Robert C. McLeod

In my response to Mr. Bromley, I said it was something we were willing to explore. There have been some projects in some communities where we allowed them to do that. We have to be very careful that when the Member talks about the grounds, to make sure he means grounds of a person’s particular unit. It would be awfully hard to tell somebody to clean up your own yard and we’ll adjust some of your arrears. It’s something we need to explore is what I’m trying to say.

I’ve committed to Member Bromley that it’s something on the Housing Corporation’s radar. I know in a couple of communities they have...

Madam Speaker, that is going to be an awfully difficult one to look at to say that my house wasn’t constructed properly, therefore, I am not paying, because that could be a reason that everybody uses that is in arrears.

All the houses were built to the residential standards of the day. A lot of improvements have been made on these. That would be a very difficult one to look at and try and justify bringing that to an appeals committee, because I can see if we did that on one occasion, then we would open up a whole can of worms and everybody across the Northwest Territories that are in arrears...

Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.

As far as offering incentives, I think one of the incentives is the less power they use, the less it’s going to cost them in the long run. Part of our new approach and part of the framework is we’re going to go from six cents to nine cents that we charge tenants. We’re hoping having them pay a little bit of a higher fee will cause them to consume less power. It’s a start and it’s one that we are looking at.

As far as policy development and incentives, again, any initiatives brought forward by the Member, I think we’d be wise as a corporation to at least do some exploring and see if there’s...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The target date for getting the committee up and running is June 1st of 2012. Thank you.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Just going back to Mr. Bromley’s original… We have some initiatives that we are working on as far as the energy efficiency part. I have a partial list here. Probably the easiest thing to do instead of me reading if off with the numbers and everything, I’ll supply it to committee, and I think you’re going to be pleased with some of the initiatives and the first steps we’re taking.

As far as the policy on working off arrears – and I think that’s where the Member was going – we have had some discussions on that. We are putting something together here to see how it works. There are issues we have...

We’re quite pleased that there has been some progress as far as Northlands Trailer Park is concerned. We have, on the housing side of it if they do qualify, they would be eligible for some CARE money. I think we’ve discussed having a bit of a targeted intake so we can identify some of the potential clients out at Northlands, because the actual repairs, I believe, may not start until next summer or something like that. We wanted to maybe do a bit of a targeted intake just to see who we can get out there that qualifies. That’s what our plan is for now. Thank you.

I’ve heard the Member’s comments and I’m told that we will have some discussions and work with our district office and try to give more support to our district office so they can spend more time out in the region. Then again, working with the LHOs and seeking a lot of input from the LHOs, because they do have a lot of local expertise that we need to tap into. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll respond to that. I was just giving the Member a hard time. We do have as part of our new strategy looking at options of how we can help the communities with addressing some of the housing for staff needs.

As far as the $250,000 goes, we were providing a $25,000 incentive per door. We had 11 communities, I think, take us up on that. I don’t think we’ve shut the $25,000 door completely on this one. We’re still willing to look at a case-by-case basis. As part of our new strategy – and I think we will be having that discussion with committee – we we are looking at ways...