Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my sister-in-law Doris Camsell and, of course, Ms. Jacobson Masuzumi.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome the staff of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. We had a really good presentation and launching of the Mental Health Strategy today. I also recognize Dana Heide, who is the associate deputy minister and board member of the commission as well.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. I’d like to welcome my mother in the House today, Ms. Georgina Jacobson Masuzumi. Welcome. I’d like to welcome all our visitors here in the public gallery today for taking an interest in our proceedings here in the Legislative Assembly. Thank you for coming.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask some questions to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. The Minister just made a very important, significant announcement regarding the implementation of the seniors’ rental charges and delaying it until September 1st. I want to ask the Minister, between now and September 1st, what type of work he will do with the seniors in terms of explaining the reasons why the rental charges will be coming in, what type of consultation his staff or the communities or LHOs will be doing to see how we can talk and listen to the elders and see that the rent will be reduced quite significantly in the first year of the second phase of this implementation of charging the elders’ rent.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Leading up to the new rent scale, all the tenants, including seniors, will have an opportunity to meet with their local LHO and they will be given an indication at the time of what their rent can be expected to be. With the rent scale change, it will be July 1st. With the seniors, now with the new implementation of September 1st, there will be an opportunity for them to work with the local LHOs and give them an indication of what their rent is going to be.
We had our meetings here as a committee and we had the NWT Seniors’ Society come and meet with us one fine, early morning and talked about the rental issue with the seniors and the Housing Corporation. I want to ask the Minister if the NWT Seniors’ Society asked for a meeting with the Minister and staff about this new implementation, especially the delay. Would the Minister be able to entertain having a meeting with them?
I did have an opportunity to meet with the NWT Seniors’ Society. Obviously, with an issue of importance like this, there was mixed views on it. Some thought it was a good thing. Some said we should just stay at zero. There were a few that said, well, why don’t you just meet us halfway and phase it in? Listening to that and listening to concerns of the Members, we took that into consideration and we decided to go with September 1st and implement it over the next two years.
Can the Minister tell us his reasons why the reduced rate for the first year of implementing the seniors’ rent charge starts on September 1st?
Well, we listened to what Members had to say. We listened to what some of the concerns were for the seniors out there. We thought this would be an adjustment period, because to go from zero to $70, $75 or $80 dollars, as was the original intent, we thought this would be an easier adjustment to graduate up to the higher rent.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a follow-up on my Member’s statement. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education a couple of questions. What is the Minister doing to address the need for a boarding home in Inuvik for students from small communities in the Beaufort-Delta?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
This particular issue has been addressed with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council and there’s been some correspondence back and forth. This has been an ongoing issue and I did raise that issue with the board chairs, as well, during a chairs meeting. They’re fully aware of it. They’re doing what they can to accommodate those students that will be in Inuvik from outlying communities. We will continue to monitor that and we’ll continue to pressure the BDEC to assist those students to the best of their ability in the community of Inuvik.
If the numbers show that students from small communities are not succeeding in Inuvik, will the Minister take the steps necessary to provide a boarding home by this fall? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Those need to be addressed with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. My staff is listening. Definitely, my department will follow through and monitor, especially this fall, how many students will be attending Inuvik from the outlying communities, and the succession plan. I can get back to the Member about the number of students who will be boarding in Inuvik, and where they’re going to be boarding and provide that information to the Member from BDEC. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement earlier today with questions for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. My statement today outlined a very sad chain of events for Cecelia Kell and an international embarrassment, obviously, for us. Could the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation tell me what steps have been taken to act on the UN recommendations and get Ms. Kell a home and pay the recommended compensation? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re fully aware of the situation and we take the recommendations from the UN very, very seriously. We would like to try and set up a meeting with Ms. Kell to try and work out some details. We have six months to respond to the recommendations, but as of right now, we are trying to meet with this lady and work out the details. Thank you.
Thanks for the comments from the Minister. I know that the Minister recognizes that this is a serious situation and will do good work to get this rectified, and I ask that we would be kept apprised of the progress on that.
As the UN decision pointed out, Ms. Kell’s traumatic experiences point to the need for greater public understanding of property law and ensuring that clients of our LHO partners are aware of their rights. Since we are trying to stress the breaking down of silos and coordinated actions across government, such as through the development of the Anti-Poverty Strategy, can the Minister say how he intends to work with his ministerial colleagues to ensure, for example, the Department of Justice’s Legal Aid and Community Court Worker programs incorporate knowledge on rental rights into their services? Thank you.
