Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement and our discussion yesterday. I want to ask the Minister in regards to the review of the rental issue here. Will the Minister confirm to me and to the House here that the purpose of the rental review is to reduce the cost of living for the public housing tenants and not to increase their costs?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The purpose of the rent scale review is to have an overall look at how the rent scale is delivered and, in consultation with the standing committee and the public or the tenants, to see what improvements that we can make. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, certainly I agree with the Minister, because the Minister, in his exchange with me yesterday, said he has heard the arguments and I think he said something like look at improving some of the way they do the rental scale. I think that is a good start in terms of how we start making some of these improvements. I hope with that type of discussion here that the Minister will look at ways to reduce the cost of living for public housing tenants. Will the Minister commit to finalizing the report and the recommendations early in the spring so that changes can be made sooner than later?
Mr. Speaker, in undertaking the review, our intent is to have the review potentially completed into late 2010-11. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member’s statement in terms of this government concluding its time in this Assembly here, is this a big enough decision? If we are going to make some changes into how we do the review of the rental of public housing, is it a big enough decision to leave it for the next government or can we make this decision within this government to go forward in terms of the next Assembly?
Mr. Speaker, the review will be done with all the recommendations and would be a decision made by consulting with committee. We would have a decision made whether it is implemented during this government or the beginning of the next government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Also, Mr. Speaker, the Minister did say that, when he heard the arguments of the high rental costs for the people who are in these public housing units, he doesn’t want to hear them anymore. Would the Minister then commit as part of the review to go into the communities to hear this issue here and have a big part of the consultation process, when he is putting together his team and people to come into the communities that want to know about how this government is going, to look at this issue in terms of going forward to reduce the cost of living for people in our communities?
Mr. Speaker, when the review is started, I have committed to the Member that there will be public consultation. Obviously, we hear a lot of concerns out there with what they perceive to be the high rents that are charged. So we have to take that into consideration when we are doing the review of the rent scale and then we have to follow the recommendations or look at the recommendations and determine whether it is something that we want to implement sooner rather than later. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
