Robert C. McLeod

Thank you. I’m also the Minister responsible for emergency measures, and a couple of the FPTs that I’ve gone to we were informed that the old JEP funding it was called, Joint Emergency Preparedness, was being replaced by the Disaster Mitigation Program, and this is to assist communities and jurisdictions to try and fix up their infrastructure so they can actually try and avert some of these disasters of flooding in Hay River, for example, is a good one.

So it’s a new program, it’s a federal program and I believe that they’ve announced there’s a $200 million price tag attached to this. However...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Economic Action Plan that was announced in 2014, there is a National Disaster Mitigation Program, and in our discussions with them we brought up the issue of the flooding in Hay River and how dredging could help assist that community. We believe that if we can get an application into this fund, this would be an eligible category. They haven’t worked out the allocations for the money yet and the details and we’re just working on that now, but we will work closely with the Member and the community of Hay River to see how we can access this money. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in the Member’s first question he didn’t point out the fact that they were renting these from our local housing authority and was involved as a third-party renter. If that was the case, then I would encourage the tenants to work with the local housing authority to identify some of the problems there because they would be leasing these from the private developer, and if there is an opportunity to get some work done and they are not willing to do it, then the option might be there for the local housing authority to work with the tenants to take them to the rental officer. Thank you...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to think that our local housing authority, if they are leasing these units of the developer, that they would have some say into the maintenance of these units, and if the work is not being done, then I would encourage them to… There are some options they may have at their disposal, but I would encourage them to work with the rental officer to see if there is opportunity there to have the landlord do some of the necessary repairs because, at the end of the day, we are paying the landlord to use these units and if there are opportunities for us to use some of the stuff...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t work with the tenants in market housing to help take the landlord to court. Sometimes we will get some concerns from those that are living in market housing and we tell them that their option is to go to the rental office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to work with the Member, and if any other Members over there have specific cases where I don’t hear from any of the other communities, but if there are specific cases, then the Member has raised them and the Minister will show leadership and try and rectify the problem before it gets to the floor of the House. This is the first time I have heard of it, and we need to work with each other sometimes to ensure we try to deal with these issues. If we are unable to deal with these issues, or are unwilling to deal with these issues, then we raise them on the floor of the...

People have to realize that by making themselves homeless, I mean, they’re still given certain points, but I would encourage people not to make themselves homeless thinking that it gives them an opportunity to get to the top of the list because, as I’ve said before, there are many factors that we take into consideration.

I don’t believe that the Housing Corporation puts up barriers. I think, if anything, the Housing Corporation eliminates some of those barriers by having people more eligible for a lot of the programs that we have. With the Rent Supplement Program, it’s a fantastic program and...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. The people that are in these units, our hope is to see them transition, I think, in most cases, into the public housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again, that would be something that would be awfully difficult to do because if you got a territorial-wide volunteers list, I think a lot of people would have trouble putting their name on it because they do volunteer a lot in their community. Within the different regions across the Northwest Territories, they have volunteers that help out with all events that take place. Again, as I said before, everyone in the communities and regions know who the pool of volunteers is.

I must also point out – and I failed to mention it before – MACA just announced last year at the NWTAC AGM in Hay River, we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our volunteers are a very important part of communities as the Member pointed out. Through my role as Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs we have an opportunity to recognize a lot of the hard work that the volunteers are doing through the award program we have every year and this year we’ll be having it during the NWTAC again. Nominations come in, people nominate a lot of their local volunteers and then we honour them at the NWTAC’s annual general meeting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.