I’m thinking about the meeting we had last year in Sahtu when we talked about the implementation plan of the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement and some of the work that needed to yet be negotiated and worked on. Out of the number of activities, how many does the federal government yet need to complete? How long will it take for them to complete the implementation plan? I’m hearing that the territorial government is up to date on our implementation plan. I know some dates take a little longer than we anticipated, but what I’m hearing is that we’re okay.

I congratulate the Premier and the staff on the Deline Self-Government Agreement. I look forward to having that finalized and put to bed.

I just want to make sure that I’m getting the correct information. I’ll be going back to the Sahtu and talk to my implementation people there and ask some of the finer details of this. Hopefully what I’m hearing here is okay so I don’t need to come back and ask some more questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The 10-year implementation plan for the Sahtu Dene-Metis Claim expired on March 31, 2014. The parties are reviewing and revising the plan to reflect the current status of obligations and associated activities. The final draft implementation plan is expected to be completed by April 2014. (sic)

Canada now has a financial mandate to negotiate implementation funding levels for its treaty partners for the next 10-year period and we expect negotiations to begin by April 2015. In the interim, the parties have agreed to a status quo funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Premier McLeod. Committee, we are on page 51, work performed on behalf of others. Questions?

Thank you. We will turn back to page 31, Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, $9.340 million.

Agreed. Does committee agree that we’ve completed the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations?

Thank you, Premier McLeod. Thank you, witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.

Thank you, committee. Next we will go to the NWT Housing Corporation. I will go to the Minister responsible, Mr. McLeod. Do you have opening comments?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2015-16 Main Estimates for the NWT Housing Corporation. The main estimates propose a budget of $143.127 million, an increase of one percent from the 2014-15 Main Estimates. The budget includes a contribution of $85.368 million from the GNWT for 2015-16.

As Members are aware, one of the five priorities identified by the 17th Legislative Assembly is to

address housing needs. The approach of the NWT Housing Corporation recognizes that there are significant differences in housing between our market and non-market communities and there are needs along the entire housing continuum, from homelessness to homeownership.

The activities reflected in the 2015-16 Main Estimates for the NWT Housing Corporation build on the work we have done over the first three years of the 17th Assembly and some of the highlights

include: • In 2015-16 we will continue to make extensive

investments in our infrastructure. Overall, we expect to spend $35.9 million on capital projects. Highlights include:

o

Major retrofits will be completed on 232

existing units. This investment will mean that approximately 700 NWTHC units will have received a retrofit during the 17th Assembly.

o

In 2015-16 the planned seniors independent

living complexes in Fort Good Hope and Whati will be constructed. Work on the seniors facilities in Aklavik, Fort McPherson and Fort Liard was started in 2014-15.

o

An additional 36 market rental units will be

added as part of the overall initiative to add 100 market rentals in smaller communities to support service delivery.

o

Energy investments in 2015-16 are

expected to total $3.4 million, including photovoltaic solar systems for units in Whati, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells and Lutselk’e.

• In 2015-16 we will continue to strengthen our

relationship with our local housing organizations through the implementation of the initiative to improve community housing services. We plan to spend $54.4 million in 2015-16 on community housing services.

o

Specifically, this initiative has changed the

roles and responsibilities of the LHOs and the NWTHC. It was implemented on April 1, 2014, and we continue to work with our partners to improve service delivery. These overall improvements are reflected in our public housing rent collection, which reached 97 percent for 2013-14.

o

As part of the initiative, we are opening new

LHO offices in Fort Liard, Whati and Gameti which will improve services and add local jobs.

o

Overall, these main estimates include

funding for 128 positions in LHOs. In addition to this, we are increasing the number of apprentices supported through the LHOs from 10 to 15.

o

In 2015-16 we will continue to work in

partnership with low- and modest-income homeowners to support repairs and preventative maintenance and to help residents that need some additional support to purchase a home. We plan to spend $7 million on homeownership programs in 2015-16.

o

There have been a number of changes we

have made in recent years to improve our homeownership programs.

o

During the current fiscal year we are

providing supports to about 350 low- and modest-income homeowners for repairs and preventative maintenance.

o

In 2015-16 we will introduce CARE -

Mobility as part of our major repair program. CARE - Mobility will target support for seniors and other residents that require modifications to their home to address mobility and other issues related to the disability of a household member.

• In 2015-16 we will continue to strengthen our

programming related to homelessness. As Members know, the NWTHC activities are just part of the overall support as homelessness is addressed through the activities of a number of departments within the GNWT.

o

For the NWTHC, these main estimates

result in increasing programming related to addressing homelessness from $325,000 at the start of the 17th Assembly to $855,000

for 2015-16.

o

Current programs support direct assistance

to homeless persons or persons at risk of becoming homeless, community-based initiatives that address homelessness, capital improvements to existing shelters, and the operation of four transition houses in smaller NWT communities.

o

In 2015-16 the NWTHC will add $150,000 to

support implementation of a Housing First approach in Yellowknife. This work will be coordinated with the GNWT Integrated Case Management Project and the work being done by the Yellowknife Community Advisory Board on homelessness.

