EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
That was one of the requests from the standing committee was to give a down payment for up to 30 thousand dollars to new home purchasers. I think that may entice people to get into homeownership programs, I know in my community it might entice people get into the homeownership program because we do have, we're one of the few communities that does have an abundance of private homes for sale on the market at all times.
The people who buy private homes there are moving from public housing into private homes so that alleviates the problem.
A lot of the smaller communities, I'm not really aware of, I don't think there's a lot of homes for sale in the smaller communities. Is there any kind of incentive to the private sector there to build homes, is there some way we're trying to look forward, trying to get people to build homes in those communities rather than somebody that's interested in purchasing a house has to go out, purchase the package and build them themselves.
A lot of people don’t want to get into that, of having the stress of going to an architect, going to a shipper, going to retailers to purchase all the material, setting up electrical permits, setting up all these types of hassle in purchasing a home.
Is there any way we can assist somebody that wants to purchase a home in Clyde River, Hall Beach or our communities who doesn't have an abundance of private home contractors to help them purchase a turn key operation where they could just walk into the unit and have a guarantee on it for a year or two, Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That's one of the initiatives that we can look into, I know the frustrations of building a new home in a small community where there's really nobody to help you out, even to buy one, trying to get through the banks, trying to get the mortgage payments down and so on.
One of the other options I am looking at is selling public houses to interested people.
They are built already and if you have been renting it for years and years and if you want to own we are also looking into that.
Buying a public housing unit from local housing associations.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Madam Thompson. Mr. McLean.
Mr. McLean: That is a very good initiative.
It was done in the past but not at a very large rate.
I know a couple of my people in my community purchased their old NTR and they were priced anywhere 15 hundred to 15 thousand dollars.
They put it upon themselves, they were living in NTR and working for the Hamlet and paying 900 dollars a month for the NTR so the bought it and it worked out very well for them.
They didn't assume a tremendous amount of debt.
They bought the home and fixed it up over a few years and now they are liveable.
People who are on income now know what they want.
If they want to go out and upgrade they can sell their existing house and buy a fancier one.
I applaud the minister for even thinking of that initiative.
I think it is something that we forgot about.
There are definitely those in my community that would purchase public housing units.
Is the minister going to expand her scope on maybe selling public housing units off other than if somebody in the community bought a public housing unit and were in public housing but didn't like the existing unit they’re in, could they purchase another unit that someone else is in.
Mr. Chairman, we can look at that option.
Of course, we would have to consult with our stakeholders out there.
The LHOs.
But, I am seriously considering selling some public housing units people have been renting for years.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Madam Thompson.
Mr. McLean: That is nice to see some vision again.
Under the public housing, I am not just picking on the Baffin region, but 4 million 750 thousand dollars.
If the municipality out there took it upon themselves to, say they wanted to build some units and rent it to the government.
Negotiate with the municipality and if they went out and borrowed some money, I know the private sector could do that.
But there are other communities in Nunavut like I say the smaller communities where the need seems to be the highest.
I hate to say Clyde River and I've seen their stats, they have a tremendous shortage of houses in Clyde River.
If the municipality of Clyde River was in a financial situation to build public units, would the Housing Corporation consider leasing from them.
Or any community.
We would consider leasing them from a municipality.
Our problem would be that we would need to have the O&M dollars to cover the leasing of those units for the period of the lease agreement.
But we would consider that.
Are you finished with your questions.
On page 12-7 in regards to the 1 million dollars.
I have asked this question twice.
Don't you want to ask that question.
Chairperson (interpretation): I did not even understand what you said.
Mr. Nutarak could you speak a little bit louder please.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): I have already tried to ask a question in regards to the 1 million dollars twice.
So, if you remember my question. Could you ask that question for me. I don't think you remember my question.
I had a question in regards to the 1 million dollars.
This 1 million dollars how many units can this build.
Just looking at the figure here.
The members here can ask questions, as a Chairman I cannot ask questions.
Just to estimate if a building was built for 190 thousand dollars with this figure could build five units, approximately.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Minister Thompson.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): This was set aside, this 1 million dollars was set aside for homeownership programs.
It is geared toward homeownership programs so that the Housing Corporation can assist the people who are interested in owning their own homes.
When do you find out the number of people from Qikiqtaaluk that will apply for their own homes.
Once you find out, do you find out how many or do you guess how many people or individuals will be applying to get their own homes.
That's why the figure is like that. How long do you know in advance the number of people who will apply for the homeownership program.
