EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
The minister stated that NNI has to be followed.
I’m aware of that. I’m talking about after the contract is awarded.
Some companies probably bid just on paying the NNI penalty because if you don’t follow NNI, you can pay a penalty and you still get the contract. I believe that some of these big companies just bid accordingly. They factor in the penalty for NNI and bid.
I just want to know if there’s anything being done for the smaller contractors that aren’t getting the work. I’m not saying that they have to change their policy because we all know why the policy was changed.
How are the small contractors or local employment being pushed forward as part of the agenda for the housing’s contract on houses?
As I previously stated, if the larger companies go to the communities, then that smaller company in that same community was not, for example, able to get the contract that the big contractor is coming to make because it’s too expensive and they couldn’t initiate it on their own, being a smaller company and having less money. There are different reasons like that.
What I’m saying is that the larger company would work with the SSE and then utilize the small company as a subcontractor.
Although the smaller company is not an actual contractor for the project, they can negotiate a subcontract with the larger contractor that they can work under and become part of that project. That contractor can talk with the larger contractor on their own, and we have supported that process and we would like the larger companies and the smaller companies to work together like that.
I understand that the housing corporation is pushing to have the small contractors or local employment. I just want to know how it’s being done.
Is there a policy, is it on paper, or is it part of the contract?
How is the housing corporation’s policy encouraging the big contractors to work with smaller contractors or to hire local employment?
As I stated earlier in regard to the member’s question, although there is no such policy stating that the big contractors are to subcontract to smaller contractors, although there is nothing written in the policy, we encourage the contractors to subcontract or work with the smaller contractors when they’re working on a project at the local level.
We expect that they can work together, but we expect the larger company to work with the smaller company at the local level. That’s what we expect to see, but there is no set policy on that.
Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, in the future, we can consider such policies.
With that, I think the minister should be considering that.
Thank you very much for that, because we need all the employment that we can in the smaller communities. The only employment that smaller communities get are construction jobs during construction season.
On a different matter, one of my colleagues asked about the rental arrears from local housing associations, and you stated that you have a new collections policies, and we heard that in March, 2013, the arrears were at $22.7 million.
Do people get evicted from public housing units if their arrears get too high?
In regard to the question, if people have too much arrears and have to be evicted, it’s very difficult and challenging for local housing organizations. When can we evict the tenants?
The practice is quite long, so if you don’t mind, Mr. Chairman, I’d like to have Ms. Kimball respond.
As the minister mentioned, the process and protocol to move forward an eviction is quite lengthy and involves a number of stakeholders.
Our focus has been on the development of our collection policy and focus on training to ensure that we have all the appropriate documentation and recordkeeping facilitating that process, so that we can get more aggressive on the eviction side. So we’re focusing on making sure that we are everything properly so as we take that through the process, we can actually successfully get to the eviction phase.
Hopefully, we can work something out with our tenants to avoid eviction, but for tenants that are not working with us and appear to have the ability to pay but are choosing not to pay, those are definitely the tenants that we’re going to work more aggressively with.
We do recognize some people are just really struggling, and we do make every effort to work with those tenants.
I think what Ms. Kimball said is right. The ones that can’t pay that are struggling that the local housing association work with them. That’s commendable.
The ones that appear that don’t want to pay, is there a process where they’re wages can get garnished?
Yes, we have a policy like that where the wages can be garnished. There is a policy like that in place.
I know that rent collection is the responsibility of the local housing associations but I think more emphasis has to be placed on them from your department to collect more.
The arrears are at almost $23 million. That will build a lot of houses that people need.
I assume that when rent is not being collected, either the local housing association is less that much money, or the Nunavut Housing Corporation, I’m not sure how that works. So I think more emphasis has to be put into collecting rental arrears and that’s not a question, just a comment. I’m done.
Hon. Minister, although that was just a comment but if you’d like to respond or make supplementary comments to that, I’ll allow you to do that. Hon. Minister.
I also would like to thank the member. I would like to supplement by saying that for arrears looking at the amount of arrears as my colleague had stated earlier on when do we evict the tenants. Both the local housing organizations and also the Nunavut Housing Corporation and the government could utilize the amount of arrears that is there.
All of us, Mr. Chairman, should pay close attention to make sure that the tenants pay their rent so that it can be utilized more. It’s very difficult and challenging to get the arrears paid. Mr. Chairman that was just a comment so I’ll conclude with that.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Just to remind the members that we are on page L-3 in English. In Inuktitut, R-3.
Moving on, Mr. Mikkungwak.
