Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The long-awaited response from the Health Minister with regard to supplementary health benefits is finally here. I’d like to thank the Minister for her statement today. Many, many people in the public have been asking for a response to the Joint Working Group, to the changes to the Supplementary Health Benefits Policy, and they’ve been looking for information on these changes literally for months. I appreciate the Minister advising the public today through her statement.

I have to say that the 2007 policy, the rescindment of that policy is music to my ears. I believe...

I lied. I said I had one last question but I do have another one.

Quite often I’ve heard Members talking about the practice of putting out a tender for housing units and it’s put out as supply, ship and erect. I gather that has quite an impact on smaller communities in that businesses within the smaller community cannot do that whole contract of supply, ship and erect. So has the Housing Corporation changed their policy of tendering housing projects so that they could be split into possibly supply and ship and then a second contract for just the erection of the units?

And the other project, where is it located?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions with regard to the housing capital for Yellowknife. I note that there’s a multi-unit building purchase and then there’s a 12-unit retrofit. I wonder if I could know how many units, first of all, are in that replacement for the multi-unit purchase and the location of that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be supporting this motion.

I spoke in my Member’s statement about the need for an evaluation of policies and procedures and programs within the Housing Corporation. If I understood the Member correctly, he stated that it will be another year before we get the completion of a Shelter Policy which should be all-encompassing.

I don’t believe that we need to wait a year before this particular policy change can take effect. I believe it was mentioned by my colleague Mr. Bromley that this is a change that is relatively easily done. I don’t believe that it needs to...

Mr. Speaker, we have heard many comments from Members, as we have gone through our statements and questions today, about things that are not working relative to the way the Housing Corporation operates and the relationships between the corporation and the people that are in housing, things like very large arrears, things like housing suitability in terms of number of bedrooms where you don’t have three bedrooms when you get your kids back. It doesn’t sound to me like a Shelter Policy is going to encompass the actual on-the-ground management of some of these guidelines. Could I get a better...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not surprisingly, my questions are for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, and you can let the Minister know that he’s almost done.

I mentioned in my Member’s statement the Auditor General’s report, and in particular, item number 59 from that report is a recommendation that states that the corporation should finalize its strategic plan as soon as possible. It goes on to say that part of the plan should be: “incorporate all the various elements of housing into a comprehensive northern Housing Strategy.” The management’s response did not indicate that a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve heard already today from other Members how much housing in the NWT is in difficulty. There are lots of problems: inconsistent application of guidelines, policies which are fine in theory but do not work in reality, people living rent free who have the means to pay, people quitting good jobs so their income stays down and their rent stays at a workable level, people have accumulated huge arrears because their rent assessments are incorrect or unadjusted, people denied public housing when vacant homes exist in the community, people unable to access adequate housing...

I guess I heard the Minister say that we will do that. Is there a timeline on this? I’ve heard this for quite a while. I would have thought that if the Housing Corporation was going to do it, it would have been something they would have considered and have started already. When might we be able to see these contracts split into two parts?

Just one last question, I guess. Part of my riding includes Sissons Court, which has quite a number of public housing units. I wonder if the Minister could advise the status of those units in terms of their repair or lack of repair, basically an evaluation of their need for how good are they. Do they need repairs? When are they likely to be renovated and retrofitted?