Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing more about what the Housing Corporation is actually doing with the declining CMHC funding. This is my seventh budget, if I remember correctly, and I think for all seven I’ve heard the same standard line. Not just from this Minister but from some of the previous Ministers. I’m curious as to what headway has been made on this particular issue. Have we negotiated anything? What headway have we made with other provincial governments or territorial governments on getting this initiative really on the agenda as one that can be solved? Or is this one we just cannot solve? It always seems to dominate the future of the Housing Corporation as the critical element, and rightly so; it’s the money. But ultimately each year -- and I don’t certainly blame this Minister by any means -- I’ve heard the same line. This is the seventh time I’ve heard this story. I know the Minister, when he was on this side, would have heard the story told to him by the old Minister. I want to get a sense as to what actually is being done and what success. Furthermore, I think equally importantly, if I may say, what success have we made.
I wouldn’t mind hearing as to what, you know, I’m an environmentalist in the moderate sense, I’d like to think, and I’d like to hear what the department is doing about energy efficiencies and through developing our housing stock down that road. What are we doing to take those things into consideration? Whether it’s repairing our homes or developing our existing housing stock, with those
type of things in mind, ensuring that our new housing stock is reflective of these type of needs. I’m always about common sense. How are we planning to heat these things? I’m not about suggesting we have to be splitting atoms on any sort of new design, but I think there are lots of excellent examples out there on energy efficiency that could provide strong examples of doing business better.
The other area that I think I’d like to hear a little more from the Housing Corporation is what is its plan at this time for the expansion of housing for disabled people. One of the big things that I always try to trumpet in any way and every opportunity is housing for people with disabilities. I feel very passionate about that cause and I’ve worked very hard with the department in the past and certainly have been successful with one of the older Ministers -- I should say one of the past Ministers, not older -- about getting the eightplex building built downtown and quite fortunate that it was even in the riding of Yellowknife Centre. It provided a new type of living for people who had not had decent and adequate housing that met the standards of basic needs for people in the situation of having a disability. I think the department at the time responded most excellently in the sense of achieving a standard. I shouldn’t call it a new standard, but certainly achieving a new standard in the way that the people with disabilities are living in public housing in the existing situation in Yellowknife.
When I travel to the communities it’s very odd, because what I’ll find is the number of people in the communities, whether I’m in Inuvik or Fort Smith, people know that was a big cause of mine in my first term. They’re asking, because they had heard that this was something I had always said, not unlike what Mr. Krutko had said a minute ago, I had always presented it as a new way of doing business better for people with disabilities and why couldn’t this model be rolled out in some type of form territorially. Start maybe with regional centres and see how far deep into our network of communities we can go.
We do have people with disabilities who need supportive living. It’s not just in Yellowknife. It’s not just in Hay River. It’s not just in Inuvik. Whether you live in Gameti or Trout Lake or Sachs Harbour or Resolution, there are people out there. I don’t think our public housing stock reflects that individual need. As I emphasize individual, I will note that the department in the past has done some good work on trying to address case-by-case situations, which I certainly give them great kudos for their support in trying to identify individual cases and help them on those measures, but I always find that it’s one-offs. That’s why I’d like to hear what this corporation is doing to develop a plan to help with the low stock, or in most cases a non-existing stock of public
housing that suits people with disabilities. I think that seems to be a missed focus here. Like I say, I know that they try very hard at working on one-on-one cases, but I don’t think the plan exists.
Furthermore, I think that needs to be a focus. I know the president speaks very highly of aging in place and I certainly share his passion on that particular case. You can certainly see the investment that’s been done in our community over at the Aven Cottages. I think it really requires a hard and serious focus as to what plans we should be considering. We need to come up with a strategy and that just doesn’t exist today. Recently I’ve had a constituent who is bound by a wheelchair and we don’t have public housing that can facilitate this family’s needs. So if one person is wheelchair bound, they’re almost held hostage to the system that there’s nowhere for them to go. One of the options then becomes that we have to break up the family and I think that’s the wrong focus.
We should be trying to say to ourselves where is our strategy to make sure we have public housing that reflects this type of need. I know that is a very important thing for me and I certainly hope that with the team over at the Housing Corporation it will be identified as an important issue for them. One of their jobs here is trying to find these type of milestones within the department’s focus for the next year. I worry that this issue has gone by the wayside and back to the one-off approach. The one-off approach tends to be like trying to pull hen’s teeth. It’s always a struggle getting one person individually accommodated. If the housing stock doesn’t provide for that need, they go to income support and income support is sometimes forced to pay an exorbitant market fee because this particular facility may be the only one and it is private, so the income support is further held hostage by the fee that we can only get these facilities for.
I guess I certainly hope that my concern, my passion and certainly a little element of my frustration on this issue is heard. It is not meant to be at anyone personally, but the fact is that I really want to make sure that the corporation starts speaking to me about strategy. I know it is great to use all these buzz words on how we are going to do things, but eventually I would really like to see a plan in my hands that says, look, we are going to commit to five units here this year. We’re going to commit to two units in this particular community. We are going to do this. That is usually one of the most exciting things we can do here, but we have to see it on paper. I am not really looking for buzz words about we are going to rethink and change and do this and that. I would like to hear where we have a plan in place and we are just waiting for this budget to activate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I believe at this time that is all I have for opening comments. I shall provide more as I see fit throughout the budget. Thank you.