Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. (Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Housing Corporation staff has visited our North Slave district. They looked firsthand at how our people are living in this housing. They also met with the chief of Behchoko. They have never visited our community before. So the community is very thankful that housing staff has visited our community. They said they were going to revisit the community again at the end of this month so that we can work together and make some changes. We would still like to hold them to this. (Translation ends)

Last month, the president of the Housing Corporation and two staff from the North Slave district visited the community of Behchoko to tour some of their most critical housing units and to meet with Chief Lafferty. They personally met and visited the homes of the community members and saw firsthand some of the poor housing conditions that these people were living in.

They listened to each individual’s concern and discussed options available to solve these problems. The trip was an answer to the concerns I had outlined in the House earlier, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, this is the first time that management has taken the time to come to a community and hear issues firsthand. The community was very appreciative. All of these years the community just wanted to be heard, Mr. Speaker, to be able to make their views clear about the reality of their lives. Those we visited felt that there was connection; a connection that has never been felt before. In the past, bureaucracy has always got in the way of dealing with human issues in a real human way, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is the first step in building a positive relationship between a particular department and the community of Behchoko and also the communities. Perhaps other departments might want to approach similar issues in a similar way.

While it takes time to build relationship, this is a very strong beginning, Mr. Speaker. At least now the department has shown it is willing to sit down and treat people with humanity and respect; a most welcome change from some of the past confrontations. There’s a quote here from Mr. Henry Ford, “If everyone keeps moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

Mr. Speaker, I’m proud to say the Housing Corporation will be returning to the community of Behchoko on May 31st to continue this process of communication. I’d like to commend the Minister of the Housing Corporation, the president and their staff for taking the initiative to open the lines of communication with my constituents. I hope other departments will take note. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause