Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in my opening remarks, I spoke about the need for transformative change by the Housing Corporation to meet the needs of people in the Northwest Territories for social housing. What we know is that the core need rates are fairly steady over time. We also know that the waiting lists are fairly substantial and not going down. We also know that the number of seniors in the NWT is forecast to increase by 40 per cent over the next seven years. As I spoke about earlier today in my statement, there will be a big need for social housing for many of those people. How is the Housing Corporation going to reduce core need in housing in the NWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do recognize that there is a huge need to provide seniors' housing, so we are looking at that. For many years, we focused on multi-family units. We are looking at continuing with multi-family, but also looking at singles' units that will work with seniors, as well. We are looking at seniors' market rental units so that we can actually have combined seniors' units, and that will bring in some income. So, it will be a combined seniors' centre that has some market rental units that people can afford and some public housing, which would supplement that, as well.

Like I have said many times, currently, for over 20 years, at $22,000 on average per public house, that is $220,000 every 10 years we are providing to keep someone in public housing. If we can move people who have the skills and the financial means into home ownership, we will be able to address our core need by actually having more people in home ownership and being able to reinvest money into public housing units to meet the need. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I realize that my initial question was quite a large question, so I will break it down into a bit more detail. Not only are there not enough units for seniors, there are not enough units for families, either. We know that the core housing need for the size of the home is at very high levels in some communities. I can think, off the top of my head, of a couple of the Tlicho communities that have very high core need based on the size of the house. What is the plan to provide more units in all the different ways that there is a demand for social housing? Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

I just asked the question. You need to ask the Minister. Thank you.

I apologize. It is been a long few weeks. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It would have been interesting to have the Member actually answer that question, though, and just kind of see her input.

---Laughter

So to address the whole issue of core need, like I say, we are looking internally to see if we can be more effective, more efficient with our current programs. If it makes sense to move people out, we are trying to do training programs so that, out of 200 houses, we don't have to fix 108 windows every year. We are trying to train people so that they can actually maintain their homes better. We are trying to look at home ownership versus public housing.

The other thing we are doing is we are really strongly lobbying the federal government, all three territories, actually, to not only have a tri-territorial housing strategy but also to address the declining CMHC funding, because, right across Canada, that is an issue that all provinces and territories are struggling with. So, united, cross-jurisdictional, all housing corporations are lobbying the federal government to do something about the declining CMHC funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I might have given an answer that was similar, as a matter of fact. I think that it is important to recognize that social housing is for people who have low to moderate incomes. It is my understanding that there are people living in public housing who have six-figure incomes. Public housing is not for that income group, so, if there is a way to move people on, I think that that would be very useful.

The other thing I want to address is affordability. Affordability is a big issue in Yellowknife, not so much in other places. People are in core need because they can't afford the rent. I know the Minister is keen to ditch the transitional rent supplement, so what other approaches might make housing more affordable for low-income people in Yellowknife? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just on affordability, within the market communities, we try not to compete with them when it comes to public housing units, so we are not going to flood the market and build a whole bunch of new public housing units when we actually have vacancies within communities. Like I said, I am not a fan of the transitional rent supplement program. It was not, in my opinion, an effective program. We did not give people the training that they needed to be able to get off after two years. So, instead of a transitional rent supplement program, perhaps we need to look at a rent supplement program versus transitional. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am a little unclear. I understand how the rent supplement program potentially could help with affordability. Are there other measures that might help with affordability? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is a question that I am hoping that will come out with more ideas within the survey. I don't have all the answers, but I am open to any feedback. If I do not see it in the survey, if the Members have ideas on how I could do that better, then I am more than open to hearing their feedback. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My final question is about the National Housing Strategy. I know the Minister and her colleagues in the other territories have been lobbying. What is your expectation about when the strategy and the dollars are going to be delivered? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That question is really hard to give a definitive answer to. I was expecting that there was going to be a federal announcement on the National Housing Initiative when it was National Housing Day. That never came to effect. I was hoping that the federal budget would have come in February; that has now been pushed to March. The only thing I do know is that they have committed to doing a tri-territorial housing strategy separate and we have been told that there should be funding coming with that, substantial. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. I see nothing further from Ms. Green. I have Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As my colleague mentioned earlier, give credit where credit is due. I know housing is a challenging department here, but with respect to one of the LHOs in my riding, I receive no more phone calls. So something must be done right by the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. McNeely. Minister.