Tom Beaulieu

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I discussed rent that is currently being collected on lots in the Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh riding. I’d like to ask the Minister of Lands questions. Would the Minister be willing to consider adjusting the rent currently charged on land to a reasonable amount, especially for seniors and other people on fixed income? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the bottom line here is that when you bring in modular homes you're not hiring local people to do construction. The communities need jobs. We're trying to bring market houses in so we can attract people into the community to work, but the communities themselves don't have jobs. When we have an opportunity to build something in the community, to allow other people to come into the community and have jobs, why would the Housing Corporation take the strong position that it has to be modular homes in order to save 30 per cent when the more important factor is...

So no consultation with the communities. The Minister is aware that the Housing Corporation has a program where they provide some money to private developers: so many dollars per unit to put market housing units on the ground. At this point, that number is too low to spur developers to construct some units. Would the Minister, in the savings of 30 per cent that she indicated, with respect to modular homes versus stick-built, consider looking at increasing the amount given to private developers to allow them to put market housing units on the ground in the communities? Increasing the subsidy to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for that response. Mr. Speaker, one of the options that may not be apparent to everyone that used to be a fairly standard process was an equity lease process, where the individual ends up owning the land. At this point, since they are renting the land, can the Minister look at something that may be just a little outside of the taxing authority, since they are renting the property and they are not taxing it, if they would look at something like rent-to-own once they have some sort of concurrence from the land claim organizations. Thank...

I'm glad the Minister mentioned the Seniors and Disabled Persons Property Tax Relief program. My next question is: will the Minister consider applying that senior citizens’ property tax relief for individuals in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh that are renting their lot right now?

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, people in my riding are experiencing serious issues around land tenure. Members from the Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh riding can't buy land, and the current lease structure is a barrier to securing property. A lack of tenure limits residents' ability to obtain mortgage or benefit from government programs like those offered by the NWT Housing Corporation, programs that would make a positive difference in the lives of those people. Instead, land is rented from the Government of the Northwest Territories at 10 per cent of the value per year. Ideally, that would be rent...

So I take it that if we don't get any money from Ottawa there will be no changes; that's not too good. Will the Minister take a serious look at the sale of public housing as a reduction in core need in the small communities? Thank you.

I was wondering if the Minister is contemplating collecting additional data in a different way in order to supplement the needs survey for future development of programs.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to talk about something that is a very important item to the small communities and that is the attendance of students K to 12. Absenteeism is very high in some of our small communities and I would like to recommend to the Minister -- not now, I'm not making a recommendation now, but in the future I recommend that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment start to collect data so that they could determine the level of absenteeism in all of the communities, but specifically in the small communities. We know that if a student misses one day of school per week, that...

When the Minister reaches out to the communities and gets community input on what they see as key in their communities for housing programs, how quickly, after that, then, can the Minister make changes to programs so that communities can take advantage of the programs, say, this coming summer?