Kevin A. Menicoche

[English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, I want to speak to you today about the serious delays in housing repairs and construction programs undertaken by the NWT Housing Corporation in the communities in my riding.

A number of houses are in serious need of repair, and there are many units that have not even been constructed yet. I have heard over and over again from my constituents that timelines to repairs and construction are not met. This can cause a great deal of disruption to clients.

When major repairs are needed, people are required to either move into a vacant house or move in...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. That’s all the questions I have for right now.

I just want to switch gears a little bit and talk about the whole area of on-the-land programs and housing available to build on the land. I think this is the second year where that program has disappeared. I don’t know. With the Elders on the Land program constituents have been asking me time and time again, “Can I get my application in for the Elders on the Land program? Mr. So-and-so got it, and he’s doing quite well.” In fact, a lot of people in my riding are looking at returning to the land, and some of them still live there. For whatever reason, they didn’t get their allocation or apply...

At the bottom of these letters there’s an actual paragraph that says that if you’re not satisfied, here is the appeal system that’s involved in ECE. Here’s who you can contact. You’ve got only so many days to contact them in order to launch your appeal, and it must be in writing.

But with the Housing Corporation — at least, the last letter I looked at — it just said: please be advised that your application was received, and due to your particulars you’ve been refused for the program.

It’s not only appealing a negative letter, Mr. Chair. There are also issues with people being previously in...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I, too, shall be voting in favour of this motion. It is very timely. I’ve got the riding with the most communities, and we’re having many housing issues. One of them is access to funding and different types of funding arrangements. Right now we’re really, really limited, and the pool of funds is getting smaller. It limits the types of actions that we can have in the community, especially when it comes to federal assistance, as they do it to all our reserves down south and the other jurisdictions.

When it comes to the North, there’s always a barrier in terms of...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of cutbacks to the public service in Fort Simpson. The petition contains 12 signatures of Trout Lake residents, and the petitioners request that the Legislative Assembly represent Nahendeh residents by opposing proposed layoffs in the public service that would have an economic…

Interruption.

Without getting too specific, I’ve got this instance in Fort Liard of this elderly couple I spoke of in my Member’s statement. Last fall they were going to get their repairs done. I don’t know what happened there, but somehow they slipped through the reporting mechanism and they were forgotten. On my recent visit just last month their home was still not repaired, and there is no indication whatsoever of when they will get the work done. Once again, just for the recording mechanism, how would someone’s repairs slip through on an issue like that?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my housing statement earlier today with respect to delays in repairs to constituents’ housing, especially in the community of Fort Liard, where I notice the apparent delays. I just wanted to see what stage or what the current status would be, from the Minister’s office, in terms of delivery of repairs and home construction in Fort Liard.

Absolutely. I certainly agree with the Minister that building secondary homes for people is not a goal of this government or should be for anybody else. If they want to do that, they should certainly do that on their own, but primary residences are certainly something that I believe we have to continue with, and I certainly support that.

With respect to elders eligibility programming, I’m finding that some of our elders are actually being denied programming. I don’t think it’s an arrears problem at all there, Mr. Chair, but it’s an income threshold problem. They’re senior citizens, and their...

I’d like to recognize Mrs. Candace Brown, who’s actually been watching the proceedings all week. She’s a constituent from Fort Simpson. Welcome, and hope you had fun this week.