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The 2015-16 ministerial letter of expectation to the chairperson of the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s board of directors was not tabled in the Legislative Assembly until October 30, 2015, almost seven months into the fiscal year.
The standing committee looks forward to the minister’s 2016-17 letter of expectation being tabled in the House in a timelier manner.
Last year, the standing committee recommended that the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s annual reports account in detail for the activities and decisions of the board of directors, including its audit committee, the statutory mandate of which includes the responsibility to “ensure the critical and objective oversight of the Corporation’s reporting of financial information and practices of strategic management and financial control.”
The standing committee is pleased to note that the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s most recent annual report, which was tabled in the House on November 5 of 2015, included significantly more detail concerning board activities than in previous years.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s draft 2016-19 business plan indicates that “Each Public Housing unit requires more than $26,200 per year to operate and maintain.”
This represents an increase of over 5.6 percent from the $24,800 figure that was in the corporation’s 2015-18 business plan.
It also indicates that “funding from CMHC for the social housing inventory, which was transferred to the Corporation in 1996, is declining and will terminate completely in 2037.”
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s budget for utilities in the 2016-17 fiscal year is $100,353,000, which represents an increase of 16.6 percent over the past two years.
Approximately $7.5 million in supplementary funding for the Nunavut Housing Corporation was approved by the Legislative Assembly during the fall 2015 sitting to “address increases in water rates and public housing water and heating fuel usage.”
During last year’s Committee of the Whole consideration of the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s proposed 2015-16 main estimates, questions were asked concerning the government’s “pay for power” program, which is intended to “quantify utility usage” and “reduce energy consumption.”
This initiative has been jointly led by the Nunavut Housing Corporation and the Energy Secretariat of the Department of Economic Development and Transportation.
The standing committee recommends that a detailed update on the status of this initiative be included as part of the comprehensive report on the Energy Secretariat’s activities that has been requested to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly in the near future.
In 2004, a Member of the Legislative Assembly posed a detailed written question concerning public housing rental arrears and tenant damages.
The government’s response indicated that as of November of 2004, approximately $6.6 million was owed in public housing rent arrears to local housing organizations across the territory.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2014-15 annual report, which was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on November 5 of 2015, indicates that the corporation’s, and I quote, “$27 million in rental and tenant damage arrears at the end of 2014-2015, represent a formidable challenge in terms of front line capacity in improving collection rates.
Arrears accumulated by public housing tenants and homeownership program clients threaten the NHC’s ability to continue to support Nunavummiut in having a safe, suitable and affordable home.
The over $27 million in rental arrears currently owed to the NHC could pay for the construction of almost 60 new public housing units.”
The standing committee is pleased to note that the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s draft 2016-19 business plan indicates that it has “established a working group, including LHO representatives, to review and develop an arrears reduction strategy.
The overall 2014/15 collection rate was 88.38%; with 10 communities achieving a collection rate of 97% or higher.”
These came into effect on February 1 of 2014.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2014-17 business plan indicated that one of its goals was to “Monitor [the] impact of changes made to the public housing rent scale and identify how the new rent scale software can assist the NHC in demonstrating the social, economic and cultural impacts of housing issues across Nunavut.”
Mr. Chairman, the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2015-18 business plan indicated that it is “producing monthly reporting from the new rent scale software, as well as certain key statistics on a quarterly basis.”
The standing committee recognizes the importance of having comprehensive information and evidence with which to address housing issues faced by Nunavut and that a key goal of reforming the public housing rent scale has been to remove disincentives to employment.
The standing committee encourages the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s next annual report to account in detail for the extent to which changes in the public housing rent scale have removed disincentives to employment.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s Long-term Comprehensive Housing and Homelessness Strategy states that “Staff housing should provide new employees who move into market communities with a home until they become settled.
These employees should be encouraged to move into the private sector or discouraged from remaining in staff housing...”
The standing committee encourages the Nunavut Housing Corporation to fully review the range of incentives and disincentives that could be applied to this area within the context of the government’s Staff Housing Policy.
The 2015-16 ministerial letter of expectation to the chairperson of the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s board of directors provides that the corporation is expected to provide a “yearly comprehensive report on all procurement, contracting and leasing activities.”
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2012-13 annual report on contracting and procurement activities was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on March 20 of 2014.