Finally, I would again like to thank Members for their advice and support as the NWT Housing Corporation has introduced considerable changes over the past few years, and I look forward to continuing to work with Members as we work towards the goal of all NWT residents having access to affordable, adequate and suitable housing.

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

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Do you have witnesses you’d like to bring into the House?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Does committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Mr. McLeod, can you please introduce your witnesses for the record?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right I have Mr. David Stewart, president of the NWT Housing Corporation, to my left is Mr. Jeff Anderson, vice-president of finance and infrastructure of the NWT Housing Corporation. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Committee, I will remind everyone that the items under Housing Corporation are items only. Members may, of course, ask questions on these items. We will open it up to general comments. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see a lot of expenditures going to the communities, which is great. I know the elders facility in Fort McPherson did go out to tender. I haven’t heard the latest on when the work is scheduled to begin, but I would like to get that information.

Also, as I mentioned a number of times, there’s a huge demand for housing in the small communities, Aklavik, Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic. As we move forward, I know our government is trying to attract people to our territory. In order for people to live here, we need places to stay. As we move forward, we have to ensure that there are houses in the communities for people to stay. Right now, we are at capacity in the communities. We have a

waiting list of up to three to five years in some cases. Young families, young people who want to begin a family, it’s really needed. As we move forward in the next few years, I’d like to see this government start planning and implementing new units in the communities. It’s great to see multiplex units going into the communities. It’s really appreciated, but we need more. There are more young, single people out there who need a place to start their own life. I have been getting a number of concerns about that as I have been travelling to the communities.

As we move forward, also, there are a number of elders who have explained that they have a two- or three-bedroom that’s not needed. They would like to have a one-bedroom place because it’s easier for them to get around. With that, we do need to build a number of multiplex units in the communities.

As we move forward, as well, Mr. Chair, the CARE program is working and is very helpful in the communities, the same with HELP. A number of people are very satisfied with this program. As we move forward, I’m looking forward to that carrying on and seeing more homeowners in the territory.

If the Minister could just give a little update on the status of the facility in Aklavik and when they plan to open that as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, the contract in McPherson has been awarded and my understanding is they are going to start the work this summer. The one in Aklavik, they are doing a great job on it. It should be opened in late spring. It should be completed in late spring. So we are looking forward to seeing how that rolls out.

Some of the Member’s comments, he was talking about the units in the communities. We recognize that we need places to stay in communities. It’s one of the reasons this government has committed $21 million over three years to put an additional 100 market rental units in the communities. I think that is going to go a long way to addressing some of our housing needs in the communities. We are doing replacement units right now and we keep saying we are challenged by the declining CMHC funding. We have been using that for a reason for a number of years, which is the truth. We are fortunate that our government has stepped up to the plate and I think they’ve contributed an additional $2.5 million to the NWT Housing Corporation to offset some of the declining CMHC funding. That’s a challenge that we face right now, but we feel with some of the programs that we have, with HELP and trying to transition more people out of public housing into homeownership, then that would free up more public housing units, because there’s always going to be a need for public housing units.

The elders, in many cases we have elders that will be in a particular public housing unit for 40, 45 years, pretty well since it was built. We’ve heard the concerns and we’ve actually kept many of these elders in their units because they just don’t want to move. There are some that do want to move to smaller units and we try and accommodate them. But for the most part, we try to keep the elders in a unit that they’ve pretty well had since the unit was built back in the ‘70s. We’re challenged on both sides, but we would like to get many of them into smaller units if that is their wish.

I think I’ve touched on all the Member’s points, and if I missed any, I’m sure the Member will remind me.

Thank you. A number of years back, I think it was in the mid ‘80s or so, there was the HAP program. A number of people took advantage of that in the communities. Residents were given the opportunity for materials and it was up them to either put in labour or a lot of them constructed their own houses throughout the territory in all the communities. There are a lot of people out there that would like to see a similar program like that moving forward. Are the Minister and the department looking at that sort of program in the near future?

The quick answer is no, we’re not looking at that particular type of program. It was a very successful program when it ran. We were able to get many people into homeownership units and some of them are still in there. Many of these units, through some of our other repair programs we’ve actually paid for all of the renovations to these units. I think at the time it was the right program at the right time and it did, I think, transition a lot of people out of public housing into their own homes. Off hand, I can’t think of how many we did across the Northwest Territories, these HAP units. There were a number of them that were done, but some of them are still there. Some of them were turned back over to the NWT Housing Corporation because people realized, once they were in there, that they had to pay all their own utilities and it got to be quite costly. I think that’s a minority though. I think the majority of them managed to keep up their units pretty good. Now, through our CARE program, we’re renovating a lot of those units that they basically got for free during the HAP days. It’s not something that we’re looking at any time soon.

Next on my list I have Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m wondering if the Minister can answer how many new units will the NWT Housing Corporation be putting on the ground and can he provide a list of those locations.