EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
However, the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2009-2010 business plan did not address the public housing rent scale and it was apparent to members that it has not been revised in a number of years.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s draft 2010-13 business plan indicates that one of its priorities for the coming year is to “work with senior department officials to begin a process for reviewing and updating the Rent Scale.”
During the minister’s appearance before the standing committee, members requested an update on this issue.
The minister indicated that the Nunavut Housing Corporation has assigned staff to review the issue and that a plan should be completed by the winter sitting of the Legislative Assembly.
Last fall, all Members of the Legislative Assembly agreed that comprehensive reviews of the public housing rent scale and the income support program are required.
Members noted that these reviews should focus on identifying and removing disincentives to enter the workforce.
Given the importance of this issue, the standing committee looks forward to the minister keeping the Legislative Assembly fully updated on the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s work in this area.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2010-13 business plan indicates that one of its priorities has been to “Strengthen LHO financial management by the NHC taking over the direct payment of the non-controllable utility expenses for LHOs and allowing them to dedicate their resources to increased internal financial management on administration, maintenance and collection of rents.”
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s business plan also indicates that it has “developed a centralized direct payment process and is now making direct payments for non-controllable utility expenses on behalf of the LHOs.
However, the NHC is continuing to populate the database.”
The standing committee looks forward to updates on the success of this initiative, which the Nunavut Housing Corporation anticipates to be completed this year.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2007-08 annual report indicated that a total of $6,148,000 was spent on homeowner programs in 2007-08.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s draft 2010-13 business plan indicates that the corporation has “completed its review of existing homeownership program policies and procedures and has developed a new Homeownership Programs Manual in support of the current homeownership programs that are being delivered.
This manual will assist the NHC Programs Staff in the efficient, effective, equitable delivery and administration of the NHC’s Homeownership Programs.” Members recognize that the corporation’s budget for homeownership programs is primarily funded through its annual capital estimates.
Members encourage the minister to table the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s new Homeownership Programs Manual in the Legislative Assembly.
In recent years, the Department of Community and Government Services and the Nunavut Housing Corporation initiated water and sewage pilot projects in three communities.
The 2009-2010 business plan of the Department of Community and Government Services indicated that “The three original pilot communities were not satisfied with the block funding terms and conditions implemented by the designated project sponsor; the participating communities decided that they no longer wanted to be involved.
During the minister’s recent appearance before the standing committee, members questioned why the communities decided not to participate in the projects.
The minister informed the committee that the Nunavut Housing Corporation is not opposed to the idea of revisiting the concept behind the pilot projects.
However, it remains unclear exactly why the corporation and the Department of Community and Government Services have been unsuccessful in working together to deliver these pilot projects.
The standing committee recommends that the Nunavut Housing Corporation and Community and Government Services work together on this issue and looks forward to the minister reporting to the Legislative Assembly on this initiative.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2009-2010 business plan indicated that “In March 2009, responsibility for the homelessness file was transferred from the Department of Education to the NHC.
The Corporation is in the process of preparing a framework to establish a Homelessness Secretariat.” $200,000 was budgeted by the Nunavut Housing Corporation for this function in 2009-2010.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s draft 2010-13 business plan indicates that the Nunavut Housing Corporation is “researching homelessness governing structures and models from other jurisdictions.
Development and implementation of a governing structure is expected to be completed early 2010.”
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s draft 2010-11 main estimates have allocated $400,000 for the establishment of the Homelessness Secretariat.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my opening comments on the 2010-11 main estimates and 2010-13 business plan of the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Do my colleagues have any general comments before we move on?
It seems like no one has their hand up.
I’m sorry. Mr. Schell has a comment to make. Mr. Schell.
On page 1, it was noted that the GN 2008-09 annual report on departmental contracting, procurement and leasing activities weren’t tabled until December 7 and these reports have not included information on the procurement, contracting and leasing activities of the Crown corporation agencies.
I guess my question is: when will the minister commit to tabling the report of the corporation’s contracting, procurement and leasing activities in the leg.?
Minister Tootoo, would you like to respond?
The corporation has provided a copy of our 2007-08 contracting and procurement practices, a list of them all, and I had committed that I would check. They’re working on finalizing with someone who can fill them out to finish up the 2008-09 one.
So I’m hoping to be able to be in a position this June, so I’ll probably be able to table them during the fall sitting if we don’t get it before our spring sitting.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Schell, do you have additional comments?
