EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
We want to make sure we’re helping homeowners that can’t afford to maintain their own homes and keeping those units usable because of the extreme shortage.
In addition to that, we do have the down-payment assistance program, which is really the only thing that would touch on new construction, potentially. It’s really that we provide 7.5 percent towards the down payment, we do require the client to pay 2.5 percent for a total 10 percent down payment.
That 10 percent down payment can be used to purchase an existing home, or they can coordinate the contractor and have something built and then use that 10 percent down to start a mortgage on a new home.
So the only way this would incite new construction is if they’re working with the contractor and putting the 10 percent down on a new home.
Mr. Mikkungwak: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to thank the minister and his official for the answer.
Thank you very much for that answer. It clarified the funding in reference to the homeownership program.
My next question here is in reference to the substantiation sheets under capital estimates. Fire damage replacement, I see drastic change in the amount. I see the drastic draw up.
My question here is: fire damage replacement, is that funding towards homeownership, public housing, or staff housing?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the member for that question.
It’s not for private homes.
The next on the list. Mr. Hickes.
I’m going to touch on something that my colleague from Baker Lake mentioned, is the modernization and improvement budget.
For Iqaluit it is $648,000.
I assume this is just for the actual labour and materials for the projects and that other core funding for the Iqaluit Housing Association is done separately.
But, in your discussions with the Iqaluit Housing Association, are they comfortable with the amount of funding that they are receiving?
During my campaign I saw a number of residences, that to me, are in dire need of retrofitting, to put it mildly and I didn’t see any, and I still haven’t seen any construction, that I have noticed, going on in majority of those residences.
So, with your discussions with IHA, is this funding sufficient to meet the demand?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would also like to thank my colleague for asking the question.
I know that NHT has been working with the Iqaluit Housing Authority. Whether the funding was approved for homeownership program, I have not discussed this matter, so I will have Ms. Kimball respond to that question, if you allow me, Mr. Chairman.
Through our condition rating system, we have identified that Iqaluit is actually one of the lowest condition ratings in the territory, in terms of the condition of the housing units in our public housing stock.
In consultation, as far as I understand, our issues have been more around getting affordable contractor work done, especially with the other opportunities that contractors have in the community.
It is one community where I have seen weather stripping quotes for $5,000, so that creates some challenges to contract out some of this work.
As far as I understand it, budget is not the factor. It’s really about coordinating and getting the work done.
Mr. Hickes: Thank you for that answer, Minister and Ms. Kimball.
So, what you’re saying is that, sorry, let me rephrase that.
With the current agreement with the IHA, from what I understand, they have a number of maintenance staff available to them to do some of this work, outside of the contract basis.
How do you find the fiscal and employment capacity to be able to meet the demand to renovate some of these homes, to make them a little bit more liveable?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the member for asking the question.
If you will allow me, Mr. Chairman, I would like Ms. Kimball to respond to that question.
We do have our technical folks in our district office working closely with the IHA/LHO, to try to come up with different alternatives as to how we can address that situation.
It is something that we are looking at and we are hopeful that we can find a solution to get some of that work done.
With the human capacity issue at IHA, I was very surprised to receive a letter a little over two months ago, which I believe the minister received a copy of as well, of the resignation of one of the board members, basically, on principle that he did not agree with the action of having to lay off four of their employees who deal with these maintenance issues, of which there is a dire need in this community.
Could the minister comment on that decision?
Ms. Kimball: The way that we fund our LHOs is it’s a formula funding model based on the number of units.
Our funding formula provides for so many staff members based on the number of units. We’re not directly involved with the LHOs in terms of the actual staffing that they have. I’m not familiar with the details of this circumstance.
I know that there have been some concerns that Iqaluit Housing was running into a deficit situation.
I have expressed willingness to review the funding formula structure with IHA because they are the largest community in terms of the number of housing units far exceeding other communities that we have.
I have expressed that we are looking at… . There may be some reasons and rationales to change some things with the funding formula for IHA.
We were not directly involved in their management decision to lay off four employees. We have said that we’re willing to talk about their funding formula. We were not directly involved in that situation.
If I can ask the members to please restrict their questions to the capital plan.
Mr. Hickes: Noted, Mr. Chairman, and I realize that I was skirting the line pretty closely.
In my opinion, it does have some impact on the capital plan because I want to make sure that these dollars are being expended to the maximum effect to benefit the residents of Iqaluit, specifically the Tasiluk riding that I represent.
I appreciate the answer and encourage the minister and his staff to continually communicate with IHA to address some of the needs; I know that we will never meet all of the needs, but to address some of the immediate needs to house our residents in a respectable manner.
