Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. The intake cycle is over. We are evaluating a lot of the applications. There are some that get approved fairly quickly because of the information they provide. There are some we still need to work on. I’m not quite sure when the exact evaluation of all applications is done. However, when it is, I will inform the Member and Members of the House. We will see, at the end of that cycle, how many vacant units we have and then our plan going forward with those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, there was a program a few years ago. However, I think when it was determined that we were going to have government service officers in each community, part of their role was going to be exactly that, advising people of all the program deadlines and that with all government programs, including the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. However, I can inform the Member that, as a corporation, we are looking at roles and responsibilities of our LHOs so we can better serve a lot of these smaller communities. We are developing proposals that we’re hoping to bring forward to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was quite a growing concern a few years ago with the number of vacancies that we had in our home ownership portfolio. I always credit a lot of that to the good work done by the corporation in making use of the money that we got from Ottawa. We had to use the money or we would lose it, so we tried to get as many units on the ground, and that left us with the problem of trying to fill a lot of these vacant units.

I think in the last year or so, we’ve done a very good job in filling these units. We’ve converted some of them over to public housing. We’re trying to find...

As far as the policy goes, if there is an accident on the highway such as there was last week, I mean, first of all, being good neighbours that NWT people are, they will respond to accidents and do what they can to assist. As far as whose jurisdiction that is, that is a question that I’m not sure about. We would like to think that our communities would be equipped to deal with situations on the highway, and that’s part of how we’re going to do business now. The plan, through MACA, is to offer training to those that want to be qualified as first responders, and that way that will enable them to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure of the exact number; however, I would assume that in places like Yellowknife and Hay River and those on the highway system with properly trained first responders would have ambulance services.

Mr. Speaker, no, we will not adjust their arrears. There have been opportunities in the past through a number of different programs where the arrears have been adjusted, the latest one being when it was transferred. The role of the assessment was transferred back to the Housing Corporation or the LHOs from ECE. A lot of adjustments were made at the time and there was a significant decrease in arrears.

Again, a lot of times it’s a matter of the client coming in, verifying their income, because if you don’t verify your income, you are automatically assessed at market rate and that tends to have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a few empty houses in Fort Providence. There are a number of reasons people are evicted. Arrears is one of them. There could have been noise and disturbance, and a number of other issues that they are evicted from public housing. Usually there is opportunity there for them, if they enter into some kind of agreement, to try and get back on to the public housing waiting list and hopefully back into public housing.

Our goal as NWT Housing Corporation is to house people, not to evict them. But at the same time, as a partnership, they have to work with us. Many...

We will have a discussion within the department and then we can further that up with a discussion, if need be, with the folks in Yellowknife, because they do have a lot of qualified personnel here.

At the end of the day, our goal is to have qualified first responders in many of the highway communities in the Northwest Territories, then they would be better equipped dealing with emergencies such as this and other such emergencies involving vehicles on the highway.

I do know that we have 33 communities in the Northwest Territories. We have 16 of them that do have updated emergency plans, we have 15 that have emergency plans that need to be updated, and we have two communities without any type of emergency plan at all.

Mr. Speaker, the first thing that could happen is the tenants themselves could make a point of going into the LHOs and working out some kind of plan with the local housing authority, and then they can honour the plan. I believe that once they do that and they show good faith, I think good faith will be shown on the LHO’s part.

As I said before, it is a partnership. We will work with them, but they have to be willing to work with us also. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.