I’m going back to the staff housing. You mentioned in your opening comments that you’re going to be eliminating them in communities, in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay, but they’re still going to have them in the other communities.
But of course, we all know there is always a shortage of staff housing.
What I had mentioned to the finance minister in question period today was that maybe if they gave an incentive for people owning their own homes and if they give them a little bit more of a subsidy or whatever for owning their own homes, maybe they could solve the problem of staff housing.
Has the minister discussed this with the Department of Finance?
There are a number of programs that we have dealing with homeownership, like the Downpayment Assistance Program, the HERP program, and a bunch of different programs.
As far as trying to develop that more, I said that we would be reviewing all of our programs.
I think some of the information that we will be able to use in reviewing our programs to see if they’re meeting the objectives set out for them is we will get some of the results and responses that we have in the survey that will give us more information to more accurately tailor our programs in the future.
I’m going back to page 4 where it was mentioned that there were three pilot projects done on the water and sewer and that there was kind of a disagreement or it fell apart between the Department of Community and Government Services and the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
I’m just wondering if CG&S and the Housing Corporation have gotten together to try to work out a plan that will work to satisfy both of them.
Chairman (interpretation): Minister Tootoo, would you like to try and respond to the question?
I believe I committed that we would move forward on that.
I think the issue in the past is where I said that the corporation was in favour, but we didn’t want to move forward until we had solid information in order to base our decision on.
It’s my understanding that we still haven’t received that information from Community and Government Services.
That is something that I’m sure was brought up in Community and Government Services when they were in Committee of the Whole and here again too.
So that will be something that we will be pursuing with them to be able to look at if they can provide us with the information and reports to support the program.
If that information is there, then we would take a look it with them.
We will now proceed to the page-by-page review of the departmental estimates starting with page L-3.
Are there any questions? Mr. Rumbolt.
We talk about homeownership and stuff, but we also have, throughout our territory, a lot of people who own their own homes and they want to sell their homes.
As far as I know, there is no certified home inspector in Nunavut.
I wonder if the minister feels that there should be a home inspector in Nunavut so that they can inspect homes that are being sold private individuals.
I thank Mr. Rumbolt for raising that.
That’s a question that has been brought to me for a number of years now.
I know, for example, here in Iqaluit, the city was looking at hiring a building inspector.
I know in the south, it’s all private sector individuals who get the training required to do that as well as the insurance to go along with it.
When I was sitting on this side of the House, I was asking those questions, talking to the government officials, and then at that time, the issue with having someone who works for the government go around and do these is a potential liability issue.
I know individuals who are set up in that profession with the training who do have the insurance to go along with it that covers them is something that I don’t believe that we would be able to do.
So if a person wants to sell his home and no matter what the condition it’s in, if it’s unfit to be in structurally, there is nothing safeguarding the potential buyer from coming back and… I don’t know. It seems kind of weird that we don’t have somebody in place in our territory that can inspect homes.
I’m wondering if there’s any way the government could entertain or somehow see if there’s a way that we can get one that’s available to Nunavummiut if needed.
Chairman: Very good question, Mr. Rumbolt.
I think it is something that is needed.
As I said, this is an issue that’s been brought to my attention a number of times over the last number of years.
As far as how to go about getting that set up, I think there are restrictions that require certain types of training and the biggest thing, I think, in that profession is having the liability.
If they certify a building and something’s wrong with it, and they come back after that individual in the future, that’s where they have the insurance to go along with it.
That’s something that I think would present a challenge to GN staff going around and doing that.
I think that’s something that we could explore, looking at trying to find ways, if there was a way, where we, as a government, could do that and just open up some discussions with the Minister of Community and Government Services.
They have all of the electrical inspectors, the fire marshal, and things like that.
So we could take an opportunity to sit and chat with them to see if that’s something that could be set up or what barriers are there to prevent us from moving in that direction.
I look forward to the minister updating us in the future on this issue.
I have a different question. During our standing committee meeting, we asked you for a letter with the amount that was going to be used from the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s operating capital to facilitate the building of a warehouse or the acquiring of a warehouse for the Iqaluit Housing Authority.
Your response was that it would cost $4.75 million of money that you would be taking from your working capital and at the same time, none of your programs seem to be decreasing in dollar value.
How come the Housing Corporation has all of this extra money in their working capital?
