Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. That exchange took seven minutes. If there’s 10 Regular Members who have questions, that’s 70 minutes. We only have a 60-minute question period. Let’s keep that in mind. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’ll try to keep my comments down to a dull roar. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and my questions are directed to the Minister of Justice with regard to the Residential Tenancies Act.
The issue of the lack of jurisdiction of the rental officer over transition housing was raised in the Report of the Rental Officer, 2010-2011, which was tabled last December. I’d like to know, there are a number of issues in there, I can’t remember the number – four, five, or six, I believe – that the rental officer raised as issues that needed to be dealt with by the department and in the Residential Tenancies Act. I’d like to know from the Minister what actions he and the department are taking in regard to the recommendation on transition housing and the other recommendations in the report.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’ll try to be a little quicker on this one. I’ve already answered this question last week when we talked about other changes that the Members were looking for in the Residential Tenancies Act.
Six recommendations were put forward by the rental officer. We’ve committed to doing an analysis of those recommendations as well as the recommendations to find a hammer, if you will. We will review those. We are going to bring those back to committee in the fall, an opportunity to have a discussion and set some direction on how we want to move forward.
The Member is right; one of the areas that the rental officer wants us to look at is the application of the Residential Tenancies Act on transitional housing. I do have to remind Members and everybody else that there’s always two sides to every opinion and one of the most significant landlords of transitional housing here in the Northwest Territories has discussed this in the past, and at that time they actually recommended not to go forward with this particular provision as it would actually complicate their service providing in their institution. There are both sides to every story. We are going to do the review. We are going to bring it to Members for some decisions.
Thanks to the Minister for his response. I appreciate that we are going to get some data, some investigation, some evaluation of the current situation and that something is going to come back in the fall. I look forward to that.
I guess I would like to know, then, and interestingly I’m not so sure that the Minister and I are talking to the same people involved in transition housing because there’s differing views obviously. I’d like to know from the Minister, if we’re not going to have a report until the fall sometime, Lord knows legislative amendments would be a long time after that, so I want to know if the department is able to do anything, if they are looking to take any action to address the issues in the rental officer’s report in the interim while they do the investigation.
As I’ve indicated, there are a significant number of alternate opinions on this one, so before we implement something, we do have to take it through the public process. We do have to take it through my colleagues on that side of the House to make sure that everybody’s informed and that we make an informed decision. Once that’s done, whether it’s legislation or policy or procedure, we will do as the House directs. Thank you.
I’ll try my question again. I appreciate that we have to do investigation before we make a strong recommendation. There needs to be some analysis done and there needs to be some consultation done. What I’m asking the Minister is: Prior to that report from the department and the Minister coming forward, can the Minister advise if there is anything that the rental officer can do in the interim to try and address the issues that he has raised? I’m thinking, perhaps, of mediation or dispute resolution, et cetera. Thank you.
I’ll direct the staff at the department to talk to the rental officer to see if he has any suggestions. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will be short. I’d like to know from the Minister if it is his intention to bring forward amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act within this 17th Assembly, if that’s what’s recommended. Thank you.
Once the research is done and we take it to committee to have a discussion, if that is the wish of committee, I would be happy to take it forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions this afternoon will be for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Will the Minister commit to reviewing and reassessing the Hay River Persons with Disabilities application for core funding?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. We’ve had discussions with the Hay River Committee for Persons with Disabilities on their funding and advised them that the funding would not be increased due to budget pressures that we’re all facing. Thank you.
Will the Minister look at reviewing the handivan program which is so vital to the community of Hay River?
I recognize that the handivan program is very vital to persons with disabilities and seniors. The handivan program is a municipal responsibility, so that’s something that we could have discussion with the municipality, but generally it could be also dealt with directly with the municipality. Thank you.
My next question to the Minister: Will the Minister’s department work with the Hay River Persons with Disabilities to stay open?
Yes, we are prepared to do that. We’ve had discussion. Due to the lack of funding that we’re able to provide, they have not signed a contribution agreement. We can go back and speak to them again and see if they will sign a contribution agreement to remain open. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My next question: Will the Minister commit to this House that the department will never indicate to an organization that’s already been working hard, already doing fundraising, to indicate to them and say go and do some more fundraising? Is that not insulting? I would ask the Minister to commit to not put that into a letter again.
I can give that direction to the staff not to ask the people to do fundraising to continue operations.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, in terms of the…(inaudible)…towards a Devolution Final Agreement-in-Principle. My question is to the Minister. Can he provide us an update in terms of the progress of trying to bring other Aboriginal groups on stream? I know there have been efforts to try and engage with discussions with groups. Can he provide us an update? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. To date we have three Aboriginal governments that have agreed to negotiate a Devolution Final Agreement with the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Government of Canada. We are in discussions with the Tlicho. We offered and we hosted a Dehcho leadership meeting which, unfortunately, we were unable to attend because of weather conditions. We have since agreed to continue talking on some matters that are important to both of our governments.
