Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The communities have done a really good job at identifying projects for the youth and they’ve been identifying dollars. They’ve actually been putting money towards it, and that’s been encouraging. I think one of the legacies of the 16th Legislative Assembly could be the amount of money that this Assembly has put into youth. Never has any Assembly before us put as much money into youth as we have, and it’s through the work of all Members of this Assembly identifying that youth are a priority, not only identifying that they’re a priority but actually putting money towards...

We can provide a communication as to where we’re at in this whole application process and the support we’ve provided. At the end of the day I think the municipal government plays a large, if not the largest, role in this situation that is happening out at Northland because those folks out there are municipal taxpayers. So I think the municipal government has to take a lead role or a larger role in the situation out at Northland. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The file in Ottawa is sitting on the Infrastructure Minister’s desk, who I think is Minister Lebel. He’s got the infrastructure file. At the same time, we supported the city’s application to try and access some of the green funding for the residents out at Northland Trailer Park. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories has, through the Shelter Policy review, been examining its overall approach to delivering housing programs, services, and supports to NWT residents. The Department of Executive and the NWT Housing Corporation have worked collaboratively in carrying out this review, which will result in a broad strategic framework designed to refocus the GNWT’s approach to housing delivery. I rise today to update Members and the general public on the progress of this review.

A critical component of the Shelter Policy Review has been extensive...

I can assure the Member that is something that we can have a look at. Whether we’re able to do it financially is another question, and decisions such as that would have to be something that the 17th Legislative Assembly would have to take into consideration. We could also make our thoughts and recommendations to them in the form of transition documents. I can assure the Member that we will have a look at it.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 7, Community Planning and Development Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That’s a very good point, because the taxpayers like to see that their tax dollars are well spent. They are trying to provide a service to a lot of people in low-income housing and we need those people to work with us, otherwise it’s never going to work, and this is one of those cases.

We need to find a solution for this. As badly as it’s gotten, maybe part of it is because the LHO did not condition them early enough in the life of the Paulatuk Housing Authority to have to pay rent. If you look at some of our better performing communities, we have communities where they’re collecting 100...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been working hard with the residents of the Paulatuk Housing Authority to try to keep them in their units. There are a few examples of tenancies that began five years ago where arrears started accumulating almost immediately. Twenty letters were sent out. Agreements to pay were signed in 2009 that were never honoured. Of 39 that were signed, only one has been honoured. So we’ve been working hard with the community of Paulatuk to try to keep them in their units. In a lot of cases they don’t communicate with the LHO, and that’s part of the problem. Thank you.

We look for every opportunity that we can work with the communities. I know of a few communities where the local LHO will do a lot of their own maintenance and improvement work over the summer. In some cases they’ll bring as many as 17 people on board to do the summer work. They also hire a lot of students to work at the LHOs for the summer.

As far as the employment goes, we have to be very careful that these folks, that if they do enter into some kind of agreement with them, we have to be sure that they qualify or are able to do a fairly good job, because we don’t want anyone just going into a...

Again, communities that do their budget, they will budget if they want to bring on a full-time fire chief or whatever other staff they want to hire in the community. As I assured the Member, we are always working with communities, LGANT, and NWTAC just to see how we can improve services that we provide to the community. Again, the whole O and M funding process will be reviewed to see, working with all these different groups, if any changes need to be made. Thank you.