Robert C. McLeod

I kept referring to this particular case in my answer before because this is the one that brought about this situation. In the overall picture, working with the Housing Corporation and the Auditor General’s report, obviously, that was from a few years ago, we’ve taken great steps in the meantime since then to improve how we work with our LHOs. One of the things we have done is we’re implementing a territorial-wide housing information system. I think that’s going to give us the ability to monitor the workings of the LHOs a lot closer. They’re doing a fine job out there, but we need to be a...

Well, I can speak from the Housing perspective and say that we’ve got some checks and balances in place to ensure that a situation like this doesn’t happen again. One of the checks and balances is to not allow for a person to be removed from the lease without their notification, and I think that’s what happened in this particular case. I will commit to working with my counterparts and the Minister of Justice to see how we can better inform his department on some of the steps going forward, and the communities too. They have an opportunity to work with their tenant relations officer.

I think the...

Well, we listened to what Members had to say. We listened to what some of the concerns were for the seniors out there. We thought this would be an adjustment period, because to go from zero to $70, $75 or $80 dollars, as was the original intent, we thought this would be an easier adjustment to graduate up to the higher rent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Leading up to the new rent scale, all the tenants, including seniors, will have an opportunity to meet with their local LHO and they will be given an indication at the time of what their rent can be expected to be. With the rent scale change, it will be July 1st. With the seniors, now with the new implementation of September 1st, there will be an opportunity for them to work with the local LHOs and give them an indication of what their rent is going to be.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Joe Greenland Centre in Aklavik, one part of it was used by independent long-term residents in Aklavik. The other part Health and Social Services had had before. Our plan is to convert that into more units for independent seniors. We plan on starting the work this summer, getting the initial plan there and get the work started, then hopefully have tenants in there before Christmas. That’s the plan for the Joe Greenland Centre right now.

I need to stress that the Joe Greenland Centre is not closing down. The Housing Corporation owns the building and we’re doing some...

We know what the impact is going to be on the seniors. I have no problem in the next couple of months of sitting down with the NWT Seniors’ Society and getting some input from them. We know what the impact is going to be on the seniors. The seniors know what the impact is going to be on themselves. It’s going to be $35 a month, half of what we had originally intended to charge, come July 1st and next year it’s going to be $70 a month. If there’s an opportunity to meet with the seniors, I have no issue in sitting down and having a discussion with them. As far as an official consultation where...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The purpose of the delay was we listened to what committee had to say, their desire to have those out there that have paid zero for so many years adjust to have them start paying rent now. So we listened to what committee had to say and some Members had to say. We listened to some of the comments from the NWT Seniors’ Society. Thank you.

I would be pleased to meet with committee. I mean, we have six months, obviously, to respond to the recommendations. We’re trying to get the pieces in place right now. But once we’ve completed all that work and I’ve had an opportunity to discuss with my counterpart from Justice, I think it might be prudent for both of us, actually, to come before committee and give them some time and explain to them how we plan on dealing with any situations. I don’t think we’ll have any more situations like this in the future. If we put the proper pieces in place, then that should rectify the problem that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re fully aware of the situation and we take the recommendations from the UN very, very seriously. We would like to try and set up a meeting with Ms. Kell to try and work out some details. We have six months to respond to the recommendations, but as of right now, we are trying to meet with this lady and work out the details. Thank you.

I did have an opportunity to meet with the NWT Seniors’ Society. Obviously, with an issue of importance like this, there was mixed views on it. Some thought it was a good thing. Some said we should just stay at zero. There were a few that said, well, why don’t you just meet us halfway and phase it in? Listening to that and listening to concerns of the Members, we took that into consideration and we decided to go with September 1st and implement it over the next two years.