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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - This year's $55-million budget for the NWT Housing Corp. will mean a lot of renovation and upgrade work for contractors in the territory, said Stephen Pretty, manager of strategic planning, policy and communications for the housing corp.

Bertha Francis of Fort McPherson stands in front of the home the NWT Housing Corporation built for her. Around 385 jobs will be created as a result of social housing construction over the next two years, according to the NWT Housing Corp. - NNSL file photo

Last week the housing corp. announced it will build 100 homes across all NWT communities by drawing from $30 million of its own funds and $25 million in federal money.

But only about $20.3 million of this year's budget will be devoted to new home construction; the rest will go to modernization and improvement projects for existing public housing units and renovation projects for low income homeowners.

"On the home ownership side, we'll be pouring significant money through our CARE program," said Pretty, referring to the housing corp.'s Contributing Assistance for Repairs and Enhancements program.

The program assists existing homeowners in making necessary repairs to their home "to ensure a safe and healthy residence and to increase the useful economic life of their home," according to the housing corp.'s website.

"Depending on their level of income, they'll qualify for assistance of between $10,000 and $90,000," said Pretty, adding varying income levels throughout NWT communities makes it hard to determine exactly how much support a family in a certain income will get.

Homeowners and current public housing tenants are very keen to report damage to their homes, as well as inefficient, energy-wasting practices, he said.

"Window upgrades is a big thing; door upgrades; increases in insulation," said Pretty. "They get a sense that maybe the unit is burning more oil than it needs to. Many of our tenants are very proactive with that even though they're not necessarily paying for it."

Don Worrall, executive director of the NWT Construction Association, said the money to be poured into renovation work is well-timed, given the economic slowdown.

According to Statistics Canada, public sector construction in the NWT is projected to top $184.5 million, up from $129.3 in 2007.

On the other hand, private sector construction is expected to take a dive, dropping to $980 million from $1.5 billion last year.

However, figures on private construction spending for 2008 in the NWT for non-residential construction are based on a sample survey of Northern businesses conducted from October, 2008 to late January, 2009, according to the NWT Bureau of Statistics - in the early stages of the economic meltdown.

"It sounds like good news to me," said Worrall of the focus on renovations, adding about the overall show of support from the federal government, "I think that building infrastructure is one of the best ways to bail us out of the current predicament because it creates jobs more quickly than many other things and it has various spinoff effects."

But Gerald Patenaude, a staffer at Cherdon Enterprises, a contractor in Fort Providence, had a different take on the renovation program.

"It's kind of bad news," said Patenaude. "They should have built a few more houses instead of putting that amount of money into (renovations and modernization and improvement projects). There's a whole bunch of homeless people who have no houses, or too many people in the same house. "

A housing corp. survey aiming to find out whether the infusion of 450 new public housing units over the past three years has helped alleviate the need for new housing is expected to tabled in the May-June sitting of the NWT legislative assembly, according to Pretty.