Caroline Cochrane

Mr. Speaker, affordable, quality housing is one of the foundations from which we build on to meet our other life goals. As children, healthy and safe places to live allow us to learn better, to do well in school, and help us to become successful as we grow into adulthood. Establishing stable, secure housing is a goal for most people from the time they begin to contemplate leaving their own parent's home. Over the course of our lives, from young adulthood through to becoming elderly, housing can be a concern. Many families, young and old, worry about the affordability, suitability, and adequacy...

It is difficult, I have realized, being in government now, putting an actual timeline on things, and we have huge amounts of policies, procedures, and programs that we are now going through, so I can't commit to a timeline. I can commit that, by the time that I have finished, after a four-year term, the initial application to access housing will be available online. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A new repair and renovation program is ready for implementation for seniors to support them to age in place. Repairs and renovation under this program will focus on energy efficiency to improve the cost of living for senior homeowners.

We will be amending policy to support students who live in public housing so that their education is not impacted by housing concerns. We will also be implementing a fuel-tank replacement initiative to assist homeowners to deal with a growing risk area that represents significant environmental implications. These are some of the areas that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, within this fiscal year, we will have a new housing design that accommodates seniors so that they can live with their families. We currently use the application process where, within the application, people are identified as seniors. Their needs are taken into consideration. Seniors can apply for programs to assist them in other ways, and we are also looking at a new program that actually looks at the co-payment, to lower the amount of co-payments for lower-income people and families so that we provide better services, more appropriate services, to seniors and low-...

As was said many times in this House, when we finish getting the results from these surveys, we would be doing a full program review. Some of the issues would be very simple to deal with, some would be a little bit more difficult, and some would be tough. Land tenure is still one of those issues that we are still struggling with to figure out how to do in an equitable manner. However, in saying that, we are working with municipalities and Aboriginal governments. We are rolling out a new program that will support them, to be able to provide homeownership programs within their communities as...

It is concerning if the Member has identified that he’s heard that in other communities that they’re not sure about how to reach emergency responses with the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. It does tell me that we need to do a better job of communicating our services. Communications of our programs and our supports was identified within the survey, hugely stating that we need to do better on that. We will be doing a much better job of communicating the programs, the supports that we have in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation recognizes that it is important to have accessible workers in every community, and so we do strive to do that. We do have in every community that has a local housing organization, a position for a housing maintainer, a maintenance worker, so if that position is vacant, then we do our best to fill that position as soon as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize Annemieke Mulders, who is with the Northwest Territories Status of Women. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following 11 documents entitled "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 347-18(2): 911 Emergency Telephone Services;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 359-18(2): Updating the Fire Prevention Act;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 385-18(2): Changes to the Cities, Towns and Villages Act;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 410-18(2): Auditor General’s Report on Municipal Services;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 411-18(2): Ground Ambulance and Highway Rescue Services;" "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 462-18(2): Sport...

Yes, all new housing homes that we are building currently and over the past few years are what they call visitor-accessible. They already have wider entrances, accessible bathrooms on the ground floor, and again, we have programs to assist seniors to be able to access as many supports as they need to be able to maintain their residence or obtain residence so that they can age in place within their communities as long as possible.