Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I will be speaking in the House regarding the elder abuse.

Mr. Speaker, we know that there's a lot of abuse happening in the Northwest Territories and especially in Tlicho region. So today, Mr. Speaker, we have heard and seen there are many forms of elder abuse here in the North, and not enough is done to prevent it. This abuse can be in the form of financial abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, health care fraud and abuse, elder abandonment. For example, we have young people extorting elders for their pensions or forcibly moving...

Okay, thank you. I would like to get that information too as well. Because I know there's a lot of people that are asking, and there's some market rental, and you've seen that. And then a lot of people are living in some of those old units from the '70s and early '80s. They would like to become a homeowner or -- of those units.

So you said -- so you're transferring some of the HELP program to people under the HELP program. So I just wanted to ask the Minister if they can explain how are they determining the price of these units, especially in the small community where we do not have market to...

Thank you. Homeownership entry level and market housing program, I see here -- I mean, it's not on this list but it was e-mailed to us for the North Slave -- I mean, for Tlicho region, you know, there's -- since 2007, for Tlicho region, Behchoko had HELP program, home improvement or home entry level program. There were four in 2007, two in Behchoko and two in Gameti, HELP applications; 12 in Tlicho region; and another one occupied HELP units, there's 27 in Tlicho region. So I would like to ask the Minister how many of these are transfer, the one that's occupied, transferred to the homeowner as...

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. If we're still on the page 387, public housing program. From last fiscal year, it went down, but according to the business plan, the mandate commitment says that increased housing availability for all residents by working with partners to address the gap, and the target minimum a 20 client each year and a minimum spending of $50 million per year from housing, and to achieve this it says $50 million per year from outside organization on housing. Can the must explain this further. The business plan on page 4.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my statement is on immigration and marriage fraud.

Mr. Speaker, Canada is a desirable location for many people seeking a new start and has welcomed many newcomers through different federal programs. Canada's immigration policies fill labour shortages and support family reunification. Recently, it was announced that provincial and territorial nominee program allotments would be decreased.

Mr. Speaker, with this reduction in spots available, I am worried that other means of entry to Canada will be sought. There are cases where people are using marriage...

Okay, thank you. Thank you for that information because I talked to some of the clients, and I know that, you know, some of them have lived in the unit for over ten years. Some, they like the agreement that they got from the Housing NWT which means that it was just transferred to them at no cost. So I know a lot of them would like to see that being carried forward. It does -- a lot of those units do need a lot of repair. So I would like to see that respected in Tlicho region and other region as well too. So not at a great cost because there's no market to buy and sell houses in small...

Okay. Well, I'll send her an email on this after just so that I can get the number of how many in my region are successfully -- or were successfully transferred to homeowner. And you met some of the people, the potential that are still in the HELP program, and they want the unit to be transferred over to them so that they can start doing their own construction, fix up the unit that they have resided in for many years under the HELP program. And so the HELP -- approve HELP application, 12 in Tlicho region, but it doesn't say the year. So I want to ask the Minister -- maybe she might not have...

Yeah, thank you. That's good. The reason why I asked is because in Behchoko alone, you know, I'm glad that, you know, you guys came, that, you know, Housing NWT visited the community. And there's a great need for housing, and we have, like, looking at this, 25 space each year. We have over 130 people on the waitlist and a lot of singles, and it's families, and some elders. So how are we going to achieve this for Behchoko? I know that we cannot solve all this, like you know, to accommodate 130 people, but at least building some houses. And I like what I see now that there's a -- you're...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know that I did express my frustration too before. It would have been nice if there was more notice given to us to close the community learning centres. It's not just me, but my other colleagues have said the same thing too where we asked the college to do more community-based training or offer more community-based program. Because some of our young people are not too eager to leave, but there's not much in the community. If the community learning centre program was not working, then they should have done more to deliver or to work with the community...

Thank you. Yes, I would like to see that, you know, that data. That's it for this part, this section. Thank you.