Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Chairman, the Member is correct when he talks about the senior and I will respond to Mr. Yakeleya’s concern about the seniors and how I feel we go to great lengths to make sure our seniors are well taken care of. We do run into some cases. We do hear a case here and there. I think for the most part within our seniors we have across the Northwest Territories, a lot of those are living in their own homes. I think we look after them quite well.

The Member mentioned the preventative maintenance program and talking about all the number of programs that a particular individual had access to over...

Mr. Speaker, we are coming forward with a slight change in policy to address some of the Member’s and other Members’ concerns. It is one that we would have to bring before committee and have the discussion with committee, but we do recognize that it has been a problem across the Northwest Territories and we’re taking the necessary steps to do what we can to help homeowners access some of the programs we offer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The mortgage collection rate is about 40 percent and the rental collection rate is about 76 percent right now. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we would go into the community and work with the community to identify the shortcomings as far as their firefighting ability goes. As far as equipment goes, we’ll help them to identify the equipment that they need and then they would have to work with the municipal government to ensure and they would have the ability to purchase the equipment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree with Mr. Yakeleya 100 percent. It is about educating those out there and making them realize it is quite a privilege to have a roof over your head and make sure that you look after it. It is a message that I have been trying to get out there. I know in some of my travels around the Territories and meeting with some of the community leaders or regional leadership, I mentioned that to them that we, as leaders, need to make our people aware of how fortunate they are to live in these units. A lot of these units were brand new when they moved in and they don’t take...

We’re quite confident that with the investment that was made by the federal government and matched by the NWT Housing Corporation I think once we get to the point where we do another community needs survey I think we’re going to see the numbers come down drastically. I keep saying I’m quite confident, so they’re going to have to come down, because we’ve had a lot of investment into all communities and the community needs survey that was just completed here in 2009, as I’ve responded to Mr. Beaulieu, I was saying we’re trying to use some of the numbers from there to help us allocate our...

[Microphone turned off] …to use this funding to identify capacity in the community and work with the communities to improve it where we’re able to. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are actually looking at trying to nail down a date where we can provide the committee with an update with the work that is going on and some of the issues that Member Bromley had spoken of. Thank you.

We do try and make sure that those communities that are in the most need are talking about the adequacy of the home ownership programs or the private homeowners. When the Member first started his statement I kept thinking he was referring to our public housing stock, not realizing until he clarified it that he was talking about some of the home ownership issues. Obviously we put a lot of money into the care in the last few years and a lot of the communities were looking at the needs survey. Where there was an adequacy issue, we tried to tailor some of the resources and put more resources into...

Mr. Speaker, once the committee has reviewed all the input that they receive, then it will come to my desk and I will be sure that I won’t release a product that is not one that is beneficial to employers of the Northwest Territories and employees. As far as more input, I suppose it is something that we would have to take into consideration once we reach the final product. If maybe there is another opportunity for some input before a final decision is made, I can assure the Member and I can assure all Members that I have made it a priority to not release a product that is not beneficial to...