EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Members support the goals of the Delivery Strategy to increase private sector capacity in each community and to provide training opportunities for Nunavummiut.
However, members would remind the corporation that the primary goal of the Nunavut Housing Trust is to increase the number of public housing units across the territory in a timely fashion in order to reduce the number of people on waiting lists.
Members recognize that the Nunavut Housing Trust Delivery Strategy is a new initiative for the corporation.
Committee members encourage the corporation in its monitoring of the effectiveness of the strategy and recognize that adjustments may need to be made to adapt to challenges as they arise over the three year delivery period.
It is essential that the corporation be successful in the delivery of the $200 million Housing Trust in order to better make the case for additional federal funding for this important portfolio.
Members note that the corporation intends to undertake a housing needs study in 2007-08.
Members recognize the importance of accurate data when the corporation requests additional funds from the federal government for the construction of new public housing units.
Committee members encourage the minister to work together with other interested parties to fund a comprehensive housing needs study.
The standing committee noted that the one of the corporation’s priorities in 2007-08 is to prepare a draft Nunavut Housing Strategy.
Members also note that the completion of a Housing Strategy has been an element in each of the corporation’s recent business plans, and we urge the Minister to share the draft strategy as soon as it has been completed.
Committee members recognize that climate change is having a negative impact on some of the units in the public housing stock.
However, members urge the corporation to work together with the Department of Community and Government Services to take advantage of the lengthened shipping season to bring materials into the territory earlier and increase the length of each construction season.
Committee members note that Government of Nunavut employees have now seen their second rental increase since the introduction of the Staff Housing Policy in 2005.
Members remain extremely concerned that the government’s ability to recruit and retain staff is being negatively impacted by the lack of staff housing in many communities in Nunavut.
The standing committee cautions the government that many of our new facilities, such as the cultural school, trades school and regional health facilities will not be able to function at capacity if the Government of Nunavut cannot offer staff housing.
Members look forward to an update from the minister on the impact of the Staff Housing Policy, especially when they’re constructing hospitals, and rent increases on recruitment and retention across the Government of Nunavut, as well as on the number of applications to the Rental Assistance Program that have been received and approved to date and how many have received the Rental Assistance Program.
Members believe that further efforts must be made to communicate the benefits of home ownership to Government of Nunavut staff and to encourage and facilitate the move from staff housing to private accommodation.
Members appreciate the corporation’s efforts to ensure the local housing organizations are funded at adequate levels and encourage the corporation to continue monitoring and possibly adjusting the funding formula as demands on local housing organizations change.
Members appreciate the corporation’s efforts to assist seniors to stay in their own homes through the introduction of the Seniors and Disabled Persons Preventative Maintenance Program, and we thank the minister for that.
However, members have heard from elders in various communities, such as the Keewatin, that there are quite a few elders who are living in their own homes who are afraid that they will lose their homes due to rising maintenance and operating costs.
Members are also concerned that the perception exists that elected officials must become involved in each case in order to ensure that elders receive appropriate assistance.
The standing committee urges the corporation to better communicate all of the options that elders have if they own their own homes.
Members noted that the minister recently tabled the corporation’s 2004-05 annual report and that the 2005-06 annual report is overdue, and it has not been tabled.. The committee understands that the corporation is making efforts to complete the 2005-06 report and emphasizes the importance of meeting the legislated tabling requirements.
Lastly, I would like to thank our staff member, Andrea Witzaney, because she works very hard and diligently and I would like to thank her for that.
Before we proceed I would like to remind everyone that according to Rule 77(1), everyone has ten minutes to speak, and according to Rule 77(2), at the discretion of the Chair a member may speak more than once but not until every member wishing to speak has spoken.
I also would like to inform the members that when you’re going to ask your questions, please be to the point and ask them according to the page that we are reviewing according to the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
I would like to welcome you, Mr. Minister, and Mr. Scott.
I would like to thank the corporation for providing training opportunities during the construction of the units. The hamlets didn’t know or they were confused, they believe that it would be better to have one training unit constructed.
I would urge the Housing Corporation to work closely with Nunavut Arctic College during the training program as they proceed so that the municipalities would know.
The hamlets don’t understand how other communities, like Clyde River, are completing the training programs and how successful they are during the training through the trades program.
I would like to urge the Housing Corporation to provide information and ask questions to the Arctic College to find out how many students are needed in order to bring in instructors.