Next on my list, Mr. Rumbolt.
I’m just looking for clarification on a tabled document from yesterday that the minister tabled.
In that document, it says 2014-15 construction, Iqaluit, one ten-plex; Arviat, one five-plex; and Sanikiluaq, one five-plex.
Can the minister confirm that this is going to be tendered, awarded, and constructed this coming summer and fall?
Chairman (Mr. Enook)(interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Rumbolt. (interpretation ends) Hon. Minister.
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I also thank the member for that question.
The project is ready to proceed, but the only obstacles are related to the sites and lot availability so if they are completed it will go ahead.
I’m not sure if the translation didn’t come across right, but I don’t think I heard the answer I was asking for.
Will this construction happen this summer for these units?
This coming summer, the communities of Nunavut that have identified that they will be constructing units in those communities, but in some communities.
Since it’s the responsibility of community government, if the lots should be approved and if they’re ready, then the units can be constructed this summer.
We are now in March, and if any construction is going to happen this year, we need to have tenders issued soon so that it can be awarded and giving contractors time to meet sealift deadlines.
Has the Nunavut Housing Corporation confirmed that there are lots available in Sanikiluaq, Arviat, and Iqaluit for this upcoming construction?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): From what I understand, yes.
I will defer that question to Ms. Kimball so that she can respond in detail.
Just to go through each community in detail. In Iqaluit, we are having some challenges confirming lot availability. We do have a back-up plan as a worst case to try to do two senior’s four-plexes, for a total of eight units in Iqaluit.
We are still hopeful to get ten units. In Iqaluit we are fortunate to have a longer sealift schedule than other communities, so we are comfortable that we still have time to work that through.
Arviat, potentially, there could be some challenges there with the timing of the land.
However, we’re still working with the hamlet on that.
In terms of Sanikiluaq, it’s my understanding, based on the conversation that I had with my COO just this morning, that we should be good to go in Sanikiluaq. We’re waiting for final confirmation on that.
I think most of my questions were asked by my colleagues, but I have one.
Back in 2009-10, there was a housing needs survey done, and Gjoa Haven was one of the communities that they suggested needed housing.
Last year and this year, we are not getting any numbers.
I am wondering how these are allocated to the communities.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Akoak.
That’s a very clear and understandable question.
Although I will be able to respond to some of his questions, but this has been going on for quite some time on where the houses are going to allocate housing evenly to the communities.
The member is asking why they are not constructing units in his home community.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation, along with the local housing authorities, they work together to make sure that we build units in the most needy communities.
Mr. Chairman, if the member wants supplementary response, I will ask if I can have my officials respond to that question.
Mr. Akoak, (interpretation ends) did he respond to your question? Are you satisfied now?
Going another route, we have, I guess, homeowners that are losing their houses, as Mr. Hickes and Mikkungwak mentioned earlier.
Is there any way that your department can take over the units and make them useful in down-payment programs?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the member for his question. To ensure that your question is properly answered, I would like to refer the member’s question to Ms. Kimball.
It really depends on the circumstances. In some cases, the homeowner may have a mortgage with Nunavut Housing Corporation, in which case, we do have a mechanism where we can do something called a quick claim, where the client transfers the unit back to us.
If we don’t have a mortgage interest, then it’s a little trickier, in terms of whether or not we can just acquire the unit.
Typically, there is a bank interest in the property and it depends on the extent of that bank interest in the property, what the willingness is of the bank to do something.
This is partly why we do have the homeownership programs that we do have, that we do offer, to make sure that clients are able to access things like home repair, emergency repairs, so that they can keep the unit as in good condition as possible so that it does retain its value, so that we can have options, should unfortunate situations arise, where the clients are not able to maintain their mortgage payments with a third-party bank.
In some cases, we have the banks approach us to take over when a client is getting foreclosed and we have in some cases acquired the unit. We usually do a review to make sure that between what we have to pay the bank to acquire the unit and the repairs and maintenance required on the unit, that it makes economic sense to do so.
In some cases, if the unit has had freeze-ups or has had other major maintenance issues, and if there is a substantial amount of debt into the bank, it may not make economic sense to do that.
I guess, this is just a comment.
Since we are always short of houses, and I think that is a good way to go, if a client loses a house we could turn it over to the community or to the department.
Chairman (interpretation): I think that was just a comment, Mr. Akoak.
Continuing on, Mr. Savikataaq.
My question is: what is the percentage cost between labour and material for public housing being built? Just an average, not counting the land.
