Yes, the Housing Corporation is actually, the reason that we’re putting out the survey is to identify within each community what they define as their priorities because we do recognize that one size does not fit all and we need to take more of a community focus within our housing programs. We are open to looking at every program that we currently provide and other options that the communities may put forward.

Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister has there been any discussion with her senior officials at the Housing Corporation towards developing a plan for what we’ve been talking about through the mandate, aging-in-place for seniors. Thank you.

Yes, the senior management within the NWT Housing Corp. also recognize the aging-in-place for seniors issue is huge and that we need to address it. We are taking a really proactive approach to actually providing housing so that people can age in place.

Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the challenges of housing faced by the residents of the Northwest Territories and so did many of my colleagues. My questions, of course, are for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, in its 2008 audit of the NWT Housing Corporation, the Auditor General said, “we believe that good planning and relevant performance measures will assist the Corporation to identify and address its challenges, engage the corporation’s progress in meeting the housing needs of all Northwest Territories’ residents.” Can the Minister explain, what are the key components of the department’s approach currently to improving housing in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The key component to addressing housing within the NWT at this point for the NWT Housing Corporation is to utilize the community survey that we will be sending out to identify the needs within each community and developing our plan based on each community’s identified priorities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for her reply. Mr. Speaker, is the department’s work on improving housing still being guided by its April 2012 strategic framework document?

At this point, the strategic plan is actually expired, so we’re looking to do the new plan and then of course the surveys will be utilized to develop our new plan.

Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to work with communities to make sure land is accessible for developing more housing?

The NWT Housing Corporation land section works a year in advance to identify the land needs for the following year’s projects. One of the strategies we also use is the buildings that need to be demolished. We consider that when we’re looking at new buildings, and so often we’ll take out a unit to put in a new unit within that, on that land.

Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for her reply. Lastly, Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to reduce dependence on public housing and to promote independent home ownership, particularly in the non-market communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We do have a program currently, called the PATH program that is providing assistance to territorial home ownership programs, that people can actually purchase homes within the communities. There’s different rates depending on the community. We do an assessment of the building, based on the community and then the, I mean, sometimes actually the units are actually given just for the land costs. We’re revisiting that as well because we do recognize that very soon the operating and maintenance money, CMHC funding, will be expiring. We need to come up with a plan. We’re kind of looking at ideas around more home ownership programs and just seeing if we can work within the different communities to help them to give them the infrastructure so that they can take more ownership upon their own.

Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Housing First Program includes providing participating clients with what has been termed wraparound services. Discussions have been had between the Department of Health and Social Services and the City of Yellowknife, where the City of Yellowknife has clarified that the intent of their Housing First proposal it to have 24/7 supervision and support of clients on site. That does not mean or does not include on-site clinical services 24/7. The Department of Health and Social Services has committed both publicly and in meetings with the City to ensure that all required clinical supports be made available to all Housing First clients through the City's proposed Housing First program. These may include medical treatment, mental health services, addictions counselling, or addictions treatment. All of these are insured services, Mr. Speaker, and are core programs and they're available to all residents of the Northwest Territories. As far as costing, if demand for the services by the Housing First clients results in financial pressures for the system, this will be addressed through the business planning process. But at this time, we're not anticipating any additional costs because the City's planning to ramp up their Housing First from a low intake in the beginning to I think it's up to 20 by the end of the program. We'll have time to figure out what those costs will be. If there is a desire to provide some additional on-site clinical services, this is something that we may also have to have some additional conversation about incremental funding on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for the answer. How will the department be reviewing the provision of these services to ensure that they're provided in a timely manner and are effectively supporting the program?

Mr. Speaker, that's going to really involve what the RFP ends up coming back looking like that the city has currently issued. From there, we'll be able to have the conversation on how we're going to continue or enhance the services that we're providing, and as I said, some of this might involve some on-site outreach, which we're absolutely open to doing once we've quantified what it's going to look like. Until we know that, we don't really know what it's going to look like. We're looking forward to having those conversations with the city so that we can build a model here in cooperation with the city that works and is effective.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister willing to commit, at this point, to providing additional health resources or funding, as required, to support this program moving forward?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated we don't believe, at this time, it's going to take some additional funding. We need to actually get into the program with the City of Yellowknife to figure out how it's going to roll out. As the demand ramps up, we might require some additional funding, at which point we are going to come back to the business planning process and have that discussion with committee. Mr. Speaker, the department was an active participant at the April homelessness community partnership forum and is participating in the two different working groups that were mentioned in this House previously. One of the working groups, under the leadership of the city, is sorting through recommendations from the forum to identify priorities, cost out the priorities and establish a roadmap moving forward. We're clearly a part of that, as is the Housing Corp., as is the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we will certainly be working together. There are some areas for critical action and we would be happy to discuss those with committee as we move forward.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.