For the homeownership program fund, part of it is used for emergency maintenance and also emergency repair programs and if the elders’ facilities need repairs, they could be used for that.
So, the funding is also used for these kind of programs. For homeownership programs if they wanted to apply they start applying ahead of time but it's very hard to know if any individual would like to apply for funding because of course everybody thinks for themselves.
The applicants, when they make an application, if they earn 125 thousand dollars they are denied under NDAP.
If their salary is in excess of 125 thousand they are not eligible for NDAP but we do keep their names.
But in regards to Mr. Nutarak's question and I'm sure he'll be making a supplementary, I'll have Pam Hine make a supplementary response.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Madam Thompson.
As the minister stated, the homeownership program actually entails a lot of programs, it's not just for NDAP.
We are also looking at the homeowners that we've already helped in the past, if their houses need repair then they would apply under this budget to get renovation money to help them fix their house up.
If they had an emergency repair like their furnace breaks down, we can help them under this budget line itself.
But it's difficult to say how many people will actually be assisted here because we are not just talking just one program we are talking all of our homeownership programs.
We have gone into partnership with the bureau of stats on the Nunavut Household Survey.
There's a whole section on housing in that area and we are hoping that after we get the information on that we would have a lot of better information to answer specific questions as to who would be looking for the homeownership programs.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Hine.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Homeownership programs. It states here homeownership program 1 million dollars under this program. As a Member of the Legislature, I own my own home.
Would I be eligible to be assisted under this program if my house needed repair.
The people who got their homes under a HAP housing program, these units are getting old and they need to be maintained and repaired.
Their furnaces are deteriorating because they’re old.
Perhaps their insulation is poor, and if they needed repair or if they needed maintenance, any individuals who own their own homes can apply to the Housing Corporation for repair funds to repair their homes.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): I would like to ask another question regarding the 4 million 750 thousand dollars.
Can we also use those monies for the maintenance and retrofitting of public housing.
Chairperson (interpretation): Madam Minister.  Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Last year, we built 100 housing units.
It is for those types of programs, like the 100 units that we built last year.
Part of Mr. McLean's question was about the old houses that can be sold to the public.
I had a meeting when I was in Resolute Bay.
Homeowners wanted to meet with me, there were about 10 of them that met with me, and some of them had these old houses, two of the people that were there.
They were asking if there was a policy that the Housing Corporation had that before you buy they were supposed to bring them up to standard as if it was a new house or up to a proper functioning unit.
They are still waiting for something from housing to help them with that.
They are supposed to bring them back into their original state when they sold them to these individuals.
I think if there is some kind of policy like that, that needs to be looked at to make sure the people are getting what they have been told.
Another one that I wanted to ask about was this 1 million dollars where you were talking about a number of programs.
That the money was there under this 1 million dollars and you said it could build about 5 units and it could also be for other things like in an emergency if something happens that money could be used for that.
Maybe later on we will see the breakdowns of how these things work.
It is not clear to me what other programs are there in this 1 million dollars for Baffin.
Homeownership is important to my communities.
Another one that I wanted to bring up and ask, there are so many HAPs, NDAPs.
Are we going to keep doing this.
Are we going into one program and maybe live with it for a number of years so that people could get used to it.
It seems like every time when we do a survey or something we come up with something else.
When are we going to see some kind of stable programs.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Williams.
You had quite a number of questions and I’m sure I’ll be leaving some out but the first question you brought up was in regards to some of the clients who said that they bought the older units, and that they should have been brought up to code by the government.
That policy was made by the previous government.
I don’t know what’s in that policy but what I can say is that when the units get too old and if they want to retrofit them, they can do so and if they’re going to do so, there are funds available.
There’s the 1 million dollar pot that they can request funds from.
You can apply for funding from that program.
There was a question on how many units that 1 million dollars could build and we said five if it was at 190 thousand dollars each.
That’s not relevant to this line.
Under the homeownership programs, the 1 million dollars includes people who would like to build their own units to help put a down payment and also for people who have their own units.
If they have to replace the windows for example or do some repair work on their house and you can also ask for funds if you want to retrofit your house completely.
Those are all homeownership programs, either putting a down payment on a new house or retrofitting your home or if your building gets too old and you have to do some major repair work. This is part of the money that can be accessed for those types of projects.
So there were various programs and of course, we get confused when we hear about all these different programs.
Once the Nunavut Government was created, we simplified the whole thing.