During the time when I consulted with the hamlets in my constituency, the units that will be built through the Nunavut Housing Trust from the $200 million, they are set differently with the way the construction will occur. Some units will be used as training for construction and also to improve the housing shortage.
The hamlets in my constituency have a concern that according to the report that was given to the hamlets, if it’s going to occur the way they stated, that the Housing Corporation will construct the units, first of all.
And secondly, we were told that they could be used as access programs. Is that going to be the case?
Thirdly, they said it could be an access program.
These units could be bought by Inuit, but we have a concern with the units that have been identified.
We were concerned. Are you going to reduce the number of units that are going to be allocated to a community when you realize you are lacking funds? It looks nice on paper but the costs will increase because as you go further north the cost of living increases.
For that reason, we would urge the housing corporation to make sure they construct the number of units they promised to allocate to the hamlets.
We know we have a housing shortage and that the Housing Corporation faces many challenges. The units that are being built, the four-plexes, there are young people starting to move into those different ‘plexes’.
Sometimes we need single family units. The single family units are deteriorating and aging.
Some people don’t want to move into the single family units that have been renovated because they know they are very old. The family members would like to move to a new unit if they didn’t qualify or weren’t eligible for homeownership.
Another issue that has been brought up by the infrastructure committee chairman is regarding elders’ facilities. In previous years, our elders in my constituency, or my riding, have been brought down here to the elders’ facility.
The Housing Corporation has now started setting up seniors’ facilities. We would like to thank them for caring for our elders and their families. They are being looked after by the health department.
I would like to thank the Nunavut Housing Corporation for that.
For the homeowners to make improvements within their units, they have to pay for the units themselves, and would like some assistance from the Nunavut Housing Corporation. If their units are incomplete, sometimes they can’t reuse the funding.
That creates problems. Especially when the units are not completed, even though the funding was made available, it can’t be used to complete the unit.
For that reason, that funding that is appropriated, should be used until it is all gone to make sure the unit will be completed, especially when material has to be shipped annually by ships.
When it is like that, the homeowners are not very satisfied with the way it is done.
I would like to remind members we are dealing with this Operations and Maintenance budget for 2007-08. My next speaker is Mr. Curley. Mr. Arvaluk.
In his opening remarks, the minister didn’t mention government staff, government buildings. Yesterday when Human Resources were at the witnesses table, this was handled by the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Staff housing wasn’t mentioned. It states under the mission that Nunavummiut should be able to access clean and safe housing units for the wellness of the community.
Even though it states that, people are paying 25 percent of their income for public housing unit, but, government staff are charged by the size.
This is different for those two different types.
Inuit usually have more children, so they require bigger units.
So, they have to rent a bigger place, and sometimes they pay 40 percent of their income.
Inuit employees who work for the government who are in more menial positions, or the front line workers, because they have so many children and because they require larger units, and their income is not great, they spend a lot more money on their rent.
For that reason, even though we have a constant shortage of housing, and public housing, they move to the public housing units.
In some communities there is government staff housing that is empty.
It’s because government employees rents are way too high, and once people who are in public housing get a government job, they don’t want to move to the government housing units because they know they’re going to have to pay a lot more whereas if they stay in public housing, they pay only 25 percent.
They can’t be forced to move because they’re not doing anything wrong; they have no reason to be evicted.
What I’m trying to say is that it is a slow processing procedure, but there are more Inuit getting jobs with the government, because there is an increase.
A lot them who are in public housing don’t want to move to government staff housing because of the high rents they would have to pay.
For example, for a two bedroom government unit they would pay $1,300 a month plus the services and electricity.
What I’m expecting some time soon is that the Housing Corporation should start considering setting rents the same way for government and public housing because the government wants the Inuit to work for them.
There is enough of a public housing shortage. On top of that there’s further shortage because they don’t want to move.
What I’m asking is that they be treated the same.
The other thing that I would like to mention, in the communities there is not enough space, not just for perishables but for parts for the furnace or electronics. There are no heated warehouses, or units, or storage areas.
In Pond Inlet, some of them try to construct a little shed and they store their paint and stuff in their shops because those are dangerous.
If the place is too crowded, then it gets dangerous.
Those are the things that they will have to consider.
Those are my general comments for now but I will be raising questions later.
There are none. (interpretation ends) I have no more members on my list for general comments.
We will now proceed to the page-by-page review of the departmental estimates starting with page L-4, 2007-08 Main Estimates for the Nunavut Housing Corporation. Departmental Summary.
