Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to this department and its portfolio, yes, we have challenges, but I think also we have to work together to find solutions to some of our challenges. I think that in regard to the area of finding revenues in regard to CMHC, again, that’s a national problem. I think it’s a $3 billion problem across Canada, and I think we’re all in the same boat on that one, and I think it’s just going to take a national outcry to get the federal government to admit that they have made a mistake.

Again, I think we do have to be cognizant in the North that we have to find offsetting revenues, and I think one of the areas that we have to look at is that we do have rent subs with the private sector. I think, whenever possible, those dollars should be expended first with the Housing Corporation assets before we allow those rent subs to be spent in the private sector. I think we generate $5 million by way of what we collect by way of rent, but I think we also have to look at how much money the government spends in other agencies in regard to rent subs, regardless if it’s the Department of Health and Social Services or even through income support, that we have to be able to use other government agencies to provide that investment in the Housing Corporation before you go to the private sector.

I think that in most cases what you usually find are people do get evicted from housing and they’ll end up going to one of the agencies, and in most cases it’s income support or social services in which they’ll find them an alternative place to stay. But again, I think that whenever possible we have to work with the clients and work out payment plans

and try to find a way that we’re able to recoup those dollars in most cases, that people do have hardships or people do lose their jobs, they do get laid off, and because in most of our small and isolated communities we do have a seasonal economy and right now the economy is down in most regions throughout the Northwest Territories.

But again, I think it’s fundamental to look at a holistic approach to housing and not just look at housing as a place that you rent houses, but look at it as a place that residents, children, parents, grandparents grow up, grow old, and eventually pass on. We have to look at housing in the lifecycle of the people we serve, from single individuals to married couples, to couples with families to the transitional process as we go through life, and we have to be aware that at some point we’re going to have to look at the possibility of investing more money into either social care or secondary or seniors’ care, and we have to be able to work with those different components.

I think that’s one thing that we’ve sort of slipped here in the North. Looking at other jurisdictions in the country, they do have plans in place where they look at the holistic approach of housing from hard to house people to homeless people to seniors facilities to transitional housing. So when you look at the whole gamut of housing right from the time someone gets into the market to actually when you exit out of the market and in most cases you end up going into a long-term care facility and that’s part of that. I think it’s something that we have to look at in the North with the amount of challenges we’re seeing with homelessness. But in most cases those are people problems and people issues and program issues that we have to work on and working with other government agencies and ourselves to work around that. I think it’s important that we look at that but, I think, also, we have to work with families and individuals to make the transition from the public housing dependency to eventually home ownership to eventually being able to maintain their own needs.

That’s an area that I’d like to focus on, because I know that in my riding there have been issues that I’ve raised with the Minister and the department on individuals who have tried to transition into home ownership but because of one reason or another, basically because most of the clients that have got into home ownership work in a seasonal economy but at least they’re making their payments, they’re maintaining their commitment, but yet, in some cases, they were told that they had to vacate the premises because they didn’t have full employment.

In most of our communities you might have 13 percent or even 15 percent of the people that are fully employed in our communities. The other 80-something percent depend on seasonal work. I think we have to be realistic to the economic times

of our communities and the realities people face. But people still, at the end of the day, make ends meet. They are able to maintain their facility. They’re making their payments. They’re not in arrears. I think that, if anything, we should credit them for trying whichever way they can to bring in whatever revenues they need from trapping or fishing or subsidizing their wages somehow other than having a full-time job, because we can’t discriminate individuals based on the employment levels that they’re at. I think that’s something we have to be realistic about when we’re talking about communities and community services.

I think the other area that we have to really look at is the whole independency side of elder care and the elders care programs and sustaining them as long as we can in their own homes and working with themselves, their families. Because as they age, their requirements change also from being mobile individuals who were basically self-sufficient, they’re able to cut their own wood, pack their own wood, but as you age it gets a little harder as you progress in life. I think we have to be realistic that those people are going to need some assistance by way of changing their heating systems or looking at some sort of equipment to assist with their disabilities, regardless if it’s ramps on their facility or, basically, having better access to their showers and their washrooms so that, basically, they’re able to sustain that independence as long as possible. Again, I think we have to work with the private sector in regard to groups that do provide different types of housing, regardless if it’s the private sector.

I know one of the issues that has come to light is the whole area of professional housing. I know that the Minister made a statement in the House yesterday in which they’re allocating a bunch of the vacant units for professional housing, but I think we have to be aware that you’re dealing with a segment of our workforce that’s transient. They come and go. You don’t know how long they’re going to be there for. But again, those units at some point will eventually be empty again. I think you have to be realistic of how those units will be required over a period of time and making sure that you identify the occupants so that when you basically have those transitional periods of cycles where, in most cases, the RCMP, for instance, most of them do a two-year turnaround in most of our communities, and then basically they have to go out and rehire or refocus their efforts to get other people in there. Sometimes that takes a little bit of time, so those units, again, will be sitting empty for some period of time and, again, we have to be aware of that.

But again, we also have to ensure that’s there’s fairness in the process. That we don’t provide a subsidy to one group and yet people are basically paying $1,500 or in some cases $1,800 a month in

regard to maintaining a home ownership program but yet we’re allowing the professional housing to be subsidized. I think that that’s a concern from residents in our communities, is how come they’re subsidized and I have to pay, you know, 30 percent or 25 percent of my income based on income testing. So is there going to be income testing also provided by way of the rent that’s being charged to the professional staff in our communities? In most cases the teachers and other people, they try to get it as cheap as they can and they don’t want to pay $1,500 a month. If they can get it for $600, they’ll try to get it for $600. I think we have to be fair to all the residents in our communities when it comes to providing these different types of services.

The other area I would like to talk about is the whole area of capacity building, especially in the area of tradespeople in our community. This department has an important role to provide that opening for a lot of young people to get into the trades. I know we are looking at that in the Housing Corporation and local housing authorities are taking on more people. I think we also have to develop that into the actual construction and the maintenance and repairs that are going to take place so that you offer the student, especially summer students, that opportunity. For most of them, that is their first job that they will receive, so they are able to do that.

I think also we have to be aware of community unemployment rates where we have high unemployment rates. We have to allow for some of this work to remain in our communities. I know that this department used to be wide open to negotiated contracts with bands and development corporations in trying to find that opportunity and keeping those resources and job opportunities in our communities. Again, I think we have to be open to that and ensure that the policies and procedures this government has to offer are being used, especially in departments such as Housing Corporation, which is a very important infrastructure department in the government. Thank you.