Under the old access program, which houses were like little square boxes that looked exactly the same all across the territories, we stopped building those and started building the 100 public housing units. What we’ve done, is simplified the whole thing.
We asked for funds from the federal government, but as you know there has been no social housing dollars from the federal government since 1993.
If we were to look at the federal government budget there would be no funds under social housing, there would be no line item in social housing.
So if we were going to be building units, it would have to come out of our own budget.
There are a lot of different things to consider.
It was last year, for example, we built 100 rental units and if you wanted to build your house, there was 15 thousand dollars available as down payment assistance if your income was under 125 thousand per year.
Those were the only programs that were available and we’re still doing the same thing.
We will be building social housing units and if you want to build or get your own home we will be there to get give you assistance.
But we do not build, we don't have any more programs where we build the units for homeowners.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): That's it.
You were responding earlier to one of my colleagues, about selling the public units.
That was one of the ideas that you were looking at.
Just for example if you were to sell a few units today where would the revenue go.
What would it be used for.
Maybe you could answer that question for now.
Hon. Manitok Thompson: The money would be used to build a new one.
If we can sell public units to an individual in the community the money that we get from that we would build a new unit.
Let's say if you sell a house in that community would that revenue would go to that community to build a house in that community. You sell a house in a community, let's say Kugluktuk for example, you sell a house in Kugluktuk, so you are saying you could build a house, another public housing for that community, is that how it works.
Hon. Manitok Thompson: That's what we are looking at.
If we sold five public housing units in Kugluktuk, we would build public housing units from that money in Kugluktuk.
If there are no further questions, I have no more names.
For the others who have homes, she said that you could retrofit the homes.
How old would the units have to be.
Do you have a policy where one house can be considered to be too old and it would have to be retrofitted.
Would that be five years, ten years, twenty years.
It is for anyone who is an elder and if you want me to replace the windows for example with newer models, more energy efficient homes you can apply for those funds.
It's open if there has to be or if you have to change the windows or the doors and so on.
It would be for those types of renovations if you were an elder with your own home.
Very short question, just a while ago I heard that this 1 million dollars would be used for homeownership programs like renovating and replacement and repairs and so on.
Is it for all homeowners, if I had my own home for example or if David Iqaqrialu his own home, can anybody apply for financial assistance through this program.
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Yes. The first housing program, the HAP housing program, it is for those people if they wanted to renovate or repair their units they can apply for assistance from this program.
How about other than HAP houses, is that available for individuals that live in their own home but are not HAP units.
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): Thank you. It goes towards any kind of private home.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): So whether the unit was very old or new when they were acquired, they could get that assistance.
When you speak make sure your microphone is on.
Hon. Manitok Thompson (interpretation): If it is an old unit and the individual bought the unit, and it's expensive to heat the home and the homeowner wishes to maintain the house or make renovations they could request assistance from the program.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): The request forms, are they available in the communities.
Madam Thompson.
The forms are available at the Housing Association offices and if an individual wants assistance to repair a window or have their windows changed, they could also fill out the forms and send them to the housing office.
Under the same area, we are aware that the previous government sold off many staff housing units to its employees.
Whether they were teachers or whatever, but a lot of them were teachers including TEP graduates, some of these units are pretty old.
These old government units have a foundation that is made of timber and not the steel piling used today.
They notice that their house starts to shift because it's not on a hard foundation. When they were built, they were built on a soft foundation and there are a lot of families that own these homes.
In the capital estimates, will there be money available for people that have government units to be able to upgrade their foundations.
The homeowners know what problems are involved and when a homeowner has a problem with their unit if it has to do the window or the furnace, they could fill out the request forms to upgrade their units.
Those steel piles from Canadrill, they charge different rates, I think they go all the way up to 1800 dollars a pile requiring a number of piles in one house, especially those old government buildings, the government housing, staff housings.
Would they qualify and if so, what would be the limit for the total assistance they could receive to do that.
That's a hypothetical question.
I can't answer a question where I don't know how many applicants will be applying for piles.
We're just saying we have a program for homeowners to access, to fix up their homes.
I can’t tell you how many homeowners will need their foundation fixed because I really don't know.
It's up to the individuals to make that request.
We have the money available so it will be first come first served at this time.
I'd like to note that we're dealing with the homeownership programs, 1 million dollars on page 12-7.
Just keep with the topic.