Grants and Contributions. Mr. Arvaluk.
Mr. Arvaluk: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation) I would like to ask a question regarding the Housing Corporation because they are responsible for the public housing units and staff housing.
Have they reviewed where the rental part is similar to go by percentage of their income?
The reason I prefer percentage is because there are unemployed people or the elders so they wouldn’t have to be evicted from their units if they can’t pay, especially in the smaller communities.
It’s impossible now to have a place to sleep.
Will you do a review to see if the public housing unit tenants and the government staff housing unit tenants are charged similarly?
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you. One of the reasons they’re different is that the public housing units are occupied by tenants, which a lot of them don’t have regular income, and the government staff housing with regular income.
We have identified under the Nunavut Housing Strategy to include that.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): I wonder when that will be completed.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk (interpretation): Thank you. We want to complete that by this year.
Once we got that $200 million we decided to concentrate on how to spend that $200 million.
Hopefully, this year we will be able to finish the Nunavut Housing Strategy.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): I wonder if you can consider a policy, especially for the Inuit who have children because they require bigger units.
Maybe in the meantime they can make a policy where a large family, if there’s one person working in that family they have to occupy a bigger unit and they have to pay $1,500 or $1,600 a month.
Depending on the number of dependents I wonder if the rents can be reduced, especially for clerks, because you don’t see too many managers’ positions occupied by Inuit in the communities.
Hon. Olayuk Akesuk: (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes.
We have looked at this where a family with many dependents can apply for the Rent to Own Assistance Program, even though the unit might be the same rental for the people who use the Rental Assistance Program.
In regard to school staff and the nurses, especially in the decentralized communities, there is absolutely no staff housing available.
There might be a few in some of the communities, but it’s quite rare.
Usually the staff cannot buy their own housing as some of them are employed on a term basis and usually what happens is that they are put together in one house.
During the Government of the Northwest Territories the nurses were given residences that were situated over the health centre.
There is a shortage of staff housing for the teachers in the smaller communities.
My question is could you tell us what’s happening on that issue?
We don’t have our capital estimates but we’re currently working on the housing issue, especially in the smaller communities.
We’re looking at staff housing for both the nurses and the teachers.
I think there are three smaller communities that will get staff housing.
We will have to look into it further in the upcoming years and decide which of the communities will require staff housing for the nurses and for the teachers.
We’re going to be working on our capital estimates in the fall and we’ll be looking at staff housing for some of the decentralized communities.
If that is the case, would that decrease the number of houses that are going into the communities that are getting staff housing? Would that decrease the number of public housing units that are going into the communities?
There won’t be a decrease. We’re going to be building 725 units and those are going to be for the public.
The small communities are non-decentralized, and we have a chronic shortage of warehouses, or storage space. We usually use sea cans to store whatever needs storage.
We’re in exactly the same situation as Mr. Arvaluk was saying. We have a lot of sea cans that are available.
I would like to ask the minister what the warehouse situation is in the smaller communities.
I would like to remind members that we are on Bill 1, Operations and Maintenance Act, 2007-08. (interpretation ends) We are under Operations and Maintenance.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): I would then like to ask another question regarding the monies that are given to private homeowners.
Is it possible to order lumber or building supplies with the money that they get through the Material Assistance Program?
We would like to see that the houses are completed properly. The Nunavut Housing Corporation is available to give assistance. We could look into the types of programs that are available.
I don’t have that information handy at this time.
For the information of private homeowners, how much money is available and what kinds of programs are there.
Is it possible for the minister to send out that information to the local housing organizations so that the information is available?
The local housing organizations have been given all the information and it is also available at the Cape Dorset Housing Corporation Office.
You can call them to find out what program you are eligible for and for how much.
Questions. Mr. Alagalak.
I would like to direct a question to the minister regarding the opening comments that he made.
As we are well aware the operations and maintenance have gone up quite significantly for this year. There is a $3,633,000 increase from the main estimates of 2006-07.
That’s due to the increase of fuel and increased power costs.
There is $1,260,000 that will also be an increase for power.
Since it’s quite expensive, is it going to increase the rental rates?
I apologize again. In regard to the increased power and fuel costs we are going to be increasing the amount, but there will be no increase in the rental rates.
The government will be paying for the increases of the power and fuel.
So you will live longer because you are not going to be increasing the rental rates.
