Kevin A. Menicoche

Mr. Speaker, I think a guideline like that certainly works well in a larger community where people are on a waiting list. It probably has happened in the past where people did get bumped by somebody new moving in. That really makes sense there, but for people returning to and coming to live in the smaller communities where housing is scarce or there is none, that same one-year residency requirement just doesn’t work, because there are no homes there. We are expecting them to perhaps couch surf for a year until they become eligible to come back.

Will the Housing Corporation look at this idea on...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure and pride to recognize and welcome my daughters to the gallery. Ms. Diedra Villeneuve and Ms. Candace Lafferty-Villeneuve. I’m glad to have you here to see your hardworking MLA dad.

As well, my constituency assistant, also hard working, Ms. Pearl Norwegian.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 64-17(3), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2013-2014, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 64-17(3) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear that the Minister is being flexible about the small and remote communities where an idea such as transitional housing can work. That idea did come from the chief of the Jean Marie River First Nation.

At this time I’d like to invite the Minister to accompany us during our Nahendeh tour to the community of Jean Marie, and we can discuss this idea, and see if we can make it work, and if we can pick that community as a pilot project, so to speak. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the idea of transitional housing for our small and remote communities. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, firstly, to explain the purpose of the one-year residency requirement to access housing programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The lack of housing is a huge problem in many of our communities. On the other hand, there are also vacant units in some of our communities. I believe that there are also problems with access to housing that is available. That is, there is housing and there are people who need housing, but they’re not eligible for it. For example, I am told that there’s a one-year residency requirement to access some community housing programs. In general, that is fine, but what happens when someone returns to a small community and has nowhere to live? It seems that the NWT Housing...

I’m pleased that the Minister is taking these concerns very seriously, and I certainly look forward to travelling with him in my riding in the future. With that, I have no further questions.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 64-17(3), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2013-2014. Thank you.

Certainly, a community like this that experiences disaster, the community is still not together and the last thing you’ve got to give them is guidelines, procedures and reasons why we cannot help them.

I’d like to ask the Minister one more time: Will he review these certain instances and see if he can help the residents that have lost small personal gas equipment that would help them with their harvesting, hunting and trapping?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to ask some questions on disaster compensation to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, only because that some of the replacement items belong to hunters and trappers in the community of Nahanni Butte. I’m actually a little bit confused, though. I thought disaster compensation for that horrible flood in Nahanni Butte would be under MACA, but it looks like ITI has taken over some of the hunters’ and trappers’ skidoos, chainsaws and quads that got damaged. Recently, three residents were denied assistance to replace those items.

I’d like...