Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think my biggest concern now for the future of social housing is the CMHC declining fund. To me, it doesn’t appear as though the federal government... Basically from their position on their stance seems to be that they are into providing short-term stimulus-type money or short-term affordable housing strategy types of money because they seem to get a better bang for that buck than they would to continue long-term investment in housing. It is long-term investment in housing, I think, is something that has been in place. It was agreed to some time ago that the federal government would

be withdrawing from that type of housing, essentially public housing program under a couple of CMHC sections. That is something that is worrisome for me, not because I am afraid that the public housing will be sitting there and we would not be able to operate public housing, but because I am afraid that if we don’t have a good strategy to address the public housing that we have on inventory, that it would take all of our money out of other essential areas, specifically maybe in housing but could possibly be in other areas to backfill what is needed to continue to operate all of the public housing units.

There is a slight growth in public housing announced by the Minister yesterday. Again, it is only about $15,000 per year to operate a unit, maybe $20,000 a year to operate a unit. That is the additional 50 units is not that significant that it would have an impact, but the withdrawal fund is what I find very significant. I think lobbying Canada to ask them to stay in is something that we should continue to do, as all provinces are doing, but I don’t think it is going to be an effective strategy. I think what we need to do is actually develop a strategy to reduce the amount of public housing we have on inventory. If the Housing Corporation, from one end of selling a house that is worth $300,000 to $400,000 on the market in the city of Yellowknife for $300,000 to $400,000, not to disrupt the market, but to get the capital out of it and to reduce the amount of public housing in market communities where public housing really doesn’t add to the market is essential. I recognize that, but there are other ways of providing public housing. I am saying that public housing can be provided on a short-term basis in the market communities by renting or leasing. You could sell 20 houses in market communities at an average of $300,000 per unit and I think that adds up to $6 million or something like that. That could be then, in turn, put back into the home ownership side of things or being put back into leasing public housing in market communities and reduce our inventory so we don’t have long-term commitments by virtue of ownership.

Right now, if we don’t reduce the amount of public housing we have, we are going to be in it for the long term, and as the money from the federal government dries up, we will have to backfill with GNWT dollars. I am a bit afraid of that. That kind of leads me to where...

I am trying to get the Housing Corporation to see if they would consider... I would ask the Minister if they would consider developing a housing plan in each community; maybe a housing plan that considers all of the factors. I use the term today: a 360 evaluation. I would still use that term to have the corporation look at the communities from a community-to-community perspective and have a plan that says our public housing situation in Fort

Resolution is this. The home ownership situation for Fort Resolution is this. This is what we have on the market. This is the total value of what we have on the market and the total value of what is on the market in that community and, in essence, move away from having a lot of public housing to maybe creating some sort of a quasi-housing market in these smaller communities that allows individuals in that community to have equity. So you would essentially work towards accumulating some sort of market so that individuals have equity.

We all know that there is a significant difference between putting money into a house in Inuvik and Fort Smith and Yellowknife than there is putting money into places like Lutselk’e, Nahanni Butte and even in Tulita or Fort Resolution, for that matter, because those communities don’t have a market. That is why I think the houses there are essentially lifelong houses. If you have a community where you have a market, then a lot of people will invest in the market then upgrade, sell their unit and upgrade and so on. In a sense, it kinds of creates a little market in itself in the communities. I think the Housing Corporation needs to look at that in part with their programs and make sure that they are trying to move forward and achieve that objective, and that is an area that should cover the effects of what is happening with the CMHC withdrawal.

The other area that I am very interested in is the home ownership units in the communities. Really, I am looking at units now that are older units. The Housing Corporation built several hundred HAP units across the Territory and many of those units are now getting to a stage where they are moving to a state where they could be getting close to being beyond economic repair. I would like to see the corporation... I think it would be positive if we could repair those units and save them from going to a dilapidated state where they cannot be fixed. Then I think we really have a big price tag, government period would have a big price tag.

Those individuals have to live somewhere, they’re going to either go into new houses built by the corporation or go into residential care, which is very expensive, I suppose. Most people know that.

I think the one big factor in the Public Housing Program is that the corporation should develop some sort of a maximum rent. I recognize the fact that the Housing Corporation, under the program, has an obligation to recover at least the economic cost of that unit if that person is working, but that’s not working in the small communities, that type of program. So I’m suggesting that the corporation develop some sort of maximum rent. I really do think that there are long-term benefits to that as well. People may work if their rent maxes out at $700, they may work, even though maybe the cost to operate that unit is more, but it’s better than them only paying $32. So I’m on time, Mr. Chair.