Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is concern with the amount of arrears that are out in Paulatuk. It’s not something that they just decided that they were going to do. This was a long process that they followed to get to the eviction process. I’m not quite sure if it’s a court ordered or rental officer ordered eviction. I’d have to follow up on that. The local housing organization up there does have policies that it goes by and people are given ample opportunity to come in and try to work out a repayment plan. I have to say, Mr. Speaker, that Paulatuk, for the number of units it’s got, has the...

Thank you. The residents had ample opportunity, as I said before, to work out a repayment plan, and not knowing what state we’re at right now, if it’s a rental office ordered eviction, I would have to follow up and be in contact with the Member as to the status of some of these evictions. So I’m not sure if they’re court ordered evictions. I’d have to follow up on that.

Again, I say, Mr. Speaker, the Housing Corporation is not in the business of evicting people, we’re in the business of trying to house people. We’ll do our part in making sure that happens, but they also have to do their part to...

Thank you. One of the plans that I would come up with to keep the tenants in their home is to pay their rent, or work out a repayment plan, which most LHOs have shown that they’re willing to do as far as helping those folks that may have accumulated some arrears during the time ECE was doing the assessments. But I can tell the Minister that of all the units in Paulatuk, there’s only three people that haven’t come back to get their reassessments done for that particular time and their actual assessment that they’re getting done in Paulatuk now is up to almost 100 percent, whereas before it was...

Thank you. Municipal and Community Affairs doesn’t have a mandate to fund condominium corporations. I mean, we recognize the fact that they are facing some challenges out there and we’re working with the City to try do what we can to advance the proposal that they’ve sent down to Ottawa. Again, it is a privately held corporation and we understand that there are a lot of issues out there and we’re hopeful we can do what we can to help the residents of Northland access some funding so they’d be able to get on with some overdue and needed repairs. Thank you.

Thank you. It was the City that submitted the proposal and we as a government had supported the City’s proposal. We, as a department over at MACA, had supported the City’s proposal. So we would have to be in contact with the City and see if anything is being heard or what’s the status on the proposal. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, March 9, 2011, I will move that Bill 7, Community Planning and Development Act, be read for the first time.

Thank you. It’s unfortunate of the situation out in Northland. I had an opportunity, earlier this winter, to meet with the residents out in Northland along with MLA Bisaro and Mayor Van Tighem and we had a very informative meeting. They outlined very eloquently the amount of problems that they’re facing out in Northland and we understand, I mean they understand it’s a privately held corporation, but we as a government are doing what we can to support the City’s application for accessing some of the funding that could be available. But I will assure the Member that I’ll do what I can to try and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through the Infrastructure Minister, he’s on three occasions raised the issue with his counterparts in Ottawa and I know that Minister Bob McLeod has raised the issue. The answer they got back was the projects were still being looked at and if they decided to proceed with the projects, then the organization would be given a formal response to submit the formal application. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are some programs that we administer, on behalf of CMHC, that assist some of the folks that provide some of the houses with maintenance and upkeep on the units. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use the opportunity to recognize a couple of Pages that were delayed coming down because of a storm in Inuvik, but they did make it down. We have Alison McDonald here from Inuvik Twin Lakes. We also have Rachel Watters, who is here from Inuvik Twin Lakes, along with their chaperone and my constituency assistant, Leah Ipana. Welcome to the Assembly, and good job. Thank you.