Robert C. McLeod – 2014 NWT Community Survey – Housing Results

Ministers' Statements and Speeches

Mr. Speaker, later today I will be tabling information that provides a summary of housing results from the 2014 NWT Community Survey.

The NWT Community Survey is a household survey conducted by the NWT Bureau of Statistics every five years. While there is a variety of important information from the survey, most important to the NWT Housing Corporation is the measure of core housing need.

Core housing need tells us how many NWT households are having housing problems like affordability, overcrowding, or poor housing quality and not enough income to address these issues.

Mr. Speaker results from the 2014 NWT Community Survey indicate that while overall core housing need has remained relatively stable compared to 2009, there has been considerable progress in improving housing conditions in smaller NWT communities. Core housing need has dropped by 24% in our non-market communities between 2009 and 2014, with 20 out of the 28 communities having improved housing conditions.

The NWT Housing Corporation has invested considerable resources over the past several years to improve the quality of their assets and to support homeowners in making the necessary repairs to their homes. The value of these investments is reflected in these results.

However, Mr. Speaker, while these results show progress in our non-market communities, the core housing need in most smaller NWT communities continues to be higher than in larger communities.

The majority of this core need is for homeowners and the NWT Housing Corporation will continue to work with these residents in partnership as they complete the required repairs for their houses.

Among the market communities, the core housing need improved slightly in most communities. The exception is Yellowknife where core housing need increased from 9.1% to 17.8% of households between 2009 and 2014. The majority of the core housing need in Yellowknife is for residents in private market rentals that are experiencing affordability problems.

Mr. Speaker, the housing results from the 2014 NWT Community Survey indicate that progress is being made but there is more work to be done. The 17th Legislative Assembly made addressing housing need a priority. The NWT Housing Corporation will be examining the housing results from this survey in detail and the strategic priorities outlined in its strategic plan to determine potential actions to continue addressing the identified trends.

Mr. Speaker, I would again like to thank Members for their advice and support as the NWT Housing Corporation has introduced considerable changes over the past few years and I look forward to continuing to work with them as we work towards the goal of all NWT residents having access to affordable, adequate and suitable housing.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.