Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by the Member for Yellowknife Centre on February 22, 2018, regarding the housing core need action plan.
The estimated $20 million of planned activities for 2018-2019 will be resourced from the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's 2018-2019 Capital Plan, the base funded programs included in the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's 2018-2019 Main Estimates, and available internal cash resources realized from sources such as the sale of housing assets, mortgage collection efforts, and any residual budget surpluses. A current assessment of the available internal cash resources was undertaken during the development of the 2018-2019 Corporate Plan and will continue to be assessed as part of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's annual business planning process.
The planned investments set out in the "Towards Level Ground: Addressing Persistent Core Need in the Northwest Territories" report were identified, taking into account the feedback received from the Housing Engagement Survey and the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's available resources.
Specific areas of core need will be addressed through a variety of Northwest Territories Housing Corporation initiatives and programs. The following are approximate projected numbers of households to be assisted by initiative: emergency repair - 348; seniors Aging in Place retrofits - 150; new unit construction - 135; major homeownership repairs - 84; rent supplement programs - 100; policy renewal - 40; lease-to-own repairs - 90; public housing portfolio rebalancing - 30; new seniors' housing - 40; housing support pilot - 20; new home program - 11; community housing support initiative - 10; Habitat for Humanity - 3; Sahtu homeless shelter - 4; and Northern Pathways - 12.
Recognizing that a number of the planned investments set out in this plan involve territory-wide application-based programs as well as a draft future year capital plan, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is unable to provide an exact regional breakdown of these investments at this time. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is planning to include in its annual corporate plan a status report of each of the plan's initiatives, including actual spending by region.
The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's 2018-2019 Main Estimates includes a $600,000 funding allocation to the Rent Supplement Program. Recognizing that the historical utilization rate of this program has been approximately 40 percent of that amount, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation considers the current base budget adequate at this time. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation will continue to assess the results of the new program and explore opportunities to align with upcoming federal programming. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