Mr. Mikkungwak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just going straight to my question.
First of all, I’ll be asking about the homeownership program. (interpretation ends) There are various programs here. My first question will be Nunavut Downpayment Assistance Program, Tenant-to-Owner Program, and Interim Financing Program. Is there a household eligibility threshold limit?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you.
There is a threshold at $125,000. I can respond by saying that.
Thank you for the answer. How long has this threshold been in place?
I personally do not know how long it has been in place so therefore I’ll ask Mr. Kimball because I’m sure she is aware of that.
If you don’t mind, Mr. Chairman, I would like her to respond.
I’m not sure of the exact year that came in but I know that has been in effect for many years, at least seven years that I’m aware of, if not longer.
That is part of what we are doing right now with our review is looking at what has happened with wage increases, consumer price index.
We are looking at a whole bunch of factors as a basis for our analysis for an adjustment to that income threshold.
Mr. Mikkungwak: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the minister and the official for their response.
My next question to that would be, with the current private home owners across the territory that have mortgages that have been signed off by the private home owners and the Nunavut Housing Corporation would that have to be adjusted if the eligibility threshold has been adjusted?
In regards to the Member’s question… (interpretation ends) There would be no impact.
Chairman (Mr. Mapsalak): Thank you. Mr. Mikkungwak.
Under home ownership again the renovation program, senior citizen’s home repair, emergency repair, heating oil tank replacement repair programs which are available to private home owners.
Is there an eligibility threshold?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman, but I thank the member for his question but I didn’t get your entire question.
I missed the beginning of your question. I understood or heard part of your question. If you could repeat your question, Mr. Chairman?
These renovation programs under the Nunavut Housing Corporation; home repair program, senior citizens home repair program, emergency repair program, heating oil tank replacement program.
Do they have a household eligibility threshold to be eligible for these various programs?
Chairman: Minister Kuksuk.
Yes, I understand your question now.
No, there is no threshold for those things that you’re talking about.
Mr. Mikkungwak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the minister for his response.
What would, for example in my community a number of private access home owners who are now paying off their premiums stages and who have resided in their private homes for 15 years now were almost half concluded their 15-year mortgage.
What would they have to do in order to get a visit in the community to possibly look at these programs to get assistance?
Like I said to his last question, I’m sorry I gave him the wrong answer.
Not the very last one but whether there’s a threshold in how much that individual has to make in order to get assistance for renovations of his house. On the emergency side or whether the individual is an older person, the Senior Citizens Home Repair Program, and if he needs a new tank and he asked about the threshold would be, as I said, there is no threshold to his question, but I’m sorry that some of them have a threshold.
For instance, the income threshold for the Home Renovation Program is around $100,000. For the Emergency Repair Program, the income threshold is $125,000. For the Senior Citizens Home Repair Program, the income threshold is $125,000.
However, we don’t have an income threshold for the Heating Oil Tank Replacement Program.
Mr. Chairman, I’m sorry for making a mistake in my previous response to the member. We can now get back to his other question. If it’s okay with you, Mr. Chairman, I would like to hear the member’s question again.
I think your apology is accepted.
Mr. Mikkungwak, can you repeat the question?
I’ll rephrase my question now after hearing the answers.
With these people who do have private homeownership, the Home Repair Program and other emergency repair programs, seeing that there are a number of private homeowners within my community who have not received any visitation for an audit or an inspection to see how well off they are doing in their private homes, what does it take for them to receive a visit by an inspector or a home audit?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand his question perfectly.
For instance, if a homeowner has to get visitation from housing corporation staff to see whether the individual needs some renovations done to his house, they can request to get visitation.
I’m sure the private homeowners are very happy to hear that in Baker Lake.
Moving on, the Nunavut Housing Corporation, as a department, will be working with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated regarding affordable housing needs in Nunavut, and they will be discussing and meeting.
Is that looking at the design models of public housing units that may be constructed in the next coming years?
This question has been asked before, whether we are in talks with NTI.
We don’t have that talk in place at the present time, but we would like to be able to work with Nunavut Tunngavik in the future. We will be talking with them to see what things that we can agree upon, whether what would be the design and other things that we have to do before we build a house.
I will speak in Inuktitut.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, before they start negotiations, would you be using Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit?
Some houses that are being built presently, when the door faces south, there is usually a lot of snow that builds up, but according to Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, the elders can tell you that it would be best to have the door facing a certain direction. Why aren’t you doing that?
I thank the member for his question. That question was asked before and I remember it a little bit. I agree with the member that the house has to not face the prevailing winds, or whatever.
