Mr. Chair, I, too, would like to congratulate the Minister and his staff for acquiring the $50 million from the feds. I know the last time around it took a little arm-twisting of other jurisdictions and other authorities where we’re one of the few jurisdictions where we actually matched the funding that we got from the feds. When we did that, we also came forward with a housing needs survey or study that we identified core needs. We identified areas where we have overcrowding in the communities, where we have conditional rating of the different units we had in regard to having to replace some or because they’re in such poor shape that we were better off just building new.
I noted that you are going back to the feds. In your comments you made reference that you’re
presently developing a proposal to complete the detail of the project plan to take forward, but it would be good if we can have some input into that if it’s possible during this process. For me, there are areas that I think we still haven’t really done that great a job on in regard to the people in our communities with disabilities and seniors’ housing in our communities; more in regard to seniors and care type of housing units where they’re going to age in these facilities or these housing units and you have the capacity that when they do age, it’s designed for that and that you do have some sort of a preventative care program for our aging population.
We also have to look at the area of programs and services for the core programs and where we put caps on it. I know we implemented new programs that are out there in regard to aftercare and other programs, but I think what we’re seeing is that the cost of constructing these units and what we were...I know a number of years ago we were constructing units somewhere around the area of $185 a square foot. Now we’re constructing units in our communities at $300 a square foot and these units are coming in at over $300,000. I think that people, to go to the bank in a small community who don’t really have the full paying job, are struggling just to get a mortgage and pay for that large a mortgage. I think we have to increase those thresholds that we had. I noticed $90,000 but I think you’ve got to look at something that’s more practical and realize that there is no real residual value for a lot of these houses in our small communities. Once you’ve got a mortgage on it, you aren’t going to sell it for what you bought it for. I think that those types of things have to be considered either through a program review or assessment in regard to the program that’s there. I feel strongly that we know that there are people there who can operate a home. It’s either that they’re falling between the lines and they either don’t make enough to show that they can actually operate a home or they make too much where we can’t help them out.
Again, you know we put a lot of houses on the ground, the 500-something units we put on the ground. The majority of those were basically family-type dwellings. I think we have to look at more apartment units so that singles and people who are in their middle age, basically all they need is something small. I think that the big challenge we had last time was just trying to find the land that we need to build these things on in a lot of our communities. Even in Yellowknife here just to try to acquire land for the last round of negotiations, trying to get land, I know it’s an issue with Dettah and Ndilo saying how come we don’t get housing. I don’t think it’s that the government not trying to get them houses, but it’s that you can’t find land to build
them on because of IAB lands or because of the unavailability of land in Yellowknife and communities around Yellowknife. It is an issue.
Also, we do have to look at the seniors facilities. I’m very serious when I say that that $50 million, you should allocate a good portion of that to seniors’ housing, either a seniors six-plex, or a five or four for small communities so that the seniors can all live in one area, they’re all close together. They’re a closely knit community to begin with and the families can come and go. They have those units already in several communities. We built one in McPherson. We picked up the design from Dettah where they had a similar design. The elders came down here, we went down and took a look at it and they were very impressed with that facility and how it was set up and designed. You could come in from the outside and you could come in through the front door. Everybody had a shared area, they have all their shared laundry space and they also have someone, basically a caretaker, who lives right in the facility with them to take care of them. I think that’s the type of housing that can really make a difference in our smaller communities. I heard Mr. Jacobson talking about the situation of a lot of elders being stuck in their units because when there’s a blizzard in the Arctic communities, that those units aren’t designed, especially when you have a wind shift in those communities.
The other area I think where we have to do a better job is working with aboriginal housing cooperatives. I mean, you can talk about North Slave housing here in Yellowknife or Tepee Housing in Inuvik; I think those were classified as urban housing projects that were designed through the federal government, and they were designed in the larger centres. I know there’s housing in Fort Smith. Also, you’ve got the Kotaneelee Housing Association in Fort Liard. I think that’s another area you could possibly expand programs. Just looking at those initiatives and seeing if they’re interested in expanding their housing stock so that they can also be able to provide housing like any housing cooperative in the Northwest Territories. You have different housing authorities from Kitikmeot Housing to YK Housing to North Slave Housing here in Yellowknife. I think that we’ve got to work closely with those agencies.
The issue that I’m probably going to talk about later is in regard to the Joe Greenland Centre in Aklavik. There were renovations that were supposed to take place last year, and again it’s a level 3, level 4 facility in Aklavik. It’s one of those seniors homes that’s been designated by the Department of Health and maintained by the NWT Housing Authority. Again, that unit is almost 35 years old and getting up there in age. It has to either be replaced or you’re looking at a major cost to renovate. Again,
that’s something I feel that you have to really seriously look at doing some work there.
Just on that, I think there have been studies done. Sandy Lee’s favourite subject here is NOVEL housing. I know she just loved that project. I think workforce housing is something that there’s a lot of study and work that was done there. A number of units could go into communities. We’re looking at land development for these units. There’s a lot of baseline work that we need that is already there. I think we should seriously look at that, because we only have two years to spend this $50 million and I think that’s something we should consider.
With regard to the housing needs survey, I don’t know if we were able to meet the needs of all the communities, but again maybe go back and take a look at that needs survey and see if we did deliver the units we said we were going to. Did we really make a difference on those needs in those communities?
The other area that I think the Housing Corporation has to do a better job on is expanding your workforce in your communities by way of your maintenance people; looking at putting more money into the local authorities and giving them more money for maintenance people. Give them an extra carpenter. In some cases you probably need an electrician in some of the larger centres. I think you should look at expanding your apprenticeship programs in those communities throughout the Northwest Territories. For most communities that’s a big challenge. If you have home-grown talent in those communities it really helps with the other seniors and people like that, that we’re trying to help by maintenance programs.
The other area I was just wondering if it’s possible that you look at your program staff with regard to the delivery of programs and services for care and aftercare. Is there a possibility that those people could be working in the larger centres and communities where there are enough people to actually make sense to have somebody there serving those larger communities than having them at the regional levels? Either Behchoko or Fort McPherson or communities that can sustain those type of people as program officers in those authorities or whatnot to deliver our programs. Hopefully that’s a bit of food for thought. I think it’s something that we have to think about because we only have two years to act on this.
I’d like to thank the Minister and his staff for the work they’ve been doing. I look forward to going through detail.