Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just for my own understanding, are we following a court order from the province of B.C. in writing off this debt? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a quick question on the debt on the workers’ compensation assessment for Northern American Tungsten Corporation for $101,871.80. Could the Minister provide some clarification on what that debt was for and why it’s being written off? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a quick question with regard to the total amount of debts that the government wants forgiven in this act. After these debts are forgiven, does the government continue to pursue payment of these debts? I think we just write them off here in the House for government accounting procedures. I know other government organizations that do forgive debts, like LHOs, for instance, after they are forgiven and taken off the books, they still continue to pursue payment of some of these debts. Is that what the government does today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s good to know that they are reviewing other jurisdictions, because I myself have done some reviews of other jurisdictions and they seem to have kind of tossed this whole rent policy out the door and went on something like their taxable income for people, which would alleviate their level of anxiety of how much their rent is going to be from one month to the next. At least they don’t have to file their monthly rental claims every month and people are more in tune to seek meaningful employment for a given year given the fact that they know what they’re rent is going...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to ask some of the same questions that I was asking the Minister of Education yesterday, but my questions are going to be directed to the Minister of Housing. The rent scale policy that we have in place, the old rent scale policy, I just want to ask the Minister, can he put something on the record to indicate that the Housing Corporation is going to possibly review the rent scale policy that touches a lot of people here in the NWT; a policy which creates a disincentive to seek employment for public housing clients, creates dissention towards the LHOs, the...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I am not going to reiterate all of what other Members have spoken about. I am sure the message is clear that this side of the House is pretty unified in support of this motion. I will reserve my judgment for when it’s time to vote anyway. That’s not to say that I, in any form or fashion, condone the behaviour that was displayed in the House yesterday. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t take more time to discuss this issue, some possible options for ramifications for something like that. It’s unfortunate that we have to call for measures this extreme, especially this late in...

Mr. Speaker, why did I waste my time even mentioning to the ECE then? Why didn't the Minister of Housing stand up…

---Laughter

…and answer those questions with regard to the rent scale policy, because that's what I was asking about. I wasn't asking about the…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know how the Minister can say that this has nothing to do with rent. It has everything to do with rent, Mr. Speaker. It's called the rent scale policy. You know, and that policy is developed by this government, again, for the LHOs to carry out, to charge the government back what they would charge for a one, two, three, four, five-bedroom, and the client pays a portion of that and this government subsidizes the other portion and that's the rent that the LHO receives for that unit. So basically these clients want to come out with the minimum amount of rent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand there is a review of the Income Security Program. I'm not talking about the program itself, I'm talking about this rent scale policy that we have developed for the LHOs to enforce upon public housing clients. That rent scale is outdated and it's out to lunch, and the guidelines that encompass that specific policy are also outdated and they are a disincentive to people in the communities. People don't work for money or for a cheque anymore, they'll work under the table because they don't want to bring in any documentation so they don't get charged the...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question today is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment just dealing with some more of the income verification rent scale policy that this government doesn't seem to want to change.