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.