Just like cash in the bank and interest that’s earned on people, there are some programs we inherited where people are paying mortgages to the corporation and that’s where the money comes in. It’s something that was part of the division of assets and liabilities in 1999. Part of that came along with money in the bank for the Housing Corporation on that.
So it’s outside of what’s voted on and what we have in our budgets, if that’s what the member is alluding to. Hopefully that answers his question.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister Tootoo. Mr. Rumbolt.
I’ll just change to a different question. During the hearings of the Auditor General, it indicated that there was between $11 million and $12 million in outstanding rental arrears across the territory. Do we have an updated figure on what it is today?
If I get this correct, that’s the reserve rate, which I assume is for doubtful accounts, basically, or bad debts, it’s around nine million dollars.
Chairman: $2 million less, so that’s a little better.
It’s nice to see that that number is decreasing. This is kind of a different question, I guess. When it comes to private homeowners in a community, I kind of did a small survey within our own community and it seems that close to half of the people do not have insurance on their own homes.
I pretty well know that the Housing Corporation has a second mortgage probably on half of the homes in the community that are privately owned. Is the Housing Corporation doing anything to protect their assets? Technically, it’s still a Housing Corporation asset until the mortgage is forgiven over a period of time.
The member raises a good point. As a second mortgage holder, second in line if something happened, part of the agreement that the corporation has with individuals is that they require insurance.
The first mortgage holder, being whatever financial institution that the mortgage is through, would require those individuals to have insurance as well as part of their mortgage.
What does your department do to enforce the fact that they should have insurance? What are your monitoring procedures to make sure that they have insurance and what do you do in cases where they don’t?
The member raises a good issue.
I think in the past, even to now, we rely on the interest of the first mortgage holder, being the financial institutions, to monitor and that. If we get something from them that would indicate that someone didn’t, then we would pursue it. Our staff would require them to get the required insurance on their home.
The main reason I’m big on this insurance issue is because if something happens in the community where one of these houses catch fire and they lose the house, automatically, these people are going to have no choice but to move into public housing and it’s going to further the burden of public housing issues.
All of the fires in Iqaluit recently, I am assuming they just moved to more public housing.
If it happens in the communities, we’re going to have the same issue.
So it’s kind of important that we stress insurance to the homeowners.
It’s another reason why I was questioning Income Support on providing some kind of assistance to individuals who are in their own homes and on income support.
I was hoping that Income Support would look at supporting paying a portion of their insurance on their houses.
Again, it’s because of the fact of protecting our assets.
So anything that your department can do and talk with other departments to ensure that these homeowners have some kind of insurance on their properties would be greatly needed for sure.
Minister Tootoo, would you like to try and respond to the question?
The member raises a very valid point and issue, and I will commit to the member and to the Members of this House that I will direct or ask our homeownership program people to review our files and follow up with the clients out there to ensure that insurance is in place.
I know in the past, there were cases where if individuals had insurance and then for some reason, it got cancelled, the lien holders would get notified. I’m pretty sure it’s like that with the banks. If the insurance gets cancelled for whatever reason, then they’re notified and then that puts them on notice to go after that client to make sure that they get the appropriate insurance in place.
Like I said, I’ll commit to have our staff review those files and check it out.
Going back to the building inspectors to inspect existing homes for private individuals, the minister had mentioned that there could be a liability issue.
I just don’t understand why the government can’t get insurance just like lawyers and accountants do for making mistakes. I’m sure that they must have some type of insurance when they inspect their own buildings if something goes wrong, then it’s covered. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I know our staff who go around and do inspections or technical staff who look at our units, I would say and I don’t believe that there’s anything out there to cover them if they make a mistake other than we end up having to pay to fix that mistake.
The issue of liability, when it extends to a non-GN or non-Housing Corporation asset, if you have a staff member from the Housing Corporation or if it was the Housing Corporation going in and doing an inspection, or if it was someone from Community and Government Services going in and doing an inspection on a non-owned asset or someone else’s private home, that could open up the liability to come back without that individual having the building inspector training.
I guess there’s probably some type of a certificate that’s required in training to be able to perform those inspections.
I think what the member is also asking is: is there a certain standard required of home inspectors today?
By the sounds of it, anybody can open up a shop and then get money to pretend to inspect, perhaps, and then the homeowner is left with a major mortgage and real potential defects in the home. So maybe that’s what the member is also referring to. Minister Tootoo, do you want to follow that up?