Similarly, we had an agreed upon meeting with the Akaitcho which was, unfortunately, cancelled because of the death of a respected elder. We are continuing. As a matter of fact, yesterday I had the opportunity to have a brief chat with the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Premier for his update. My question is, in the fall we had a very goodwill attitude, good spirited discussion with the Aboriginal groups in Detah. I wanted to know if the Minister would build upon that positive relationship and perhaps consider a follow-up forum to ensure that we are fully engaged with all Aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
I recall the Detah meeting with all seven Aboriginal government leaders and Caucus. I think everybody there felt it was a very productive meeting and there was general agreement that we would have a follow-up meeting. We have attempted to do so but we haven’t been able to get an indication of a critical mass of Aboriginal leaders in attendance.
As you indicated in your Member’s statement, we are now into the annual general meeting summer season, so we are quite prepared to meet, probably in the fall sometime.
Would the Minister tell this House whether there is, perhaps, an effort to try to consider all options as we move towards a final agreement-in-principle? That the Minister would consider trying to exhaust all options, other than the discussions that are currently being undertaken to ensure that everyone is on side before this and the agreement-in-principle are concluded on devolution. Mahsi.
As we’ve been across the North meeting with Aboriginal governments, we’ve had quite a wide range of responses in our attempt to find common ground ranging from get on with it, get the deal done, and in one case there’s been a court case. We’ve had the Sahtu sign on. We’re still in discussions with others. I think the fundamental issue is with regard to the fact that the Devolution Agreement, the AIP is based on recognition of modern land claims and treaties. When you talk to the Dehcho and the Akaitcho, there’s a fundamental problem for them because they don’t agree with the written version of the treaties and they believe that only the oral version of the treaties is the correct version. That’s something that is a reality and we would have to deal with. Thank you.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the Housing Appeal Committee. Like I said, I’m glad to see that in operation. I just wanted to ask a couple questions on the operations and its mandate. I know that the Minister had announced it in the House. When exactly was the start date for the committee? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The target date for getting the committee up and running is June 1st of 2012. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, what was the mandate of the Housing Appeal Committee? Would it include taking into consideration those really long, outstanding appeals that half the constituents that come to me about housing issues are about these long-standing issues? Can those be addressed in this appeal system? Thank you.
Madam Speaker, the Housing Appeal Committee was designed to hear appeals from public housing tenants after they have gone through their local board and the district office. There are a number of issues that they would be able to discuss. Also home ownership clients would hear some of the appeals as far as eligibility and decline.
As far as going back to grievances in the past, that was not the mandate of the committee. However, if it gets to be a real concern, it is something that we would probably have to explore. As of right now, it is not in their mandate. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, I believe that we should go down this path. I think that the old grievances should be addressed. Half of the issues of housing for my riding are about that. The way houses were constructed, people weren’t paid because the houses weren’t constructed properly, hence they have lots of outstanding arrears. It would be nice to use this mechanism to address those concerns at least and come to some terms and deliberate them and examine them. I believe there is real reasoning there by constituents that raise them. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, that is going to be an awfully difficult one to look at to say that my house wasn’t constructed properly, therefore, I am not paying, because that could be a reason that everybody uses that is in arrears.
All the houses were built to the residential standards of the day. A lot of improvements have been made on these. That would be a very difficult one to look at and try and justify bringing that to an appeals committee, because I can see if we did that on one occasion, then we would open up a whole can of worms and everybody across the Northwest Territories that are in arrears will come back and say my house wasn’t constructed properly; therefore, I am not paying. It is one that we would have to explore. However, I don’t see too much merit in that right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I like Minister Beaulieu’s response. He said yes. The Minister here says no.
I am asking the Minister if they can examine it, because there is merit in it. I am not looking for new people to start questioning housing standard construction, but in the past, serious issues and arrears are serious concerns for my constituents and in all ridings. I really believe that this must be examined. I think that was one of the real reasons I really championed the appeal system, because someone has to look at this. Someone has to address them. I believe that this appeal board can do it if the Minister is willing to explore that avenue. Thank you.
Yes, Madam Speaker. We will examine it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to follow up on the Premier’s/Minister’s statement yesterday on devolution as well. The Premier updated us on the status and process for devolution or assumption of authority for land and resource management. This government and our public are on record for decades as serious concerns over the federal legislation now in place. But the Premier said we are considering two approaches of taking down the legislation. We have to weigh the pros and cons. Could the Premier lay out some details on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches he alluded to yesterday? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The advantages of one over the other is with delegated authority, we can assume responsibility very quickly; with the mirror legislation, it would take more time. So it’s a question of time and control. Thank you.
