
So I think that there is no question there was some teething problems. We hear about that from agencies. If LHOs are having cash flow problems, if those are brought to our attention, those are issues we can deal with. If the LHOs are advising the Housing Corporation that they have a cash flow problem, then we can meet together with the Housing Corporation and find a way to deal with that.
The first time the meeting was held in July, that issue was brought up. So rather than waiting for the assessments and transferring money after the assessments are done, now the money is being advanced to the LHOs from ECE. The money is being advanced to the Housing Corporation so that there isn't a need for LHOs to wait, and a reconciliation can be done on that funding later.
So, Mr. Speaker, government always pays attention to what it hears in this House. We have heard the concern that is being expressed by Members around this motion. I hope that Members will give government a chance to come back to the standing committee and outline our work plan for resolving the problems that are there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.