Inuvik Twin Lakes

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

We did have an appraisal on the site there, and the cost of removing all the infrastructure there was significantly higher than what we would have got for it had we sold it off as surplus. That’s the stage we’re at right now.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently we have three. That’s not including what students the LHOs themselves might take on, which will probably bring the number a lot higher.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

At the end of the day, it is our goal to see our tenants become more independent and honour the commitments that they’ve made. There’s also, and I’ve stated in the House in the past, an appeals process that we’re hoping to roll out here fairly soon. I won’t as a rule try and dictate to the LHOs what they do. They make their own policies. They’re the ones that actually came to us with some of the ideas they’ve had which they figure work quite well in their communities.

There’s an appeals process that we’re hoping to roll out here. Tenants will have the opportunity, if they feel that the board...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Mr. Speaker, I would have to have discussions with the LHOs to truly see if it’s less work for them. They would prefer that their tenants come in on a month-to-month basis, because you have tenants that may be working for three months and then for the other two or three months they may not work, they may get a job for a month. That’s the reason they come and ask them for month-to-month assessments, so they can assess their rent based on their income for the past month. I think that’s a situation that has worked well.

As far as equalizing it over 12 months, do we collect at the end of 12 months...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, first of all, the obvious one is pay your rent and you won’t be evicted. We’ve come to cases where folks have received termination notices and they need to work with the LHO. The LHO tries to work with them. The whole eviction process is almost a year-long process and it comes to a point where eviction is the last option. We’ve had a few cases of those. It’s not something that we like to do. We want to be able to work with the tenants.

I can point out to the Member again, and I have said in this House, we’ve seen a great improvement in the public engaging with...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did recognize, as this whole Assembly did, that this was quite an issue. We’ve come up with a plan to assist our tenants, whether it be public housing or mortgage homeowners, we’ve come up with a plan to help them deal with their arrears. There’s a repayment plan that they can enter into with their local housing authority where they pay so much a month on top of the rent that they’ve been assessed.

Our collection rate as of March 31, 2011, was at 79 percent, which is an improvement. A lot of the local LHOs, I think we have a high of 161 percent. That indicates to me...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

This government and this Minister do not disregard policy. You can’t, obviously, go against policy.

We understand we’ve gotten letters of support. We’ve entered into two more negotiated contracts with contractors in the Member’s communities, two in one community, even though both have requested a negotiated contract, and according to the policy, if two or more request a negotiated contract, we could have used that as an opportunity to go public, but we recognize that we need to help the local economy. So we entered into a negotiated contract with two companies in the same community and we did...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

We make a contribution to each community. I think last year we made the contribution of $825,000 to the recreation in each community. We have it broken down by the communities. If they’re wanting to they’re able to use that money to… I mean, again, it would be the decision of the community. We can’t tell them how specifically to spend it. Through the committee of Rural and Remote Communities I believe we had identified some money that we wanted to funnel into the communities to help the communities with creating some employment that would obviously include summer students.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

At the end of the day, it is our goal to see our tenants become more independent and honour the commitments that they’ve made. There’s also, and I’ve stated in the House in the past, an appeals process that we’re hoping to roll out here fairly soon. I won’t as a rule try and dictate to the LHOs what they do. They make their own policies. They’re the ones that actually came to us with some of the ideas they’ve had which they figure work quite well in their communities.

There’s an appeals process that we’re hoping to roll out here. Tenants will have the opportunity, if they feel that the board...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 6th Session (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Housing Corporation recognizes the importance of having as many local people doing the contracts as possible. That’s why we ventured into some negotiated contracts with local contractors to help them build up the capacity so they can compete in an open market. We see that in the case of some of the ones that we’ve negotiated contracts with in the past. They are competing in the open market.

The Member says that there was $800,000 in negotiated contracts. Some of the numbers I have put that number a little higher. I mean, the one particular contractor, almost $1...