Robert C. McLeod

Thank you. There are a lot of solutions that we can come up with. One of the first solutions is have all tenants pay their rent and for those that do fall into arrears, it’s not something that just happens on the spur of the moment. It’s usually a year-long process. They’re given many opportunities to address their arrears. They can speak to the boards, then they go to the rental officer and he’ll lay out some conditions. If they meet the terms of those conditions, then the termination won’t go ahead.

The trouble we have is a lot of times we get to the rental officer, he does put some...

Thank you. As of the implementation date, we are using the existing rent scales. However, it is our plan to review the whole rent scale and when the whole transfer is complete April 1st of next year, then we’re looking at having some changes that may be needed to the rent scale. Thank you.

Thank you. The government is making, the Housing Corp in particular is making more investment in the local housing building scene. We have, with the MNIs and the amount of repair work, we’ve got almost $50 million in repair work. I was talking to some of the local contractors in some of the other communities, they’re grateful for work, they’ve been very busy. I think more so now than ever with a lot of the training that the communities have had we’re seeing them start to take advantage and being competitive in the whole process and being able to get all the work that comes to the community...

Mr. Speaker, we have communicated our plan to the LHOs and to the tenants. There is also a public campaign that is going to be starting, advising them that as of June 1st they will be able to get their rental assessments done by the local housing authorities. We don’t anticipate much of a transition challenge right now because, as we all know, they were doing it quite seamlessly before and I think with the additional training that they have received, it should be a seamless transition. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we are willing to look at all options. We have to recognize, though, that cost could be a factor. If it proves feasible to do, as the Member suggested, and go to some invitational tenders, that is something we will have to look at. But the bottom line is trying to control costs and trying to do economies of scale so we can put more units into the communities and more maintenance work and repair work in some of the units. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as one of four Members in here from the Beaufort-Delta, we’re very fortunate up there that we have a whole wealth of knowledge that we can draw on to help as we represent the people of the Beaufort-Delta. One of the people that I do talk to quite a bit, Mr. Speaker, is with us here in the gallery. Mr. Fred Carmichael has been involved in politics in the Delta for a long time. He’s a recent recipient of the Order of Canada and also just recently celebrated his 75th birthday.

---Applause

So we were very fortunate up there, as all people are across the Northwest...

Mr. Speaker, we will have that discussion with the Executive. If Members and the public feel that this is the proper place to have the volunteer initiative, then that is a discussion that we will have to have. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I will consult with the appropriate department and get a timeline as to the concerns that the Member is raising and communicate those back to her. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as a government we would be willing to communicate to the CRTC our concerns with how the charges are made against the people of the Northwest Territories. So I’ll commit to the Member that we will follow through with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Consumer Affairs has received a few complaints regarding some of the telephone services across the Northwest Territories and they were told that they had no regulatory role in this area. However, we will follow up on that and maybe communicate to the CRTC our concern with how the phone cards and the charges are made. Thank you.