Alfred Moses

As mentioned, when clients do go on income assistance or need that top up for market rental rates, the clients also have to adhere and still need to live up to the elements of what's in the lease agreement. When they get income assistance, they have to also abide by what they signed in the forms. Our Client Service Officers are just following policy, following legislation, and the landlords are also following what's in the lease agreements. When we fill out forms, we've got to make sure that we do it in the best way that's going to keep the family in the home.

When a client comes to the office, our CSOs, I believe, do a great job. Within the last government, a lot of changes and improvements and developments have been made, compliance and audit of the files have been developed, our regional managers actually do a monthly compliance of the workloads that their CSO's do. We have increased the staff training, as well as development. We also got to understand that in some cases, with some of our clients, they also need to live up to what is in the lease agreements with their renters as well, when going through this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The department is currently working on an immigration communication strategy, which will continue to promote and raise awareness about the program. Increasing the awareness is critical for all employers, as well as stakeholders in the Northwest Territories. We also have a 1-800 number and employers can check online to see how they can get into the program, and we are, I believe, looking at a goal of 60 nominees for 2016.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, enhancing the Nominee Program is critical for the Northwest Territories, as the Member had stated in his Member's statement, in achieving its population as well as economic growth objectives, and also meeting some of the staff needs for northern businesses and northern employers. We have had success moving forward, but the department, I'll have to say, is currently developing an immigration framework, which will provide an integrated approach to implementing and monitoring long-term objectives of the Nominee Program, while also supporting territorial...

As mentioned, based on the typical planning model, Moose Kerr School would be identified for renovations or replacement in approximately 2019 or 2020, but the existing condition of the building would need to be assessed prior to a recommendation for renovation or replacement. As I mentioned, technical assessments and numerous elements have been replaced or repaired through the maintenance funding, as I mentioned earlier, and that addressed a lot of issues.

Once again, I would be willing to work with the Member to do a community visit and look at the building. One of our policies as well is with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome everybody into the House today, and in particular, Mr. Geoff Ray. He and I go way back in terms of doing a lot of work, whether it was the anti-tobacco work that we did, helping create legislation in this House, as well as the Get Active campaigns and many healthy living initiatives. I'd like to welcome him to the House. Thank you.

As mentioned earlier, we do take guidance from the National Occupancy Standards, as well as the Residential Tenancies Act. That was reviewed in the last government, but we don't have a specific policy related to overcrowding. Obviously, we do want to provide the best possible outcomes for families and those that are in need of being housed, but it is a shared responsibility of individuals as well as the social departments within the governments. If that's something that we do need to set as a policy or standard, like I mentioned, we'll have to look at what the National Occupancy Standards do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of speaking to individual cases due to privacy laws that protect personal information, we cannot speak to personal individual circumstances or caseloads that are within our department. However, in terms of overcrowding, I don't have the exact number that the department does go by. I can inform the Member, though, that the department does currently get its guidance from sources like the National Occupancy Standards and the Residential Tenancies Act in assessing the appropriateness of housing of clients.

Yes, as best practices, the department does go look at other jurisdictions to see what's happening with their programs, and we try to fit that and adapt that to northern situations. We have also a consolidated program delivery and dedicated specialized resources to the program. We've engaged employers and stakeholders that do need some of the personal resources to help them do their jobs, and just for the Member, in 2015, there were 106 nominees and their dependents approved under this program, and 460 since 2009.

As mentioned, if there was to be a replacement or major renovations to the Moose Kerr School, it would be in 2019, and that is during the life of this government. I will go back to the department and look at how we can put that possibly into the planning study before it gets into the building stages. I once again want to assure the Member that we will be doing a community tour up in the Beaufort-Delta during the month of March.