Thank you, Madam Chair. The Housing Corporation has decreased the number of programs that it delivers and has consolidated the remaining programs into four program areas. The intention is to simplify the application process and to make access to the programs easier for low-income homeowners.
Income thresholds and base house prices have been established for each community in the NWT, and sliding scales that clearly define the amount of assistance that is available have been developed.
The committee was very concerned that the Housing Corporation was going to continue its "step" scale for
assessing assistance levels, in which there were some very sharp drop-offs in eligibility. For example, a person earning $50,000 a year would be eligible for $85,000 in assistance and a person earning $50,001 would only be eligible for $75,000. Losing $10,000 in eligibility for earning one dollar more was seen to be extremely unfair and could be a disincentive to work for some people who were considering buying a house using a NWT Housing Corporation program.
Members were pleased that the Minister agreed with the committee's concerns and has introduced a sliding scale that is directly tied to income and has no drop-off points. So under the new sliding scale, if you made $50,000 you would be eligible for $85,000 and if you made $50,001 you would be eligible for $84,499.
In addition, the corporation will be introducing an appeal process for those who feel they were not treated fairly by the application process. This appeal process will be modeled on the Student Financial Assistance Appeal Committee. It is a two-step appeal process, with an appeal committee that will make a decision in 15 days or less, and, if the person is still not satisfied, an appeal board that will make a decision in 45 days or less.
The committee's concerns over the appeal process centred on the methodology that would be used. The SFA appeal process is seen by committee to be both fair and timely. Thank you, Madam Chair.