Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I think, when the 2014 needs survey is being worked on, we are going to have to be more specific in some of the questions we ask. If you ask anybody anywhere, is there something wrong with your house, I’m sure all 19 of us in here could find something wrong with our house. So that affects the adequacy issue and I think sometimes the numbers aren’t truly reflective of the condition of the units.

As far as the overcrowding goes, we have a public housing replacement program where we’re trying to get as many housing units into the communities as possible where the need is the greatest...

As far as the numbers coming down, I think we’re going to find out in 2014 that with the investments we’ve made since the last housing needs survey, I think we are going to see the numbers come down. I know in the Member’s riding alone, in the Sahtu, since 2009 when the report was done, we’ve spent approximately $14.7 million in trying to improve that, and we’re looking at a further $13 million investment within the next three years, so I think that will go a long way in addressing some of the concerns that were raised in the last housing needs survey. I think once we do the survey in 2014, I...

We would like to think all the homeless shelters, emergency shelters, transition homes would be of the highest standards. As far as standards go, I will follow up and see where we are with that, but I would expect that all of our units, and I know the ones that I’ve been to, have very high standards. I’ll follow up on the Member’s request and I’ll communicate that to the Member and Members.

As far as the infrastructure goes, I think we’ve made it well known that we’ve made some contributions to some organizations to help with the infrastructure, and we do that throughout the Northwest Territories. I think one of the things we do quite well is make some contributions to some of the infrastructure that they’d be running.

As far as the programs go, that’s under a different department. But 2014-15, we will be having discussions on the business planning process, I think, come December, and there will be an opportunity there for Members to have some input into that. I believe for the...

There are many different reasons why we have these situations in some of the communities with the couch surfing and the other issues that they do have. I think one of the things that I’ve seen during my time as the Minister is a lot of people were being evicted because of arrears and that, but I have to admit that across the Northwest Territories the numbers of people that are honouring their commitments has gone up by quite a bit and we’re very encouraged by that, and we look forward to the next few years where we see less and less evictions because people are honouring their commitments.

As...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have started work on the new housing needs survey and we’re anticipating early 2014 to start the survey.

Mr. Speaker, I think I have already answered the Member’s question when I said that we will do our condition ratings on these units. Most of the condition ratings have already been done for this year and that will give our maintenance people in the communities an opportunity to identify some of the issues that the Member speaks of, not only identify them but start to do work to repair those, not only with these particular issues but with everything else that may be wrong with the units.

With all the investments that we’ve been making in the improvement of our public housing stock the last...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t get as many concerns regarding mold as we used to. It was quite an issue a few years ago. We have taken steps to try and remediate some of this. Education of the tenants and our own maintenance staff, I think, was a big first step. The reports of mold in some of the units, not only in the Sahtu but all across the Northwest Territories, are coming down a bit. We look forward to having that number down to basically zero here very shortly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a former colleague and good friend, Floyd Roland, former Premier. With Floyd is Angela Young, who has worked as an educator in Inuvik for the past 12 years. I’d also like to recognize former colleague Mr. Henry Zoe. Welcome to the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I will follow up on the status of our condition ratings. I do know that usually by fall all the condition ratings are done and any potential maintenance issues in the units are identified.

Again, dealing with the mold issue, I think through the investment we’ve made in the last number of years into the improvement of our public housing units, we’ve been able to see a lot of those issues come down. There are a number of factors. We have a website where the public can access, and for those that don’t have a computer, I’m sure our LHOs will do some education on their part. It is a...