Out of the 100 percent of a complete house, what percentage is material and what is labour?
There are different things, such as the construction and the material.
Maybe I will get Ms. Kimball to respond to those different questions, Mr. Chairman?
When you are talking about material, one of the key components of the material cost is the shipping. Shipping can vary drastically depending on which community you are shipping to.
I can tell you, under Canada’s Economic Action Plan where we built the single-family dwellings using our structural insulated panels, the shipping cost varied between $30,000 per unit per community to as much as $90,000 per unit in a community.
To give you a fixed rate, I can’t do that because of the differences in the shipping. I don’t have that information to share generally across Nunavut.
I realize that the shipping of the SIP units, which are bulky, would be really expensive. I’m aware of that.
That was, I believe, just a one-time project to see how it worked.
Do you have the figures for stick-built, what the material is and what the labour is?
I know that now, you have ship, supply, and erect, but you must have figures somewhere in there that tells you, “The cost of building a house, excluding land, is labour is 40 percent and material is 60 percent,” just an average figure.
That’s a good question and I don’t want to make a guess, so I’ll hand it over to Ms. Kimball to respond.
Again, even with our five-plex design that we saw under structural insulated panels, which was a stick-built design, we saw shipping be up to three times more in one community versus another.
For our SSE tenders, we did do detailed financial analyses, but we were looking at the whole cost, including land, shipping, and all of those components.
I’m sorry I don’t have the details with me.
Chairman: Mr. Mikkungwak.
Mr. Mikkungwak (interpretation): Thank you very much for allowing me to ask another question.
This matter is also an issue in our community and I am well aware that Baker Lake has numerous elders and some of the elders have physical disabilities.
I wonder where this would fall under, under the private home category, or under the LHO public housing units in terms of the funds used for providing assistance or does that come out of both of these categories.
The question he asked is confusing so could I ask him to rephrase or clarify his question?
I seem to understand the gist of it, but if I misunderstood I would prefer if he clarified his question.
Is he asking about elders’ centres in the communities as they exist in other communities? Is that what he meant?
Please clarify your question, Mr. Mikkungwak.
Considering the fact that there are a lot of senior citizens within my community and some of whom are homeowners, when we look at the substation sheet and that figure has remained the same, does that take into consideration if there are any renovations that may be needed by the senior citizens who are private homeowners?
Now his question is crystal-clear.
With respect to renovations or retrofits, there are separate funds and that is clear.
Some are specific to elderly citizens but there is a separate category for them as it stands.
If I can, I would ask that the question be referred to Ms. Kimball so she may provide a clear answer to my colleague’s question.
If I understand the question correctly, if you’re referring to modifications for seniors, things like hand rails, and those types of things, seniors can apply through our regular Home Repair program. They can also apply through our targeted Senior Citizen’s Home Repair program to access funding for those types of renovations to make their homes a little more senior-friendly. Similarly, people with disabilities that are private homeowners could do the same thing, in terms of accessing repair funds for those types of renovations.
I thank the minister and his official for answering that question.
A follow-up to that question is: if a senior citizen applies for that repair, and looking at the substantiation sheets under capital estimates, would that fall under the homeownership program or M&I retrofit?
The question that he asked about M&I is directed to public housing.
I just want to get some clarification. The houses that are going to be built for staff housing and public housing, is there a price difference between the two?
Do they cost the same to build one unit?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): I understand the question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The public housing and staff housing, I haven’t seen the difference between public housing and homeownership.
I will get Ms. Kimball to respond more clearly to the member.
Ms. Kimball: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this point, NHC does not do any construction for homeownership.
We only do construction for staff and public housing. It’s the same design that we would use. If we’re doing a five-plex, it’s usually the same design, whether that’s a staff housing unit or a public housing unit.
For the upcoming year, we’ll be doing a mix of ten-plexes, five-plexes, and duplexes. The five-plexes this year will be different than in the past. We are getting a new design prepared to ensure that we’re being as economical as possible in our construction model.
Also in public housing, a review was done in May 2013 by the Nunavut Housing Corporation, saying that they would build 210 houses with the $100 million received from the federal government.
However, I also noted that the day before yesterday on March 11, the minister made an announcement in this House about the current status of the $100 million allocation provided by the federal government. He also highlighted the fact that by summer of 2015, there would be an additional 213 units completed.
Where exactly are the three extra units going to be constructed?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I also thank the member for asking that question.
The units totalling 213 to be constructed, as per your question about the three extra units and where they originated from is that originally Iqaluit was supposed to receive a certain number and these three units have been added to complete the amount of units Iqaluit was to receive.
