Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and the local housing authority.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that we need policies. We have to set policies so that the good folks who work in our local housing authorities have guidelines by which to go, and the boards who also serve as volunteers in our communities. They have guidelines by which to deliver the housing programs. But, Mr. Speaker, sometimes the situation arises which calls for some kind of discretionary decision making, which I encourage. I think we should put that kind of decision making into the hands of our people. The problem being that we must have policies, as well, because once you open that door of discretionary decision making, it can go far afield and afar awry if it is not handled properly, that kind of authority. But, Mr. Speaker, too many times I hear on certain policies that there does need to be some common sense applied. I would like to ask the Minister responsible, is there a policy in place now that would allow people at the local authority level to apply for a waiver, for a variation of a policy to accommodate a certain housing need in a community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as I know there is not an actual policy in place, but the Member is right, there are times when some common sense decisions need to be made. As a corporation, we are going to have to take steps to ensure that the LHOs have the authority to make decisions like this when the need arises and not make it as widespread as the Member mentioned. Thank you.
What happens sometimes is the LHO makes a decision within the policy guidelines, the constituent is unhappy, they go to their MLA, their MLA goes to the Minister, and then from the Minister’s office goes a decree of some kind to address the situation one way or the other. It can be demoralizing or demeaning to the authority who has been given the decision-making mandate to then have the Minister dictate down to them. I would rather see a policy in place where the people of the LHO can appeal either to the Minister or president or somebody so that request comes from them when they see an opportunity to vary a policy in order to accommodate a constituent. It is a subtle difference but I think it is important to the people on the front line. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is something that we will have to try to put together so the authorities… And I hear the Member’s point, because we do get a lot of calls in our office, folks across the Territories that aren’t happy sometimes with some of the decisions that are made. You can’t fault the LHOs, because they are following policy that is set out by us. If there are opportunities to make small changes to policy that will give them that ability to have some flexibility in some of the decisions they make, then maybe appeal to headquarters or appeal to the Minister too, in certain cases, then that is something that we should have a serious look at. Thank you.
Some of the areas that I know, from having been an MLA for a long time, which come up are issues around residency, emergency shelter issues, issues of rental arrears and perhaps very, very old outstanding arrears for damages, situations where a senior may be in a home, in a subsidized housing unit and they temporarily need someone to stay with them who may be working but they need their support and care in the home for some reason. Those are the kinds of things that are real life kind of human issues, and yet I don’t want people to feel that they have to go through a big appeals process, that they have to go straight to the Minister’s office. If they could have that established working relationship with the LHOs and the local boards and they could reason with them and then have the opportunity for the boards to advocate for them, I think it is much better if the policy could incorporate those kinds of issues. Could the Minister respond? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we are always looking for ways to improve policies and update them to meet the needs of residents. Some of the feedback we get from the Member goes a long way to bring some of these policies forward. That is something that we can do to improve the service to the clients, is to incorporate some of the changes mentioned by the Member, then we will take that into consideration. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
I just want to be absolutely clear that as Members we are all about accountability, policy and process. I just want to make it absolutely clear that my comments or questions today in no way are meant to be disparaging toward the good work of the front-line workers and the LHOs and also to the people at the headquarters in the Housing Corporation and the hard work that they do. I just want to be very clear that this is just something about just making it work a little better. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I didn’t hear a question there. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