If they can advise me how my question was hypothetical when I was in fact asking is there a program for the old buildings like the GNWT staff housing that were sold to staff, especially new NTEP students who have graduated and are teachers who want to purchase those staff houses that they have started living in.
They were qualified to do so, however because the old buildings have traditional foundations, the gap between the walls and the floor opens in the wintertime and closes in summer from the fluctuations in the permafrost, above the permafrost.
My question was, is there a ceiling because Canadrill charges between 1200 to 1800 a pile.
Is there a limit on that program and she said there is.
Is there a ceiling on requests to switch to steel piles from traditional ones.
Madam Thompson stated earlier they are able to look into these as they come.
I think with that Madam Thompson if you'd like to respond.
My office to date has not been informed of any NTEP students who would want their piles changed or have a foundation change in their houses.
I am not sure how many clients there are out there that have that problem.
That is what I am saying. I really don’t know and I know my staff aren’t aware of people requesting to get their piles or their foundation changed.
It’s a question that I can't answer.
But with the limitations we could probably give you a better idea.
I'll ask Mr. Darcy to answer that.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Darcy.
This program is still under development and revision.
We are expecting however, that the ceiling for applicants would probably be around 48 thousand 5 hundred.
Like I say this has not gone to Cabinet yet.
We are just finalizing it.
But our expectation now is around 48.5 would be the maximum contribution to people who want to renovate their houses.
Would this come from the million dollar homeownership program or will that come from other funding aside from this budget.
It would come from the 1 million dollars under the homeownership program.
Mr. Arvaluk are you done.
I think Mr. McLean brought it up before, but I would just like to ask something similar but a slightly different question coming out of that.
Has there been any inventory or research done by the Housing Corporation to find out what is the most efficient furnace that is now on the market.
Whether it is a boiler or forced air.
Has this been communicated to LHOs to advise the homeowners about the most efficient furnace available today.
Maybe it is a good idea to do that.
So, yes we can look into that and find out which furnace is the best on the market right now.
We can certainly look into that and advise the LHO's so the homeowners would know there are some things available out there that are probably better than theirs.
Looking at the 1 million dollar homeownership program, I'll probably have more questions afterwards but this one million dollars is it just towards Qikiqtaaluk or the whole of Nunavut.
If it's geared just towards just Qikiqtaaluk, I'll have questions later when Kitikmeot comes around.
Presently we're just talking about the Qikiqtaaluk region following the notes that are in front of us under branch summary.
If you have any questions at the moment, you can raise your question.
When we get to the Kitikmeot region, I'll raise my question.
Madam Williams.
Ms. Williams (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
One of my constituents in Resolute asked me that if they…(interpretation ends)…if they built a house, if homeowners built a house up there who would be responsible to connect them to the utilidor system.
Who would pay for that cost.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Madam Williams.
We also have a utilidor system in Rankin Inlet and I do know that it is the responsibility of the homeowner to connect to the utilidor.
Ms. Williams: Just one little question on that.
Do we know how much it costs.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Ms. Williams.
I wouldn't know either.
My husband pays all the bills.
I'm sorry, I don't have all the details; we could get the information for the member of different costs of utilidor connections.
I would think that it would be different for each community.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you Minister Thompson.
We're under Baffin region.
Total Qikiqtaaluk region, 6 million 920 thousand.
Chairperson (interpretation): Going to the next page.
Total Kivalliq region, 3 million 730 thousand.
Chairperson (interpretation): Total Kitikmeot region, 2 million 730 thousand.
M&I, 457 thousand dollars that you have there.
Correct me if I'm wrong there, is there enough money there to do some community projects because it seems to me that for Kugluktuk alone that figure seems to me like it might be a little bit low, maybe you could explain that to me.
This is only Nunavut Government money, there's also CMHC money that's not here because we're just voting on the Nunavut Government budget.
Than I guess the next question would be if this is Nunavut’s share, would you have other sources of money that give us an idea to where we're at, in the total projects, for the Kitikmeot.
It's about 1 million 652 thousand dollars, so it's over a million dollars.
Mr. Havioyak are you done.
Under homeownership, under Kitikmeot region, this 450 thousand dollars, how many homes, how many houses would that be able to build.
If we were to use that amount of 450 thousand, it would be a little over two houses, for that amount of money but it's for the homeownership program.
If an elder has their own home and they have to renovate it, on an emergency basis, and otherwise, then they can request funding from that program or if they wanted to buy their own home then they would be able to ask for money from that program.
It's not just for renovations to the homeowners.