Well, I can speak from the Housing perspective and say that we’ve got some checks and balances in place to ensure that a situation like this doesn’t happen again. One of the checks and balances is to not allow for a person to be removed from the lease without their notification, and I think that’s what happened in this particular case. I will commit to working with my counterparts and the Minister of Justice to see how we can better inform his department on some of the steps going forward, and the communities too. They have an opportunity to work with their tenant relations officer.
I think the recommendation from this has probably taught us a very valuable lesson in how we need to inform people of the particular rights they have. I believe we’ll start working on that when the rest of our tenant relations officers come in. Thank you.
Thanks for the comments from the Minister again. I’m not questioning the comments, but I do want to point out to the Minister that the final checks and balances are indeed the court system. This wasn’t just an NWT failure. This was a total Canadian failure. I think what we need is to bring the accountability and complete the circle. I would appreciate it if the Minister would commit to bringing that to committee on how, in fact, that will be done. We will know that our legal system, which is our final check and balance, will indeed be able to back up the systems that I know the Minister will be putting in place within Housing. Thank you.
I would be pleased to meet with committee. I mean, we have six months, obviously, to respond to the recommendations. We’re trying to get the pieces in place right now. But once we’ve completed all that work and I’ve had an opportunity to discuss with my counterpart from Justice, I think it might be prudent for both of us, actually, to come before committee and give them some time and explain to them how we plan on dealing with any situations. I don’t think we’ll have any more situations like this in the future. If we put the proper pieces in place, then that should rectify the problem that happened in this particular case. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again for those comments. Again, of course, I wasn’t speaking about this case now. I’ve backed off and I’m speaking in a sort of a systemic issue, so I think the deadlines are sort of mute with respect to that.
Again, I have to be a bit reticent in just accepting the Minister’s intentions compared to what the final result is, because the recent update by the Auditor General on recommendations for improvements to the Housing Corporation operations some years ago found that there has been unsatisfactory progress on ensuring applications for housing are dealt with consistently and according to policy. In fact, if my memory serves, I think only 17 out of 45 were done correctly. This speaks to the need to ensure everyone gets equal treatment. Can the Minister say what steps his corporation is taking to finally move on these recommendations, when the improvements will be made and how the corporation will continue to monitor for compliance? And applications are a good example of what we’re talking about. Thank you.
I kept referring to this particular case in my answer before because this is the one that brought about this situation. In the overall picture, working with the Housing Corporation and the Auditor General’s report, obviously, that was from a few years ago, we’ve taken great steps in the meantime since then to improve how we work with our LHOs. One of the things we have done is we’re implementing a territorial-wide housing information system. I think that’s going to give us the ability to monitor the workings of the LHOs a lot closer. They’re doing a fine job out there, but we need to be a little more connected, I think is what I’m trying to say, and communicate a lot more. Also, we just announced the other day, we’re setting up an NWT Housing Appeal Committee, and I think this may go a long way, too, in addressing some of the concerns.
As far as the Auditor General’s report goes, I mean, we’ve listened to some of the recommendations. I think we’ve done a very good job in responding to some of the recommendations, and I think we’ll see a great improvement in the overall delivery of housing and the appeals system for tenants that feel they’ve been wronged. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are in follow-up to my Member’s statement that I did earlier, and it’s regarding the Deh Cho Bridge here. It’s going to be directed to the Minister of Transportation.
With the asks for money continuing to come in, does that affect the amount of years that this bridge will be paid off in, and how many more years would that be expected onto what was initially predicted? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, it doesn’t. Thank you.
Keeping with the impacts of this big project, can the Minister please let me know how this is going to affect other capital projects throughout the Northwest Territories, what kind of impact it’s going to have? Thank you.
We wouldn’t know that. Obviously, the ask is $10 million, but we wouldn’t be able to define that question at this stage in time. Thank you.
Can the Minister confirm and let us know if he believes that it will have an impact on other capital projects in the small communities? Thank you.
That’s an opinion, Mr. Moses. I need a question. Rephrase.
I’ll switch the questions up here. Can the Minister give us an operational cost for this bridge on a yearly basis? Thank you.
I’m not sure if the Member is looking for a once it’s completed operational cost or if he’s looking for an annual cost on what the payback would be on that bridge over 35 years. I’m unable to answer much of what the question was. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Considering that it will be the taxpayers who will be paying for this bridge, I’m looking for the operation and maintenance of this bridge on an annual basis. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to get that information for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
