Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister for Housing NWT. I outlined a myriad of problems brought to my office by constituents in public housing at Lanky Court. Can the Minister tell us why individuals being moved out of their public housing units to repair them are being charged moving expenses and utility account service charges, and will the Minister commit to reimbursing such unfair charges? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Again, on mold, pests, and bad indoor quality indoor air quality and other housing stats, the numbers show that housing core needs have steadily gotten worse from 2009 to 2019. Today it stands at about 24 percent. A quarter of our houses are not good. This government continues to spend far more on roads than housing. Can the Minister tell us when this government will spend at least as much on housing as it does on roads? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le Président. I want to thank the Minister for that. And I'll work with my constituent to get the receipts over to the Minister's office pronto. But just trying to get a response in a reasonable time frame from the Minister on my constituent's concerns about public housing in Lanky Court has been a real challenge. I suggested several times that public housing tenants are being told to move or store belongings for insect control that cleaning products and storage containers should be provided. Can the Minister tell us why cleaning products or services and storage containers are...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Over recent months, my office has done a lot of work on behalf of tenants in public housing units in the Lanky Court apartment complex in my riding. It's been a long and very difficult process to get responses from the housing minister on behalf of the Yellowknife Housing Authority working with Northview Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust. More importantly, actual improvements to housing conditions do not seem to have materialized.

There have been cockroach and bed bug infestations and housing conditions no one should have to endure. Young children being...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm glad the clock got started there. Yeah, well, I'm glad the Minister volunteered all of that because that was my next question actually, because in the letter that this government sent to I'm not sure exactly. I guess it was probably Minister Vandal about the regional study that the Tlicho government has asked, there was kind of two things that our government mentioned in there. One was that we supported participant funding but they said the other thing was that a regional study shouldn't delay the planning for this road in any way. And that's not what the Minister just...

Merci, Madam le Presidente. I too would like to recognize a Frame Lake resident in the gallery, Sheena Adams, whose the program coordinator for Arctic Energy Alliance, and former Yellowknife city council colleague Mark Heyck serves as the executive director. So I'm sure they're here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Arctic Energy Alliance, and I welcome them to the proceedings today. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Yeah, okay, thanks. Look, I'll cut this short. I think that this is probably better financial management but it still reflects our overspending on not overspending, over budgeting of capital and we just we, for a whole variety of different reasons, just can't get the money out the door. We can't get the work done, whether it's COVID, whether, you know, there's no contractors available to do the work, whatever, you know, supply chain delays, maybe there's not enough folks in procurement services to get this stuff out. I have no sense of that. But I think this is just a reflection of, again...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So is all of this stuff in compliance with the fiscal responsibility policy? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. It's one last one maybe, and the Minister already touched on this, but for I guess 20232024 oh, well it looks like for 20222023 we've gone now from an operating surplus to probably an operating deficit. How is that going to be in compliance with the fiscal responsibility policy in light of the capital estimates that are also before the House? Thanks, Mr. Chair.