Like anything, if someone’s an engineer, a lawyer, or a doctor, they have their own association or group that regulates and monitors them.
My understanding, I believe, is that there is a homeowner inspectors association that set the standards in the south for individuals, if they wish to enter into that field, that they have to demonstrate that they have the appropriate training and experience to meet the standards set by the association to be able to be certified to be a house inspector.
Maybe I’ll ask Mr. Barriault if he can add to that, if he likes.
Chairman: Monsieur Barriault.
Mr. Barriault: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In many provinces and other jurisdictions within Canada, it is a self-regulated industry.
Typically, a building inspector or a home inspector would obtain errors and omissions insurance. Depending on what kind of training and work experience they can demonstrate to the insurance company that will be providing the coverage will affect, of course, what they pay for that insurance.
That insurance is available, but it can be costly if you’re not affiliated with some kind of a certification agency.
Some jurisdictions as well do provide home inspection certification through the Building Officials Association, which is usually the same body that would issue municipal building permits.
So there’s inconsistency throughout Canada in a way that it’s approached, but there is more than one way to go about it.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Any further questions?
Will the Housing Corporation look at ways of doing it, whatever it takes, and figure out if there is a way of getting an inspector here in the north to do it that is affiliated with somebody down south that is obviously qualified and is going to be able to get a reasonable insurance rate?
I believe I had indicated earlier to Mr. Rumbolt that I would discuss the issue with the Minister of Community and Government Services to see what obstacles are in our way from being able to move forward on something like this or how we can do it.
I do agree with both Mr. Schell and Mr. Rumbolt that this is a very important issue.
In some cases, you could have individuals buying a lemon house, if you want to call it that.
When you buy a car, it’s called a lemon because it’s always breaking down. If individuals don’t know what they’re looking for or what to look for when they’re purchasing a house, sometimes you could have them buying a house with lots of problems that they’re not aware about until after. So I do agree that it is something that is desperately needed.
I know that in Iqaluit here, it’s a municipal issue.
They have been looking, in the past, at hiring an inspector to do that. I would assume that it’s through their permitting lands and development section in the city. Like I said, I will discuss it with the Minister of Community and Government Services to see if we can find a way to move forward on this.
On September 18 of last year, you and the housing ministers of NWT and Yukon announced that you were looking forward to meeting with the federal Minister responsible for Housing before the end of the year.
What commitments do you and other territorial housing ministers realistically hope to attain from the federal government?
I must say that we did meet with CMHC Minister Finley just in December.
I think the commitment we got out of her at the time… as this was the first time that the federal ministers and federal officials have been at the table in four years, I think it was a good move to one, get her there and we had a commitment to continue working together.
She acknowledged that the housing across the country is an issue not just for the individual provinces and territories to worry about but it’s something that we do need to look at and work in partnership with all levels of government to try and help address that issue.
We have been saying for the three territories that we would like to see some type of new funding arrangement for housing across the north. The old way of doing things, it just hasn’t worked up here.
The little piecemeal allocation of funding, we know it’s a challenge for us to be able to plan for that.
We have been pushing for some type of a stable, long-term commitment of funding so that we could capitalize on that.
For planning purposes, everything from lot development, you know, when you’re rushing at the last minute to develop lots, you pay a premium for that.
So if we know over time that we are going to have let’s say a five-year commitment or whatever, then we can better plan on how to follow through with the delivery throughout the territory.
So those are some the things that we’re working on and we’re hoping to be able to move forward with.
I know that there has been a lot of good will, I think, on behalf of the federal government. We have seen $100 million coming through the stimulus package.
I think they have seen the economic impact of that not only here in the territory but also in the southern jurisdictions, as well as it is a fact that everything that all three territories buy to build houses comes from southern provinces.
I’m going to go back to the staff housing issue. When the GN announced its new staff housing strategy in 2005, it indicated that it was going to withdraw from funding staff housing in places like Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, and Cambridge Bay over the next five years and in ten years, it was going to probably eliminate it altogether.
Is this still the government’s plan?
In your draft, 2010-13 business plan, it indicates that one of Nunavut Housing Corporation’s priorities for 2010-11 is to “develop a Staff Housing Strategy.”
Does this mean that the government is considering making changes to its staff housing policy that was announced in 2005? If so, what changes are being considered?
As the chairman of the standing committee pointed out in 2008, basically, the government of the day froze that policy in place where it was and rolled it back to the 2007 levels and that’s where it’s staying.