Robert C. McLeod

Evictions are the last resort. Evictions are something that have taken maybe a year or two to get to. We’ve given folks the opportunity to honour their repayment plans that they’ve agreed to enter into and we don’t want to evict anybody.

All we’re asking people to do is honour the agreements that they’ve made. We’ve seen an improvement across the Northwest Territories in the collection rate. Some are up at 127 percent. The majority of them are 99 percent. Since we’ve taken it over, back from ECE, and the assessments are being done by the LHOs, we’ve seen the collection rate go from 82 percent...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today I have Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; Laura Gareau, director of corporate affairs with MACA; and Kelly McLaughlin, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice. Thank you.

We’ve been trying to work very hard with the tenants of Paulatuk housing. We’ve seen quite an improvement in the collection rate in Paulatuk. It’s steadily climbing. The assessments have improved dramatically in Paulatuk. The reassessments that I mentioned to the Member, I think when he asked earlier, have been completed and there’s been a substantial drop in some of the arrears for a lot of the folks in Paulatuk. I know in one particular case alone it’s almost like $100,000 has been removed from their arrears. That’s a significant improvement.

We’ve tried on many occasions to work with them. I...

Mr. Chairman, I am here to present Bill 19, Cost of Credit Disclosure Act. This act fulfills a commitment made by the Premier of the Northwest Territories, who was a signatory of the Agreement on Internal Trade (1994).

That agreement was signed by Canada`s First Ministers in July 1994, to reduce barriers to the movement of persons, goods, services, and investments within Canada. The objectives of the reforms in the agreement are to harmonize laws and develop simplified, uniform cost of credit disclosure requirements to reduce compliance costs and provide uniform consumer protection across...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We try very hard to distribute the resources for housing fairly across the Northwest Territories. I think if we add up the numbers, we’ll find the smaller communities get a higher average of money than some of the larger communities. I know in the Member’s community alone, Paulatuk, the one he referenced, this year there was a $2 million investment in the community. That’s with the homeownership, the MNI work that’s being done. We recognize some of the units need some work, and we’ve been fortunate the last few years that we’ve been able to allocate a lot of funds to...

The department has no more community planners within the regional offices. Most of the community planning is done within the communities themselves, and if they do have someone that they bring from outside the community, I’m sure the community will school them quite quickly on the land claims. Because it’s our intent, and I think it’s been proven in the past, that all departments take the land claims quite seriously and there’s a consultation process that needs to take place in any decisions that may have an effect on the land claims. But again I point out the fact that the land claims are...

That is one of our goals: to work with the tenants in public housing and make the transition into homeownership as seamless as possible. We are hoping with all the new information... We are just completing the evaluation of the Housing Choices Program, which some recommendations again will be made early in the life of the 17th Assembly. I think, all in all, Mr. Speaker, a lot of good work has been done that has been addressing a lot of concerns that were raised in this House with motions passed. We’ve heard in every community that we’ve travelled to about some of their concerns. I think the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did take a look at the proposed motion by the Member back in May and then we have gotten legal advice, and our position is it’s basically telling us we have to obey the law.

My understanding of Aboriginal or treaty rights is they cannot be extinguished or abrogated by a legislative act. I think we all know there are only two ways to extinguish or abrogate Aboriginal or treaty rights, and one is with the consent of the Aboriginal party in the form of a modern day treaty, and the other one is an amendment to the Constitution. So we believe that the Aboriginal land claims...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, there’s been a lot of work done on the Shelter Policy Review in the last little bit. Part of that review was looking at the rent scale. I have met with committee. I’ve given a bit of an update on some of the work that’s been done. I can inform this House that the rent scale review, for the most part, has been completed. We are hoping to use a lot of the data and some recommendations in there in the transition document to the 17th Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.