Wendy Bisaro

It’s no secret that many people who are renting, struggle to meet the cost of their housing and also meet their daily expenses and maintain any kind of a decent lifestyle. Some people cannot afford to rent their own apartment, their own home. They need to rent a room in a house.

I’d like to know from the Minister, as they do the evaluation of this program that’s gone over the last two years, will they consider expanding the terms of reference to the program to include people who are renting not an apartment but renting a room in a house or renting a room in somebody else’s apartment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. I’d like to ask the Minister some questions about the Rent Supplement Program. It’s been about two years now, I think, since the program was put into place. At the time that the Minister advised committee of the program, I do believe that he said there was going to be an evaluation at some point.

So, first of all I’d like to ask the Minister, what kind of success does the Housing Corporation attribute to this program? What kind of uptake has there been from people that are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a number of issues. There always are a huge number of issues with this department and most are comments. I don’t need the Minister to respond. I will try and ask my questions when I get to the page on detail.

I want to start off with the issue of continuing care. We did get a report from the department, from the Minister, but it did not commit to an action plan, and that’s a concern for me. There doesn’t seem to be, at least not that we’ve seen on paper, a cohesive, coordinated effort towards care for our seniors. From what I can gather, the mentality seems to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Yes, affordability in Yellowknife is the major issue in housing and in my community. At this point, I looked at the NWT Housing Corp website. There’s no indication that this program will end.

So I’d like to know from the Minister, it’s been two years, what are the intentions of the Housing Corp? How long will this program continue? Do they intend to continue it and for how long? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. So, if I understood the Minister correctly, that’s 68 or 70 out of a possible 150. That’s unfortunate. I would have hoped that the program would be oversubscribed.

I’d like to ask the Minister, when is the two-year anniversary date of this program and will the Housing Corporation be doing a formal review, a formal evaluation of the program at that time? Thank you.

Okay. Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the DM for that. That explains that, and I’m glad we’re going to put in the $250,000. That’s great.

My other question has to do with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation general rate application. I see that in ’15-16 there is no grant, no contribution there. My question goes to the impact of the end of this contribution and this subsidy which has given us bit of a rate holiday. How is that going to impact the power bills of residents? What am I going to see on my power bill, for instance, in ’15-16 since we’re no longer contributing anything to...

Mr. Chair, thanks for the information. I certainly look forward to seeing the reports twice annually. I think that’s a very good step forward. I want to thank the Minister for his commitment to committee.

It is my understanding that the Program Review Office has been doing a review of student housing. I think it goes back to almost a year ago now. Can the Minister advise whether or not that review is finished, and if not, when it will be? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question here with regards to the Program Review Office. I note in the description that the PRO is responsible to… They have formularies of business. One of them is to report on results with a view to recommending modifications or improvements. I think it’s been mentioned once or twice in our discussions of the budget to date, but I’d like to know from the Minister if there is any consideration on the part of the department to make the Program Review Office recommendations binding on departments. Is that something that the Finance department is considering...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one question here. I presume it should be on this page with the revenue summary, but I’d like to know where the net fiscal benefit for the resource revenue amounts that we receive is shown in the revenue summary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier.

Now that we are moving into phase III of decentralization, describe any and all analyses of the government’s decentralization actions to date.

Of the 150 GNWT positions decentralized (per Premier McLeod in Hansard, February 10, 2015), advise the job title for each position, the original community for each position and the new community for each position.

Of the 150 GNWT positions decentralized, advise how many of the positions were vacant at the time the positions were transferred.

Of the 150 GNWT positions decentralized, advise how many of...