However, its 2013-14 and 2014-15 annual reports have not yet been tabled.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s budget for its homeownership programs is funded through its annual capital estimates. The corporation’s 2016-17 capital estimates, which were approved by the Legislative Assembly during its fall 2015 sitting, included a total of $4,616,000 in funding for homeownership programs.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s draft 2016-17 business plan indicates that one of its priorities for the 2016-17 fiscal year is to “Begin to implement proposed changes to…home ownership programs resulting from the Blueprint for Action.”
As part of its consideration of the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s 2014-15 main estimates and business plan, the standing committee recommended that the corporation review its current residency requirements for its homeownership programs so as to achieve greater consistency with other territorial programs and entitlements.
This recommendation was repeated in respect to the corporation’s 2015-16 main estimates.
This requirement also applies to voting in the upcoming territory-wide plebiscite concerning the sale of municipal lands.
However, there is currently no minimum residency requirement in place with respect to the Nunavut Downpayment Assistance Program.
This results in a fundamentally unfair situation where an individual may not have lived in the territory for a sufficient length of time to vote in a general election or in the upcoming land plebiscite, but can qualify to receive significant financial assistance from the government under this program.
Mr. Chairman, it is not unreasonable to expect individuals to have lived in the territory for at least one year prior to being eligible to receive significant financial support under the government’s homeownership programs.
The standing committee urges the new minister to ensure that all of the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s homeownership programs require applicants to have lived in the territory for at least one year prior to being eligible for consideration.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my opening comments on the proposed 2016-17 Main Estimates and 2016-19 Business Plan of the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Chairman: The floor is now open for general comments. I want to remind members that the contents of the minister’s opening comments are covered in the different branches of the department.
Department Summary. Nunavut Housing Corporation. (interpretation) Page L-3.
Good afternoon, Minister and staff.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation selected the private company, Outcrop Nunavut, to develop a blueprint for action to implement NHC’s Long-term Comprehensive Housing and Homelessness Strategy.
What were the results of the engagement sessions that were held during the fall of 2015?
The blueprint for action document itself and the strategy behind it has been an ongoing endeavour for a period of time now.
There have been some preliminary meetings with stakeholders and let’s just say that it’s being ramped up and sped up a lot more to attempt to meet our deadline of this upcoming fall.
Although the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s Long-term Comprehensive Housing and Homelessness Strategy was tabled in the Legislative Assembly in May of 2013, the action plan to implement the strategy is not expected to be tabled until the fall of 2016, three and a half years after the completion of the strategy.
Will the strategy itself need to be updated?
Right now, I would say not likely, but at the same time, during our analysis, stakeholder meetings, and consultations with the public, it is a possibility, but the blueprint for action are actionable tasks that we can use to meet the strategy.
The action plan itself will dictate how we move forward with dealing with housing issues across the territory.
With that, the strategy in itself… . We all know that there’s a shortage of housing in Nunavut and we’re always looking for homeless shelters.
Is there an indication in the strategy that there should be one in any community or every community?
When it comes to homeless shelters, it’s usually funded through societies that can be created in any community.
We will work with LHOs to identify a need and to see if there’s a possibility of partnering up or helping to provide supports to societies that are interested in establishing homelessness shelters in their communities.
That being said, again it goes back to the blueprint for action on how we can go about meeting the needs.
We’re all very much aware that there is an issue of people, not just having the hidden homeless, the couch surfers, and the people who are staying with family and friends, creating overcrowding situations.
Our whole initiative behind this action plan is to provide actionable items so that we can deal with some of these issues in a concentrated effort.
You know that we do have people who are living on couches in almost every community.
That should indicate that we should have a shelter like that.
In the smaller communities, they seem to have a hard time getting a society going.
Can the housing board become a society as such as a society for homelessness?
Hon. Minister of the Nunavut Housing Corporation, Mr. Hickes.
Hon. George Hickes: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the member for keeping light on this issue.
In an ideal scenario, I think we would like to provide Nunavummiut with housing so that we don’t have to deal with homeless shelters.
That being said, I think LHOs could provide some support to a society in the creation of a society, but I wouldn’t want to put that pressure and additional duties and potential for liabilities on a local housing organization. That’s not the role they play.
If community members have an identified need within their community where they have the impetus to create a society and can work with other partnering organizations, including the Nunavut Housing Corporation, then we can attempt to set something like that up.
What is your approximate cost of implementing the Nunavut Housing Corporation’s Long-term Comprehensive Housing and Homelessness Strategy?
With the amount of units, over 3,000 units across the territory that we feel we’re in a deficit, if I recall correctly, the last number I looked at was approximately $1.6 billion.