However, when they were reviewing the tenders for the construction projects in Iqaluit for the units to be built here, they found that the costs of the bids meant that we could build an extra three units without using any additional funds.
That is where the three units were added, provided that my response was clear. Thank you.
Moving on. According to Rule 77(2), subject to the discretion of the Chair, a member may speak more than once to a matter under discussion. I will again recognize Ms. Angnakak, although she has already asked a question.
I want to talk about what kind of strategy the Nunavut Housing Corporation has to address the great number of houses that have broken windows.
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I thank my colleague.
With respect to window related issues, I have never been queried about that issue before, so in order to have the correct response, I would ask that Ms. Kimball be allowed to answer that.
In terms of a specific strategy to replace them, we do try to replace them as part of our M&I and one-offs as part of the LHO maintenance budget.
We have recognized that that’s a concern in terms of the breakage of windows.
As part of this year’s construction under the $100 million, we have set a specification for a different style of window that is supposed to be much more break-resistant and we will see how that goes.
We will be monitoring the cost effectiveness of the increased cost up front for those windows versus the savings on breakage.
Before I recognize Angnakak, please be reminded that if you have any electronics, (interpretation) put them on silent mode, as I just heard someone’s phone ringing. Please keep your phones and other electronic devices on silent mode.
I’m just wondering: with the different type of window, does that represent or create any safety issues?
The glass that we’re using is actually referred to as hurricane glass, so if it does break, it’s like windshield; it will stay together so that the whole thing can be replaced.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Kimball. (interpretation ends) Please be reminded that we are on the capital estimates and try and stay within.
Please refer to line items, if you can refer to those. (interpretation) Thank you.
Switching gears.
What kind of demand is there for public housing units that are built specifically meet of those with physical disabilities?
That is a great question. There are many needs in the communities. I would like to elaborate on the different needs for different types of homes and houses in the communities.
If I understand your question correctly, if we know of a percentage of how many is need.
Mr. Chairman, if you can agree to let Ms. Kimball respond to that.
With the implementation of the new rent scale system, we do have great insights in terms of seniors in our building. We’re not currently tracking the needs of people with disabilities, but we have actually identified that as something that we do want to implement in going forward.
Of course, with the software we have to make sure that we’re adhering to privacy protection rules. It is in our intention to start tracking that; that is something that we want to do.
If a client comes forward and they do need a home that’s suitable for a disability, we do usually make accommodations through our M&I funding to do any retrofits that may be required.
We also have some units that are already configured so that if someone needed it and no longer needs that, we will switch people around to make better use of the units we do have available.
Your answer kind of leads me into my next question.
When we’re talking about accessing programs for homeowners, can you access the same program more than once in one year, or more than once in two years?
Is there a stipulation on how many times one can access a program and how much?
Borderline.
I would like my deputy minister to respond to that, please.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) You may proceed, Ms. Kimball.
There are limits on each of our different programs, and they vary by program in terms of how frequently you can access them.
For the most part, the larger program it is only once every 10 or 15 years. That is something too that we will be looking at as we do the review of our homeownership program.
Using my discretion as Chairman, I will give Mr. Savikataaq a third opportunity to speak.
Ms. Savikataaq: Thank you, Mr. Chairman for your gracious decision.
Mine is not a question, it is just a comment.
I believe in being proactive for Arviat and my constituents.
When the minister said that they weren’t sure about land availability for the five-plex in Arviat. I quickly left and called the hamlet. The land is there, and it’s available.
That’s great news. It would be great if all of the communities could be accommodating like that, so I’m glad to hear that you checked into it.
However, some of the other communities are not as easy, in regard to land lots.
Let us proceed.
We are on L-3 in English, Inuktitut Ri-3.
Nunavut Housing Corporation. Total Capital Expenditures. $30,230,000.
Get back to page L-2 in English, Ri-2 in Inuktitut.
Nunavut Housing Corporation. Mission. Total Capital Expenditures. $30,230,000.
Do members agree that we are concluded with the Department of Housing Corporation?
Thank you MLAs and Hon. Ministers.
As we are starting to adjourn, if you have any closing remarks, I will give you that opportunity.
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and thank you to my colleagues, my fellow MLAs here for asking those great questions, yesterday and today. Please don’t worry. From our discussions of today and yesterday, all those questions that we received and the replies that we gave you, have all been documented by my officials here with Ms. Moffett and Ms. Kimball.
They will take care of them properly. That’s all I would like to say.
Thank you for being able to appear here.