Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Chairman, we have a small settlement homelessness fund that’s been in place for the last number of years as well. We stand ready to work with communities with whatever housing stock may be available, providing there is a group or some agency in the community that is prepared to play the lead in terms of dealing with the hard-to-house homelessness issue, where there are addiction issues and other social issues that are probably at play in terms of the lifestyle of the individual. We have the two approaches. The opportunity is there. It requires the community to step forward, either through...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s comments.

The issue and concern about the appeal process has been identified clearly by the Member as well as by the Office of the Auditor General. It’s been built into our framework for action. We’re planning on having a process ready that we can bring forward as we gather here in the fall.

Clearly, we have a number of other things to look at. Arrears, as the Member’s indicated, has been identified. We are doing an analysis of these arrears — some of them are quite dated — to take a look on a case-by-case basis to see how much, in fact, of that...

The LHOs in the district office have their files, and they have their planning and delivery schedules and technical staff who track the projects. They try to keep a handle on it to make sure that things are proceeding apace, the materials are there, the contracts are met and the work is being carried out.

Mr. Chairman, if the client or individual is in need of a primary residence and it happens to be not in a community, we have the capacity to work with them. If it’s going to be a secondary residence for other partial use, then that program has been, as the Member indicated, discontinued. Given our circumstances, just trying to meet the needs of people for primary residences, we don’t have the capacity and aren’t contemplating bringing that forward to help people with secondary or tertiary residences.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

As we engage in the process we just talked about with committee, in terms of the review and the issues and concerns in regard to the various policies that are currently there, those would be the types of things we would hope to be able to come to resolution on. So yes, we’re prepared to talk about that fully.

We appreciate the suggestion from the Member, and we’ll be looking at all opportunities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like, for maximum effect, to ask for a recorded vote so that when we send this motion to Ottawa, it’s very clear that this Legislature has spoken.

My information is that it comes mainly through the CMHC. As well, we do our own. In 2009 the Housing Corporation will be doing, as well, another housing survey to check on the number of core needs for just housing in general.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll just make a couple of comments. I’ll ask Mr. Polakoff if he could fill in with more detail.

Clearly, the issue of home repairs is an important one. But one of the struggles we have — and that’s why we have money in the budget for apprentices — is every community is struggling for an adequate number of tradesmen to actually get the work done.

We’re interested in, of course, sitting down, as I’ve indicated already. If there are ways that we can further streamline or improve the process in terms of how programs are delivered, we’re prepared to do that.

I’ll ask Mr...