Robert Villeneuve

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 That rent scale is outdated and it's out to lunch, and the guidelines that encompass that specific policy are also outdated and they are a disincentive to people in the communities.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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member’s statement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also have to express my dismay at what happened yesterday here in the House. I know everything here spoke in this room is public and any gestures that are made in this House are made to the public also and not just to Members sitting here today. Just on that point, Mr. Speaker, if something like that takes place in this House, which is obviously not allowable, what kind of message is that going to send to the public when people that actually have concerns with government operations, government programs and the delivery of services, when they write a Minister a...

My question, okay, to the Minister of the Housing Corporation…

---Laughter

That's fine. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay. With this review of this Income Support Program over the last year, is there any commitment from ECE that the rent scale is going to be brought up again? It's been brought up by Members on that side, Members on this side. Is it going to be reviewed again to more accurately reflect what people are willing to pay?

…just have a disincentive with that policy in place. So why do we even have it there if people aren't going to want to go out and become self-reliant?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we have to wait another couple of years, I guess, for seeing any reduction in any waiting times that are pretty long today. Does the Minister have any appetite, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that maybe out-of-town patients should get a little priority when they get to the emergency room? If they have travelled for eight hours or two days to get to the emergency room, shouldn’t they be given some kind of priority over patients that are just walk-ins from Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we have to wait another couple of years, I guess, for seeing any reduction in any waiting times that are pretty long today. Does the Minister have any appetite, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that maybe out-of-town patients should get a little priority when they get to the emergency room? If they have travelled for eight hours or two days to get to the emergency room, shouldn’t they be given some kind of priority over patients that are just walk-ins from Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.