We have to think about the lighting and the direction of the winds, and also we have to be able to listen to the hamlets because they provide the lots in the communities. The size of the lot depends on the size the house that we would build in each community.
I can say to the member that those types of things have been talked about by the Nunavut Housing Corporation, because we want to be able to have proper lighting and the doors not face the prevailing winds, and we have to have good air quality.
Those types of things have been talked about and we will think about those when we do.
I thank the minister for the response. Will the Nunavut Housing Corporation, or the minister, be tabling the Aajiiqatigiinniq between his department and NTI to the House?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If he could rephrase his question. I want to know exactly what he is talking about.
You can rule me out of order, but I’ll rephrase my question. The minister and his department, the Nunavut Housing Corporation, will be working collaboratively with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated on affordable housing, which is titled Aajiiqatigiinniq.
How they plan to look at more affordable housing, I’m assuming a report will be compiled. Will that be tabled in the House?
On the business plan, NHC-9, the fourth bullet.
Presently there is no annual report to table.
It is just a discussion, a consultation, a need for consultation and ongoing consultation at the present time, Mr. Chairman.
On priorities 2014-15 NHC-8, second bullet, “more energy efficient.” Are they applying that to all public housing units so that the utilities bill which was indicated by one of my colleagues won’t be so substantial?
Yes to the new housing units five-plex, the long ones I mean. What we call the long ones in Inuktitut.
These kinds of energy-efficient homes are things that are being looked at.
It seems that his question is related to that.
Yes, to new housing requirements that would be built by contractors.
On NHC-11 moving on priorities 2014-15 on the ninth bullet. I know one of my colleagues asked about local housing offices arrears.
Has your department also considered possible awards incentives for the actual tenants who are trying to make payments for their debts?
About the question, we are looking at various options that could be considered.
Chairman: Mr. Mikkungwak
Under NHC-14 going back to objectives of home ownership I just have one more question there.
The Government of Nunavut staff condominium program, which communities does that apply to?
If you don’t mind, Mr. Chairman, if it’s alright with you could I have one of my staff, Ms. Kimball, answer that?
Currently, NHC has delivered three condo programs. All three of them have so far been in Iqaluit. We are interested in looking at options for condo programs in other regions, but we want to do that in the context of the long-term comprehensive housing strategy and make sure that we’ve got all the barriers to a successful condo program reviewed and addressed before we would roll that out.
Mr. Mikkungwak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the official for the response.
On NHC-13, I’m not sure if one of my colleagues had asked this, but leases for staff housing rental units, when you look at the program budget from 2013-14 to 2014-15, you have an increment of almost $2 million.
Can the minister indicate why an increase in that area, considering the fact that they may be in long-term fixed agreements?
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I thank the member for that question.
I would like Ms. Kimball to provide a detailed response, if you don’t mind, Mr. Chairman.
The $2 million that we received in additional funding for 2014-15 is to allow us to lease additional staff housing units. Right now, GN recruiting is being impacted by the lack of available staff housing, and we would be looking at short-term leases.
Generally, we don’t find any leases longer than three years, which would give us some flexibility to be able to hire for now, but address the staff housing costs on a longer term.
On that note, so does that open up the renegotiations for the binding agreement, which may be adjusted?
I would like the member to indicate which binding agreement he is referring to in his question.
In NHC-13, previously I asked about leases for staff housing rental units and I did get an answer for that.
On that same note, my follow-up question to that was: would that impact the lease agreement and would that open up renegotiations for a binding agreement that is in place or would it not impact that?
If I understand his question correctly, the regional lease agreements (interpretation ends) would not be impacted. (interpretation) Thank you.
The next on my list, Ms. Angnakak.
I’m just wondering if you can explain the difference between a housing authority and a housing association, and how the roles and responsibilities differ from each other.
Hon. George Kuksuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank my colleague for that good, clear question.
Mr. Chairman, if it’s okay with you, Mr. Chairman, can I have Ms. Kimball elaborate on the exact differences between the local housing associations and local housing authorities?
In terms of the day-to-day operations and roles and responsibilities, there are actually no differences between an association and authority.
The difference lies in how the entity is legally structured.
An association is created under the Registrar of Societies under the Societies Act while an authority is created under the Nunavut Housing Corporation Act.
With an association, the board members are locally elected. Within an authority, we can choose to have a local election process, but the minister has to actually do the formal appointments for the board members.
Chairman (interpretation)(Mr. Mikkungwak): Thank you, Ms. Kimball.
