Alfred Moses

There’s another section in this Section 3.3, and it deals with clients with dependents are eligible for up to, or they’re just eligible for rent or mortgage or whatever it’s going to be called, but I just want to know if there is a definition for dependents, whether it’s a person’s parent, a person’s grandparent, a child, it could be an uncle or an aunt that needs some assistance because they might be elderly as well. Can I get an understanding of dependents and whether or not when we’re applying the clients, that our couples are classified as just one client?

More specifically to mortgage for anybody that might have gotten into trouble with keeping up to date on their payments for their mortgage for their houses, a lot of people probably don’t even know this program exists. There’s one here specifically for mortgage under Section 5.1, and I just want to confirm that if somebody went into arrears for a month or two but didn’t know how to pay off their mortgage and they went to ECE, that they can access this program to get their mortgage paid for. I’m not asking for anybody in particular, I’m just asking in general for anybody out in the public.

I would like to ask the Minister, moving forward and looking at what’s going to come out of the Auditor General’s report, I assume it will be a lot of the same things as the recommendations the committee brought forth and some of the actions needed.

Has the Minister, in preparation for this audit report that’s coming out next month, put aside any fiscal dollars to address some of those issues specifically in our small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today following questions I had earlier this week for the Minister of… Actually, I’ll ask questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services.

I have a question with regard to next week and the report we will be getting from the Auditor General. I just want to get an update from the Minister of Health and Social Services where we are with that update. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Speaker be authorized to set such sitting days and hours as the Speaker, after consultation, deems fit to assist with the business before the House.

Mr. Speaker, I was speaking on behalf of all elders. We do have a growing population of seniors in the Northwest Territories and we don’t always have the housing units to allow them to get into housing, they have to go into the market rent areas.

I would like to ask the Minister, what is he going to do to change his policy, especially when we have our seniors who are in wheelchairs, seniors that use canes or walkers, or seniors that have very limited mobility, to address the issue that when we get some of our seniors, or whomever it may be, the proper housing units that they need? How is he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I will be asking questions for those that can’t speak up themselves and those that need representation. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

In a lot of our communities we have a long waiting list to get into housing. As a result, a lot of our residents will go through the Rental Subsidy Program and will go into market rental units. However, with the high cost of living in some communities, such as Inuvik, I would like to ask the Minister, what process and practice does the department do when they are looking for a place for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to the Minister and his staff to the House here. This is kind of our third kick at the can with the operations budget and it’s been an educational one, I think, for both the department as well as for Members of the House in terms of how we look at doing things differently or looking at things more efficiently and looking at where we can improve within the department itself.

With that said, I know this is the biggest budget in the government, but it is also one of the departments that has some of the more unique challenges that we don’t see in other departments. It...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just going back to my other question about the policy, will the Minister take a look at his policy with this and make it specific, possibly working with the Minister responsible for Seniors and see how we can change that policy to better address the need? As I mentioned, we’re getting a higher seniors population in the Northwest Territories and the lack of long-term care facilities, some of these seniors do still live a pretty independent lifestyle and we want to promote that independence in our communities as well.

So, will the Minister look at reviewing his policy...

Mr. Speaker, I am going along these questions because I have an elderly couple in the community of Inuvik who are having a hard time to find a place to stay and when they approached the Minister in question, the elderly couple was asked to look for a different apartment when they were initially approved.

So, how does this Minister and the department approve a couple that meet the disability accessibility and then take that away and look for another unit that is cheaper and not meeting the needs of the couple? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.