If I can add to that, that is the 20-year investment. To actually eliminate overcrowding and keep pace with population growth, we’re looking at $2.5 billion.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation’s draft 2016-19 business plan indicates that the corporation has “continued to work closely with the other two Territories to develop a Northern Business Case for Federal Investments in Housing.”
As of today, what is the status of this business case?
I appreciate that question.
I just had a conference call on Friday during the storm. I came into the office and I had a conference call with both NWT and Yukon.
The business case has been finalized. It’s in the process of being provided to the federal government to assist us all in allocating for additional funding and stable funding.
It is available on the website for all members to look at. It’s at northernhousing.ca.
If I understood you, is there a light at the end of the tunnel for Nunavut?
I believe there is and I don’t think it’s a train.
I’m very optimistic with the upcoming federal budget on March 22.
I think myself and my territorial counterparts have made a very solid argument of investing in housing in the north and how it impacts not only nation-building, but it impacts the economy all across the country. I think we have made a very sound argument and I’m optimistically looking forward to the March 22 budget.
It’s nice to hear a good response.
My last question will be: when will you table the northern business case for federal investments in housing in the Legislative Assembly?
That will be my last question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I thank the member for that question. It is available publicly like on the website that I just stated, northernhousing.ca, but if the committee wishes me to table it, I can commit to tabling it before the end of this sitting.
We’re on L-3.
Department Summary. Nunavut Housing Corporation. Following the list of names, Mr. Shooyook.
Mr. Shooyook (interpretation): Having not spoken for a while, my voice seems hoarse.
I had several questions earlier, but my in-law has quite speedily raised the issues.
I understand the responses, so I wonder if I can ask questions on the opening comments.
Yes, within the opening comments, I mistakenly referred to a figure simply due to not having any financial background. I tend to be confused when I am trying to decipher the financial figures.
Within page 2 of the Inuktitut version of the opening comments, you alluded to 248 new units that were quoted as being constructed. The units were allocated for public housing units.
I would like to understand if these 248 units are standalone units or multiplexes.
Are the units constructed here in Nunavut multiplexes in that amount? I would like to get that clarified first.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you very much. (interpretation ends) May I remind all members to have your cellphones on silent mode.
Over the years, the Nunavut Housing Corporation has learned a number of lessons with regard to building single family dwellings and multiplex units.
For the efficiencies of economy to scale to build as many units as we can to address the dire need of housing across the territory, we have elected to be building multiplex units and we will continue to do so for the time being.
Mr. Shooyook (interpretation): I have a brief question. Thank you.
In addition, you seem to be indicating that these units are largely completed within the 2015-16 year, as the wording states that units are mostly complete.
I want to ask about this other financial amount under operations and maintenance totalling $26,000, which seems insignificant.
What is the purpose of this fund or is this part of costs towards these multiplexes? I would like to know the intent behind this fund. Can you clarify that for me?
Hon. George Hickes: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Member Shooyook, for bringing a highlight to the cost it takes to maintain a public housing unit in Nunavut.
It’s an ongoing battle that we have with the amount of units that we have, over 70 percent of which were built prior to 1999 with ever-increasing maintenance costs. Utilities costs make up the bulk of that $26,000 per year, that is, water, sewer, heating fuel, and electricity.
Those costs are increasing year by year, as members saw from our supplementary appropriation last year of $3.6 million to address the immediate need and an increase in this year’s budget to address ongoing increases in utilities.
It’s something that I’m very much aware of and I had some questions today under my other hat of Qulliq Energy of what are we doing to maintain more efficient models of construction. I’m very proud to say that the Nunavut Housing Corporation has the constructions that we’re doing right now that are rated at about 83 percent efficiency.
What that means in layman’s terms or simple terms is that other than going to standalone, off-grid power generation, we’re at a very efficient construction model.
We’re utilizing as many positive technologies that are available to have energy-efficient and low-consumption units that we’re building right now.
I don’t know how fast that’s going to have an impact on that $26,000 per year as other utility costs do continue to increase. It seems to be offsetting what measures we’re taking.
It’s something that we have addressed not only amongst ourselves and with the government but also with some of our other funding partners.
With the ever-decreasing CMHC dollars, it’s something that we’re very much aware of and I’m making sure that we’re getting that message out there that this is another area where we need to focus some assistance on.
It’s fantastic when we get money to build new units across the territory, but at the same time, it puts strain on the Nunavut Housing Corporation and, in turn, on the Government of Nunavut to provide operations and maintenance costs for those units.
Chairman: Thank you. Mr. Shooyook.
Mr. Shooyook (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also thank you for clarifying that.