Why is there a difference? Why do you choose to have the two models?
A few minutes, as an extension of that, can I ask Ms. Kimball continue with the answer on the elaboration of it?
To maintain their status as a registered society, there are a number of reporting requirements and annual filings, hoops to jump through.
The authorities are actually a little bit more streamlined, a little bit easier to maintain and we don’t run into some of the logistical challenges of having the societies lose their status. So it is actually easier for us if we maintain them as authorities.
Can you tell us which came first, the authorities or the association?
Again, can I have Ms. Kimball continue with that elaboration, if you don’t mind, Mr. Chairman?
The associations came first. At one point, we had municipalities that were also delivering housing. As we switched from municipalities into LHOs, independent local housing organizations, we converted them to authorities.
Since then, as we’ve had challenges with maintaining status of associations, we have converted to authorities just to keep things simple.
How many authorities and how many associations do we have in Nunavut?
The numbers that were just given to me says there are five local housing authorities in Nunavut.
Chairman: Thank you very much for that answer.
Is Iqaluit an authority or an association, the Iqaluit Housing Authority board?
Yes, Iqaluit is recognized as a housing authority.
When a board is the authority, because they are not being elected by the community, does that mean that the Nunavut Housing Corporation has more control over that board?
This is an excellent question and therefore I would want the answer to be crystal clear in terms of whether the Nunavut Housing Corporation would have more authority so could I have Ms. Kimball answer that if you don’t mind?
Ms. Kimball: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. the way the authorities work is the minister formally appoints the board members. However, we do encourage the local housing offices are welcome to use an annual general meeting process and use an election process to identify who they want to recommend to the minister. The minister has indicated that he is happy to support the community involvement.
Ms. Angnakak: When you have a situation where you get more names than positions how do you decide which of those members will be the board members if they are not elected by the community?
The names of prospective board members, once people have indicated their interest, there is a committee that would review the names.
It is an independent selection committee that would handle the names.
Which leads me to the question of who makes up the selection committee?
Is this outside of government?
As I stated it is an independent committee that is necessary to review prospective board members. As to who would sits on the committee, I would like Ms. Kimball to answer that question, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Kimball: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. when it comes time to change the board, usually the board is involved in recommending who the selection committee will be comprised of and usually try to take different senior positions in the committee that are independent from the local housing organization.
It has varied over the years between the different communities and the different authorities. It is developed in association with the local housing organization and with the board before we assign that selection committee.
Chairman: Thank you very much, Ms. Kimball.
Ms. Angnakak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. can you give an example of who might be involved in the community for the selection?
I can’t think of a way to answer that question, Mr. Chairman.
Maybe he can get one of his staff to answer the question.
If you have gone through this before then you will be able to give me an example of who has been on the selection committee representing the community and not the government.
With your permission, I would like Ms. Kimball to respond to the question.
Unfortunately, I have not been directly involved and we haven’t had one since I have been in the acting president role, but it’s definitely something I can get.
Ms. Angnakak: I have one more question.
Can the minister commit to tabling the management agreement plans between the Nunavut Housing Corporation and the local housing associations and the local housing authorities in this House during this session, yes or no?
I can respond to my colleague by saying that it would have to go through cabinet before it gets to the House.
Ms. Angnakak: Okay, that would be great, but in the meantime, can we get a blank management agreement to be tabled in the House this session?
That’s what I’m talking about. It would have to be approved first by cabinet.
It would have to go through cabinet and possibly tabled in the fall session.
I hear that the minister is committing to providing a copy in the fall session once it has gone through the approval of cabinet.
Moving on with the names, Mr. Joanasie.
I also have a question. I’m not sure if you will allow me to ask the question, but you can rule me out of order and I’ll ask a different question.
The main reason for asking this question is that apparently the Nunavut Housing Corporation can’t build new homes in Cape Dorset because the power plant is at its maximum capacity.
What has the Nunavut Housing Corporation done to try and correct that problem?
So if you can allow me to ask that first question, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you very much. (interpretation ends) Hon. Minister, Mr. Kuksuk.
Mr. Chairman, as to where this is at, if you don’t mind, I would like to defer your question to Ms. Kimball.
Last spring, when we were advised of the new $100 million from CMHC, we did meet with QEC and discussed the waitlist, the percentage of stock, our allocation methodology, and which communities had the highest demand.
Cape Dorset wasn’t at the top of the list, but they did express that if we had additional funding, Cape Dorset was kind of next on the list and could be impacted by their power plant issues and they did express concern.