Thank you, Mr. Chair. I may repeat some stuff that was mentioned last night. My apologies in advance if I do. It just indicates where my concerns and priorities lie for the department.

At the outset, I want to say that I was pleased to see the recent framework that was published and released. There’s a lot of good stuff in there. I know I felt that there were maybe some details lacking and the department has assured us that those details would be forthcoming. I certainly look forward to seeing more of the details to flesh out that whole framework.

Part of that is in the Minister’s remarks from yesterday, the statement that the Housing Corp has seen and is going to address needs along the entire housing continuum. I’m really glad to hear that. I think the recognition that we have some gaps in our housing continuum is a real step forward. That’s also in the framework.

The framework also talks to the new rent scale. I certainly am pleased to see we are adjusting our rent scales, that we are making some changes that I hope would be for the better. My ask would be that there be an evaluation of the impact of this new scale in about a year’s time, so that we don’t just put it in place and forget about it for 10 years, but that we look at the impact and determine whether or not what we have done as a change is a good thing.

I note in the Minister’s remarks there’s a statement that we have about $2.4 million in forced growth and that it is mainly due to increased utility costs

which, unfortunately, everybody in the NWT knows about. But the second part of his paragraph, their task about continuing to do energy upgrades and I’m really glad to see that in there as well. I think we need to continue to put money into upgrades for energy, maintenance, the whole focus that has started to become prevalent within the government. I am very glad to see that.

Along with the continuum of housing -- and I’ve spoken to the Minister and I’ve spoken about it in the House, I know I’ve spoken to Mr. Stewart about it as well – is the need for assistance for people in transitional housing. It’s kind of interesting. I was talking about transition housing relative to another act today. The Transitional Rent Supplement Program, which the Minister mentioned in his opening remarks, I think is going to be a very valuable tool. Similar to the rent scale change, I hope that we will evaluate this program in a short period of time. Don’t wait five years to find out whether or not it’s working. From what I understand of the needs of people that are in transition housing now, between homelessness and their own accommodation, this is going to be something that will assist low-income earners a great deal. I’m anxious to see whether or not our guesses are right.

The move to establish a homelessness coordinator, in my view, is excellent. I was really glad to see that. I have said before that homelessness previously has been handled off the corner of somebody’s desk in this government and we now have a focal point for homelessness. That groups know where they need to go with their homelessness issue or their problems or their concerns is a real bonus. I understand; I’ll ask the question later on, but I understand that the programs will continue. I also understand that the Housing Corp is going to evaluate those programs. I think that’s also a good move. I think they’re a bit piecemeal at the moment and we need to figure out what it is we should be providing for homelessness and have a focused approach. I don’t think we’ve had that for awhile.

I wanted to talk a bit about the LHOs. Some LHOs do great; some LHOs do not do all that well. I think from the Minister’s remarks there is an increased capacity for training and workshops for LHO staff. I think that that’s a recognition that some LHOs do need the extra assistance, and I was pleased to hear that they’re looking at opportunities for bulk purchasing that the Housing Corp was going to try to create efficiencies wherever possible and that’s very positive as well, in my view.

I am extremely concerned, as are all Members, about the declining CMHC funding. This particular budget had almost $1 million investment by the GNWT to make up for what the federal government is not providing us, and in a $1.4 billion budget it’s

maybe not a lot of money, but we can do an awful lot in housing for $1 million. So my hope here is that there’s an indication that the Housing Corp is looking at sort of doing an analysis and trying to develop a plan for this declining funding issue. I don’t see and I’m not really sure that a hard, fast, concrete plan is going to be brought forward to Members for consideration anytime in the near future. It would be something I hope that the Housing Corp is going to be working on and will present something to Members sometime soon to say we know this is happening, we’re still working with the feds. But if they don’t produce the extra funding, as I feel they should, this is what we’re going to do as a government.

The only other two things I wanted to mention are rental arrears, which I didn’t see in the Minister’s remarks, but again, it’s a problem that’s been ongoing for quite a long time. Some LHOs are great in collecting their rent, others are not so much. I would just hope that the Housing Corp is going to target those communities that are problematic or do have problems in collecting their rents and have a very high percentage of uncollected rents. Those communities that are doing well, or the LHOs that are doing well, sure, monitor them, but I don’t think we need to focus on them. I would say we need to focus on the ones that aren’t getting the job done.

The other thing that I was wondering about, I haven’t seen anything, is vacant units. There was a plan to get rid of all our vacant units. I think the Minister spoke to that maybe last week in response to a question, but what plans do we have when, I guess will we basically have all the vacant units that the Housing Corp has when will we have divested ourselves of them and got people into them so they have their own homes? That’s it. Thanks, Mr. Chair.