Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to focus my Member's statement on the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's need for a new approach to meeting the housing needs in our smaller communities.
My colleagues have heard me speak of the Extended Downpayment Assistance Program as being essentially useless to the communities I represent. The gap between who the corporation will support and what the banks will offer in the way of mortgages means that there are viable, potential homeowners who cannot realize their dreams.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, the decision to withdraw social housing funding by the federal government is patently unfair to the North. The decision that the aboriginal residents of the Northwest Territories are not eligible for any of the millions of dollars that the CMHC and DIAND make available for on-reserve housing is also unfair to northern aboriginals.
It is time, Mr. Speaker, time to change the policies of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to meet the fiscal and political realities that we face in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, community control over the programs offered in the community is paramount. Who is the corporation to dictate to a community what kind of housing is appropriate to the community, or how the funding should be spent? Communities must be able to decide whether they should continue to build one or two stick-built houses each year, or use that same money to build a four-plex, or four or five modular homes.
Mr. Speaker, there are many barriers to meeting the housing needs in the smaller communities. Some of the barriers are economic, some are political and some are the fault of the policies and practices of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Policies that state that modular homes and trailers cannot be used to provide social housing may no longer be realistic. I cannot stand by and watch two or three generations live in the same overcrowded stick-built house, when I know that it is going to be four or five years before the situation can be alleviated.
That is the reality in the communities without a viable housing market. I no longer believe that the economic gains and the short-term jobs are worth it, given the overcrowding and desperate core need. If the community decides that trailers would better meet their core social housing needs, so be it.
The Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation has already committed to looking to aboriginal development corporations to build social housing and leaseback to the Housing Corporation. This is a good idea and should be followed up on. I will be asking questions on this issue today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause
