Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll have vice-president Jim Martin respond. Thank you.

Mr. Martin.

Mahsi for that. Member for Monfwi.

Yes, thank you for the information, because I was just wondering what was happening over there, you know, from 313, because in the small communities we have a lot of issues with mortgage. We have -- there's a lot of people that have mortgage and a lot of them they had to refinance agreement. And some of these mortgage are old. You know, like they're over 20 years old and they're still on their books. And they were recently refinanced. And I just wanted to ask the Minister -- and they did some -- they forgave some of the arrears before. Why not do the same with the mortgage arrears? Will the Minister commit to forgiving the old outstanding mortgages from ten to 20 years ago? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do follow a process when we are forgiving our debts as well too. We do have to follow FMB. I'll have vice-president Jim Martin respond as we do forgive some of these accounts annually. Thank you.

Mr. Martin.

Mahsi. Member for Monfwi.

Yes, thank you. I know I spoke in this House before regarding the BDIC, and they do forgive millions and millions of dollars of business loans. And why not do the same for the housing -- those who have outstanding mortgage or the old mortgage, you know, and I think across the territory there's like 247 outstanding old mortgages. If they can do a write-off, they can do it. It's just that they're not -- they're not making an effort to do it. That's how we feel because a lot of people are asking. And some of the people were saying -- or they said to me that, from the outlying communities, they told us that we live in a house for 15 years and it's ours and we're still paying mortgage. Some of those people have been paying faithfully, you know. And so that's a concern for them. And a lot of them they want to get out of the mortgage; they want it to be written off because they're old mortgage. And so even some are saying too that for lease to own -- I think this has to do with some of the administration too as well. But some of them were told if you're a good tenant for at least five years, no arrears, etcetera, we will do lease to own. So and some of those people they're still paying faithfully, and they don't have arrears, and they're still waiting for the North Slave district office call them to do the mortgage agreement.

And they say we're tired of paying this mortgage or this rent. We're still waiting for them to come and they're having -- you know, we're still waiting. How long we have to wait? How long are we going to wait, because they've been living in there for many years. So I know the administration needs to do a better job at the North Slave district office or at the executive office. They need to get in contact with the people because it's mostly that, that it's an outstanding agreement that we're verbally promised ten to 15 years ago. And people are saying we can't keep paying rent. And they've been in those units for many years. Not only that, I have some constituents that apply for the homeownership program through NWT Housing. So some of those tenants that are living in the mortgage -- or in a rental unit, they apply, and they were told -- they were denied based on the income, income threshold, because they were told that they're making too much money.

And another couple applied, they say they were -- they told them that you're -- your income threshold is low. And many of these people, like they're working. Some of them are two income and it's hard to maintain to meet -- because of the high cost of living in the small community, especially in the small communities, that it's hard -- it's difficult because of the increase in fuel, groceries, and on top of that the rent. And many of them are paying max rent. I have a constituent that are like for three years they pay like $109,000 in rent. And I think that should be taken into consideration for them to be homeowners. And it's not just them. There are a lot of other ones too in my community who are -- who have been living in these units for almost 20 years and are paying the same thing, and they probably paid over $500,000. That's what a -- based on their rent and they have all the documents and everything. And they don't have a major arrears but they still cannot get an agreement in place. So they're still waiting for them to come.

So I just wanted to ask the Minister that will they commit to contact and work with these people to be homeowners because she said that there was 52 applicants received. How many of those are from Tlicho region? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I hear where the Member is coming from as well too, and I found this an area that I would have liked to concentrate on immediately. And there's so many different areas that we've been trying to work on within the portfolio. But the outstanding mortgages is one of them, and what I've learned to see is that we do look at refinancing. We do look at trying to work with the client and trying to forgive the interest is one of the bigger barriers that we're able to kind of be successful with the client on. I'm just going to have vice-president Jim Martin speak about the forgiveness of debts as well and how much we've forgiven over the lifetime of this government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Martin.

Mahsi for that. Any further questions from the Members on this section? Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm not quite sure this is the exact section to ask this but since it's about infrastructure services, I'll go ahead. What's the policy on smoking tobacco and cannabis in public housing? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right now we don't have a policy that addresses smoking in our units. But through the strategic renewal, we will be addressing this issue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So the strategic renewal has been going on for at least a year, maybe a couple years. What are the options that the housing corporation is looking at and when is this process going to be finished, at least in terms of the smoking policy? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This has been brought up to us, and we are aware of it. But there's work that's being done on this policy and also looking at the high traffic areas as well. And hopefully we're able to address those too within the lifetime of this government. But we do have 42 policies that will be brought forward and tabled April 1st. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.