Robert C. McLeod

We understand the advantages of getting people off the streets and into public housing. That’s why there’s public housing. We have 24 public housing units across the Northwest Territories, and from public housing we like to think that a lot of them can graduate into the home ownership program.

We have approximately 1,600 families we’ve been able to put into the home ownership program over a number of years. We try to be as flexible as possible in getting as many people into some of these programs as we can. For example, with one of the home ownership programs, we allow them to carry up to $5...

Thank you. One of the problems we face in some of the smaller communities is there are not as many transitional opportunities as there are in some of the larger centres, and I think we have to have a look at that. Again, I say if we have units in the communities that are vacant, public housing units, and we’re asking somebody to wait a year, we’d have to review that, and I think we’d have to review some of these on a case-by-case basis to see where we can best assist. There may be some other reasons why folks are not in these houses or in public housing. But I will commit to the Member – and I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure if the Member is referring to one year to access public housing programs or the home ownership program. I am pretty sure the Public Housing Program, the residency requirement is set by the LHOs. As far as the home ownership program, that is set by the NWT Housing Corporation. That is set so we could have long-term Northerners be first in line for accessing some of our programs. So if somebody moves here a month before one of the programs, they would have to wait for a year before accessing any of the home ownership programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again, I don’t believe the Housing Corporation or the LHOs are double-dipping into the income. We do go by gross income while they’re employed and then once they’re unemployed, then we would use whatever benefits they may be getting from unemployment insurance.

As far as the Child Tax Credit goes, again, it’s to provide for the basic necessities of life, and shelter is usually number one on the list.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, my counterparts in the Yukon and Nunavut felt very strongly about the sports that were excluded. They wanted to make sure that their voices were heard. We thought the best option would be a face to face. The Lieutenant Governor of Alaska was also at the meeting. We relayed our concerns to the Arctic Winter Games International Committee about a whole cycle of athletes that may be lost because of the decision they made.

We don’t want to take that Arctic Winter Games experience away from a lot of these athletes because – Members said before, and I totally agree with them...

Mr. Speaker, the decision was made a number of years ago that all six permanent partners would have an equal opportunity to host the Arctic Winter Games on a rotational basis. That was a decision that was made. The decision to exclude some of the sports – and the Member mentioned it before in her statement – that, for obvious reasons, there are some sports that will be eliminated during particular games. We can’t have downhill skiing where there are no hills to ski on. But six sports affecting over 400 athletes and coaches to the circumpolar world is quite a drastic cut. That decision was made...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use this opportunity to recognize outgoing Mayor Denny Rodgers and incoming Mayor Floyd Roland. I’d also like to recognize the mayor of Tuktoyaktuk. I look forward to working with Mayor Roland in his new role.

Mr. Speaker, we don’t agree with the decision that was made. We had a meeting with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee. We spoke about the fact that we don’t want to be seen as politically interfering, but at the same time, you have to respond to the concerns of the sporting community throughout all the regions that were affected. This was the message that we relayed to them, is that we are concerned with the decision that they made.

As far as what power or influence, we would have to have discussions with our representatives and try to get them to relay some of our concerns to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Arctic Winter Games International Committee is the government body for the Arctic Winter Games. There are six permanent partners of which the GNWT is one. All six permanent partners have two members on the board. The political leaders usually are responsible for providing policy direction during our meetings with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee during the games or any other special meetings that may be called. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide an update on the implementation of the new public housing rent scale. Implementation of the new rent scale started on July 1, 2012, and to date, response has been very positive.

We have heard reports from communities where they have had trouble in the past finding casual employees because of the disincentive to work caused by our rent scale. We are now seeing large numbers of people applying for casual positions.

In reporting these overall impacts, we can’t lose sight of the positive impact on families. For example, a tenant from Behchoko earning $51,000 a...