Again, in the opening comments there is $336,738 that will be for the staff housing increased costs for power and fuel.
Will that also increase the rental rates for the government employees?
For 2005, we are going to be using those but for the power and fuel costs the government is going to be bearing those increases, if these estimates should be approved.
We are going to be using the 2005 rate.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): Thank you, Minister Akesuk.
But if there is going to be an increase on an annual basis, usually there is an increase in their compensation and benefits. If there is an annual increase in the power and fuel would that trigger an increase in the rental rates.
No, we are not going to be increasing the rates and we do not want to see an increase.
We won’t be looking at an increase in case there’s a decrease in the fuel.
Again, in your opening comments, you are going to be getting additional employees for three years while the Nunavut Housing Strategy is on. Where are those three positions going to be?
There will be two employees in Arviat and two here in Iqaluit.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Minister, and I would like to thank you also, Mr. Chairman.
There has to be an increase in the staff, but on another issue, we have different types of questions on different issues.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to turn to something that is becoming quite old.
Sometimes I get phone calls about the Access and Housing Assistance Program.
Those programs have been around for a long time, and there were some people who got Housing Assistance Program housing, and Access housing.
Usually they had no choice as to where they could build their house.
Usually those types of houses were built on lots that weren’t good.
They’re saying it would be a lot better if they could select their lots.
As we are hunters, we have hunting equipment for the winter, and there are also four-wheelers, boats, and snowmobiles, and usually our houses are surrounded by hunting equipment.
Is the Housing Corporation looking at setting aside some funds to be used to relocate their houses? Is it going to be possible to do that in the future?
There is a plan in the hamlets where the houses are to be situated, and I know that houses are being built where ever there is a lot available.
We have to look at the costs as well where if you’re located in a certain area, but we can look at the lots in the communities, where they are.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): Yes, I would like to thank Minister Akesuk and the President of the Housing Corporation.
I will have further questions later on when we’re discussing the Housing Corporation’s budget page by page.
It’s a fine Saturday afternoon to work; it’s sunny outside.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask a question. There’s a bullet on L-4 that mentions the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and Infrastructure Canada where the Housing Corporation receives funding.
I believe at least one of those programs is sun-setting over a certain period of time. In other words: money will be expiring.
I wonder if the minister or his officials can update us on what activities they’re engaged in to ensure that we continue to receive adequate funding to deliver public and social housing in Nunavut after those programs sunset.
I will get my official to answer the question.
The two federal departments where we have received money in the past, Infrastructure Canada, it was a two-year agreement that they contributed $20 million; the Government of Nunavut contributed $20 million over a two-year period to deliver social housing. That agreement expires at the end of next week, which is March 31.
We are in the process right now of submitting our final claim to get the remaining of the $200 million from Infrastructure Canada. And we’ve had ongoing quarterly meetings with Infrastructure Canada to renew that plan and see if we can get more money for social housing through that.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation they contribute to the tune of $52 million a year to the corporation for maintenance and operations of public housing.
Out of that we return essentially $27 million for debt repayment because most of these public housing units are on a mortgage, or loan basis, with Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
On that Social Housing Agreement money is reducing as those mortgages mature. Part of our forced growth requirements every year as we come forward to the House includes the money that we need to make up for that difference.
In regard to that, the loss of money under the Social Housing Agreement, we are working very closely in particular with the other two territories in lobbying the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation and we lobby the federal government to return those monies back into Social Housing Programs in the north. That’s particularly affecting the northern territories; the loss and reduction of that funding.
You mentioned that you’re lobbying those officials. Who exactly are you lobbying? Are you lobbying the officials in the department?
Are you lobbying the federal ministers for help?
I write letters to the minister, or I go down to meet with the federal minister.
And also our staff usually meet with the federal housing minister.
What kind of information do you provide the federal ministers with respect to making a case and arguing for supporting more funds for social and public housing in Nunavut?
We have been providing the federal ministers with a Ten-Year Housing Plan that we submitted a couple of years ago, along with the Housing Strategy that we have. So we’ve been lobbying to get more houses in the future.
I thank the minister for that answer. I read through that a few times.
There was very compelling information and arguments in there. I know we need about close to 4,000 new houses in Nunavut; public and social houses. I don’t think it would be good if we got them all at the same time but the fact of the matter is we do need them.
I have one family in Cambridge Bay where there are 15 people living in the house, and six of them are living in one bedroom, an entire family.
So that’s something that we have to work hard on.