Statements in Debates
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. This is Education Week and I hear that Education, Culture and Employment is challenging residents to take part in the Thumbs Up contest to identify ways people can support the education system. Well, I have thumbs up for two Fort Simpson men who are doing a great job encouraging our students to think about their future. I am speaking about Bob Norwegian and Wilbert Antoine who are excellent role models. These two cousins have 75 years of trades experience. They left the North and made careers and now they have returned to Fort Simpson and want to make a difference and...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of my honourable colleague’s motion to maintain the facility and jobs in their community. I’m very supportive of all the many members throughout his community that took the time to sign petitions, get a hold of their MLA to highlight the issues in the media. I think that is how our consensus style government should work. I am supportive of it. I am always saddened to see regionalizing or centralizing our goods and services, particularly those that provide services to people. I hate to see it happen, but hopefully the government can listen to...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Despite that I still believe that our Housing Corporation should gravitate towards a seniors and elders program designed specifically for maintenance and care and even replacement of small household items. I’ll be making a motion to that later on in the day.
We had 416 elders up taking the seniors program in 2005-2006. Can the Minister even detail how many elders are up taking our programs this fiscal year?
That’s not the response I get when I work with the Housing Corporation. They say specifically that there is no seniors program available. In the past we’ve had six successful programs. There was a Seniors Home Repair Program, a Seniors/Disabled Preventive Maintenance Initiative, Elders on the Land, Adaptation for Seniors’ Independence, Seniors Independent Living Strategy, and a Senior Housing Initiative. Those programs are non-existent in our Housing Corporation anymore. I believe that we should look at that and reinstate that. I’ve had situations in my riding where seniors are not eligible...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My riding has the highest percentage of households in core need in the Northwest Territories. There have been some wins, but we are losing ground in other areas like an independent appeals mechanism, maintenance program for elders, mould. One of my constituents finally got access to a home repair program after fighting for seven years, Mr. Speaker, and that’s great news. But after seven years of fighting, others still don’t have access. My constituents are frustrated. There is no appeal process. They appeal to the person who told them no in the first place. It...
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, February 24, 2011, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends the NWT Housing Corporation reintroduce a home maintenance and repair program for seniors. Thank you.
Seniors are given the priority but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I’ve got a senior in Trout Lake who applied for programming but exhausted all programming available that the NWT Housing Corporation has, even though he’s an elder and a senior. I asked specifically, he’s a senior, he needs emergency repairs, what can be done. They said, no, he’s exhausted all areas. That’s why I believe we should reinstate at least the seniors and elders repair program to address these specific needs.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask questions to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation, specifically to a seniors home repair program or lack thereof.
In 2006-2007, the NWT Housing Corporation consolidated its program into four programs and when they did that they took the seniors and elders’ repair element out of all the programmings and didn’t give them specific recognition. I’d like to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation what his department is looking at, how we can address the needs of our seniors and elders in our small and remote communities.
I think the Aboriginal groups are looking at what they want is the resources to have a real good look at the agreement-in-principle to see if it’s something that’s consistent with their priorities and principles, yet they have to sign on board to access those resources. Has the Premier given any thought of any other way of assisting our Aboriginal governments to review the agreement-in-principle other than by signing on board?
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier with some questions related to my Member’s statement. I know the AIP agreement on devolution, there are some firm agreements in place, but I think without getting on board, there is still some distrust by Aboriginal organizations. They do want to review it but they cannot get access to the resources to assist them unless they actually sign on board. Has the Premier or Cabinet discussed this and what is the best way to address their concerns?