Thank you, Madam Chair. Housing Corporation obviously recognizes that we have to cut our costs and is listening to some of the comments made by the Member in the past and some of the advice that he’s given on going to more multi-unit type facilities so that we can cut back on the heating. We’re upgrading and replacing a lot of older units with more energy-efficient ones. We’re trying to be more energy conscious in our renovations. Energy-efficient fixtures, there are LHOs that are replacing a lot of their incandescent lights. There’s LHOs that are replacing a lot of their toilets with low-flow. Those seem to be working really well. I know of one in particular where the return on that and the water consumption has actually gone down by quite a bit.
We’re doing what we can. Obviously we don’t like to be in this position where we have to come back for money again. I point out the fact that had we collected a portion of the rent or revenue that was due us, then we wouldn’t have to be coming back looking for more money to offset some of the utility costs.
The utility costs, unfortunately, are going up, but I can assure the Member, and I think I’ve assured him in the past that we are constantly on the lookout for ways that we can improve the energy efficiency of our units and the amount of electricity and fuel that they use, because it’s very high. An estimated $20.7 million will be spent on utility costs for public housing in 2011-2012 and $7.2 million in heating fuel, $7 million in electricity, and $6.5 million in water and sanitation. It’s a huge cost driver to the NWT Housing Corporation.
Again, we try not to pass those costs on to the tenants as much as we can, but we’re getting to be in a position where we’re going to have to, it doesn’t answer the Member’s question as to what are we doing.
As much as he thinks that we’re sitting idly by and just coming to the trough every year, it’s not the case. Having worked in the housing industry for 23 years, going from back then to what I see today, the improvement is night and day. There’s still a lot of work to be done and we’ll continue to plug along and make sure that we design as much energy efficiency into our units as we can.