Just get to back to the $26,000 briefly, is this $26,000 sufficient for the operations and maintenance of a unit?
Prices are increasing for the operation of a unit. Can you tell me when there will be an increase to this $26,000 or if it will stay the same for some time?
As these expenses are somewhat out of our control, I can’t answer that completely or definitely.
I do know, I believe it was as little as two years ago, the average was $24,000 per unit and now we’re at $26,000 per unit, so it is trending up.
With regard to if that’s sufficient or not, it’s something that we budget for and we work very hard to stay within those budget parameters, but as what had happened last year, we were forced to come to this legislature to request a supplementary appropriation to help us meet that need.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you very much. (interpretation ends) Department Summary.
Following the list of names, Mr. Okalik.
Mr. Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) My question is in relation to Habitat Housing.
I enjoy volunteering for builds here, but we haven’t seen any more builds since 2013.
It is a very good program of assisting new homeowners with volunteer labour.
One of their struggles was that they couldn’t get lots.
If they can’t get lots here, can you, perhaps, lobby them to build in another community?
These people end up with real homeownership and it’s a lot of pride to own your own home. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I think the member may have been party to some meetings or something, it sounds like.
Habitat for Humanity is a fantastic program that has been able to provide homeownership to people over the years, specifically here in Iqaluit.
I have been informed by my CEO, Mr. Audla, that there have been recent discussions with Habitat for Humanity of doing just that, exploring opportunities in other communities to identify Habitat for Humanity housing options.
Mr. Okalik: Good. I look forward to hearing more about it. I will gladly volunteer again.
It’s a lot of fun. It’s very rewarding assisting fellow homeowners.
The other question I have is, during my travels into other communities, I often stay with family and they’re homeowners too, but they don’t have the luxury of contractors to maintain their homes.
I have lobbied every new Minister of Housing to start a training program just to maintain a home like maintaining home furnaces and using our educational facilities when they’re not in use so that these homeowners can learn to maintain their homes.
When they can’t afford their own homes, they end up in public housing.
I look forward to plans from the housing corporation to start doing these training programs where there are no contractors in the Nunavut communities.
Can the minister, perhaps, look into that further and come up with a plan?
The member brings up a very valid point.
There is a continual challenge in some communities of having contractors available to do some of the work. Some of the seasonal work or minor maintenance on some of the infrastructure within their home probably could be done by the homeowner with some minor training.
From what I understand, that is a topic that has been brought up through the blueprint for action discussions.
I do know, through our home repair program, we have taken a step of adding contractor travel outside of the grant amount to be able to bring contractors in to assist homeowners with the repair programs that they get through the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
It’s something that I’ll take under consideration to see if there is some way we can partner with other stakeholders to see if something like that is feasible.
We went to tour the housing units that were recently built.
I think it was last fall.
We looked at the inside, but the stoves that they were using were older models and they use more electricity.
I want that looked into further because it increases the energy costs. The newer model lighting fixtures don’t use much energy and we still don’t utilize them enough.
I would like the housing corporation to look further into it because they can cut down the costs.
Anytime somebody brings up energy efficiency and potential for alternative energy, it piques my interest, as it’s near and dear to my beliefs.
It’s something that I know we’ve had discussions or preliminary ones that I’ve had with the Nunavut Housing Corporation officials.
Like the member stated, all new construction and major retrofits do use LED lighting to reduce energy costs.
We’re looking at exploring a number of different methods to help alleviate stresses on our utility consumption, so it’s something that I’m always taking into consideration.
Mr. Okalik (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Yes, we do have a lot of public housing units throughout our territory and LED lighting is a very good cost saver for any home, particularly for public housing where we are spending public dollars.
Are there any plans from the corporation to convert to LED housing on existing stock or older stock, which is using the bulk of the O&M budget?
As I had mentioned, I’m looking at exploring all different ways of decreasing energy consumption.
It’s not as simple as just changing light bulbs in most units. They’re set up with fluorescent lighting systems and different ballasts and older technologies that would have to be replaced with newer technologies.
With a lot of the discussions on climate change, affordable energy, and clean energy, energy efficiency is something that the Nunavut Housing Corporation will continue to look for assistance on bringing in different programs that can help alleviate energy consumption.
To directly answer the member’s question, as I stated earlier, I’m always looking for different opportunities to help alleviate stresses on energy consumption, so yes.
Department Summary. Nunavut Housing Corporation. Following the list of names, Mr. Enook.
Let me first welcome the minister, especially Mr. Audla. Welcome. We expect to form a good working relationship with you.