Page 12-36, information item, least commitments, infrastructure. Any questions?

Page 12-37, information item, Fur Marketing Service Revolving Fund. Any questions?

Pages 12-38 and 12-39. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you. Under page 12-37, Mr. Chair, the repayment of the fur account loan. I see we’re in the bracket here. There’s $1.1 million. Why is that?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe I had a similar question on this page when I was going through with the folks from ITI, but we’ll allow Ms. Magrum to answer the question. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Ms. Magrum.

Thank you, Ms. Magrum. Mr. Yakeleya. Pages 12-38 and 12-39, information item, work performed on behalf of others. Any questions?

Due to the deferral, committee, on page 12-17, does the committee agree that we will defer the final consideration of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment?

Thank you, committee. I’d like to thank Minister Ramsay, Mr. Vician and Ms. Magrum for their time this evening. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms if he’ll escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, committee.

Okay, committee, moving on. We’re going to be dealing with section 5 on NWT Housing Corporation. Does the Minister of the Housing Corporation have any opening comments?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Does the committee agree?

Please proceed, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2012-13 Main Estimates for the NWT Housing Corporation. The main estimates propose a budget of $113.209 million, an increase of 0.3 percent from the 2011-2012 Main Estimates.

The budget includes a contribution of $65.458 million from the GNWT for 2012-2013. As Members are aware, one of the five priorities identified by the 17

th Legislative Assembly was to address housing

needs. Housing is a complex issue in many of our communities. There are significant differences in housing needs and challenges between our market and non-market communities, and there are needs along the entire housing continuum from homelessness to home ownership. Our approach to housing should strengthen self-reliance and support residents in meeting their own shelter needs, but also needs to recognize the importance of housing in supporting community sustainability, contributing to efforts to reduce poverty and to reflect the linkages between housing and education and health issues.

Of course, these challenges need to be addressed in the context of declining federal funding to support social housing in the Northwest Territories. Public housing continues to be the largest program offered by the NWT Housing Corp with approximately 2,400 units and planned expenditures of $43.9 million in 2012-2013.

A number of actions are being taken in 2012-13 to improve public housing. The new rent scale will be implemented on July 1, 2012, and will make rents simpler, more predictable and fairer. This new rent scale also addresses a disincentive to work that has long been a standing concern.

In 2012-13 over $15 million will be spent to improve the quality of our public housing stock. This will include 26 public housing replacements, 130 major retrofits and a variety of minor maintenance and improvement projects. These investments build on the $141 million we have invested in public housing stock over the past six years.

The 2012-13 budget also contains a $2.4 million forced growth investment to offset the increased utility costs related to public housing. While some successes have been achieved on the consumption side with the energy investments and investments in upgraded stock, these don’t completely offset the rising costs for utilities. An additional $700,000 has been identified to continue the energy upgrades on public housing during 2012-13.

Finally, the budget also contains an investment of $511,000 to support the operating costs of 27 additional public housing units that have been added in Gameti, Wekweeti, Whati, Jean Marie River, Trout Lake and Nahanni Butte.

In support of home ownership in the Northwest Territories, the NWT Housing Corp will spend approximately $10 million in 2012-13. A new emergency repair program called SAFE will be introduced and $1 million has been allocated to support this program. SAFE provides support to low and modest income homeowners to address emergency repair situations like freeze-ups, heating

system failures and major electrical problems. Unlike other NWT Housing Corp repair programs, this program will be available at any time during the year. There will be a streamlined application process and the eligibility criteria will be broader than for most programs.

Changes will also be made to the CARE program during 2012-13. That will expand accessibility to the preventative maintenance activities for low-income homeowners. Overall, the CARE program will help about 300 homeowners complete repairs to their homes during 2012-13. In addition to the public housing program during 2012-13, the NWT will spend about $5.9 million supporting other rental housing. This spending includes administration and maintenance associated with 117 market rentals, 335 households operating under our HELP and Supported Lease programs and 483 homes operated by community-based organizations.

This year we are also introducing the Transitional Rent Supplement Program. This Rent Supplement Program will provide financial support to reduce the affordability problems and core need among residents and market rentals. The Rent Supplement Program will provide clients with up to $500 per month for a two-year period. The subsidy will be paid directly to landlords. This program will address a gap in the housing continuum, identified during the shelter policy review related to the high shelter costs for the working poor living in market rentals. We expect the $1.2 million investment will provide assistance to approximately 175 households. Implementation will start in September and we are planning a quarterly phase-in to ensure continuous uptake.

Starting in 2012-13, the NWT Housing Corporation has taken over responsibility for the administration of the Homelessness Assistance Fund and the Small Community Homelessness Fund. These main estimates reflect the transfer of $325,000 for these two programs from the Department of Health and Social Services. A homelessness coordinator will be added in 2012-13. In addition to being responsible for the administration of these two programs, this position will act as a focal point for the GNWT homelessness activities. The individual will work with federal funding agencies, community groups, and coordinate with other GNWT departments that support programs to address homelessness by chairing the GNWT Homelessness Committee.

Two additional priorities during 2012-13 will be to complete an evaluation of the two programs being transferred from Health and Social Services and work with smaller communities on homelessness activities. Work will also be done to continue advanced planning for the NWT Housing Corporation investments in Betty House, the

planned 30-unit transition home for women and children in Yellowknife.

In 2012-13, there will also be a number of other activities planned to help strengthen management of our housing program. For example, on April 1

st ,

we introduced our new territorial housing system which is a centralized information management system that dramatically increases our capacity to monitor and manage our programs. This new system provides real time information on key indicators like waiting lists, rent collection and arrears and occupancy.

A new Maintenance Management Program will be developed during 2012-13. These systems lower the workload of our community partners, the local housing organizations and allow the NWT Housing Corporation to better support them. The main estimates also include increased capacity for training and workshops with LHO staff, and during this year, opportunities for bulk purchasing, will be examined to lower overall operating costs. A broad base examination will also be undertaken on the approach to the delivery of housing services at a community level. This will include looking at roles and responsibilities and a funding model for LHOs.

On the revenue side, as it was noted previously, our efforts to address housing needs are further challenged by the declining federal funding for operating social housing. As Members know, the GNWT will see reduced annual funding of $2.1 million over the life of this Assembly as part of the ongoing declines that we will see all federal funding for operating social housing eliminated by 2037-38. For these main estimates, an investment of $990,000 was made by the GNWT to offset the federal decline in 2012-13.

The other major revenue change relates to an additional investment of $1 million made by the GNWT to offset the initial revenue decline expected with the implementation of the new public housing rent scale.

That concludes my opening remarks. At this time I would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Committee members, you may notice you may have a few pages missing in your opening comments. Copies will be sent down to you shortly. Mr. McLeod, do you have any witnesses you would like to bring into the Chamber?