Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was speaking about the arrears problem we have across the North and the way the government is collecting. Mr. Speaker, the residents of housing units have nowhere else to go, and given the small remote communities, we lack family shelter programs. Given the community housing situation is already overcrowded, will this government take the action to address the real challenges of the small and remote communities and not evict people, especially in the middle of winter? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a problem we are facing across the Northwest Territories. We are taking steps to deal with the rent collection. I have to point out, though, that our five best performing LHOs, as far as average arrears per unit, three of them are in the small communities. Our best average is in one of the smaller communities, so that showed me that these are communities that are honouring the commitments that they’ve made and these are the communities that we don’t hear concerns from, from the MLAs. This is one of the reasons I believe we are in the situation we are in today where we have so much arrears, is because of political interference, not only at this level but it gets to this level at the end of the day. It all starts with the board not supporting their LHOs when they’re trying to enforce rent collection. That hurts the LHOs. It hurts the tenant most of all because they realize they can go to the political leaders and have this brought to a forefront for a responsibility that was theirs and that they didn’t accept.
We want to work with these people, Mr. Speaker. We’ve made that quite clear. It’s not our intent to evict people in the wintertime, spring, summer or fall. We just don’t want to evict them, but they have to work with us, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, it comes to a point sometimes of where eviction is the last option. Thank you.
Well, political interference, I guess that’s a pretty big one. That’s my job. I represent the people in Nunakput. When people have problems, they come to me and I try to deal with them.
You know, Mr. Speaker, this government gets over $30 million a year from the federal government for the 22 units across the North. The same funding that’s either sitting empty or occupied, the money they collect is for O and M, Mr. Speaker. So why are we kicking people out in the middle of winter? It’s not right.
Mr. Speaker, I’m asking the Minister if he could reconsider the evictions that are going on in the communities. Come to my community of Paulatuk and try to work with the community. I met with the Minister, he promised me that but I want to hear it so the people in the community can hear that the Minister is coming and the department is coming to try to make a difference in the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’ve been up to Paulatuk, I’ve heard their concerns. The concerns I heard there weren’t so much tied to arrears as to the operation of the LHO. I can tell the Member and I think he realizes, that one of our senior management from headquarters has committed to going to Paulatuk and working with the folks up in the Member’s riding.
Again, I say, Mr. Speaker, the eviction process, when we get to the eviction process, that’s basically the last straw. They’ve been given every opportunity for time to enter into repayment plans and when we get to this stage that we’re at now it’s because they haven’t honoured the commitments that they’ve made on three or four occasions. It’s unfair to those… We have people that have come forward and made repayment plans, have made bulk payments. They’ve honoured their commitment, therefore, they continue to stay in their house. But, again, it’s a challenge and we’ll continue to work with all the communities to see how we can best address this. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister is correct about the mess that ECE left this housing situation in. I am blaming... You guys left a big mess. The department can’t even find out. People are making payments, or I’ve got pieces of paper in my office stating that they made a payment and it’s not reflecting on their bill. Mr. Speaker, the department obviously with the Minister saying that he did go to the community, yes, he did, but we have to try to work with them, not kick them out. You’re not in Yellowknife where if you go outside you’re going to be living in a tent. That’s not right. You’re in a position to make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, maybe we should put a motion forward to delete all arrears across the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister willing to work with me in the community to keep the people that are on the eviction list in their houses until we can get this sorted out? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, a motion to delete all arrears across the Northwest Territories is not going to benefit the tenants. Then we just may be putting them in a position where they just accumulate arrears again, and most of all, and most importantly, it would not be fair to those folks across the Northwest Territories that paid their rent faithfully since 1972 and are still living in the same house. It’s not fair to them. That’s what we want, is to try to treat everybody fairly and equitably.
One of the goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly is safe, sustainable, vibrant, and I’d like to add independent communities. We’re trying to foster independence. We’re trying to make people accept their responsibility.
Again, Mr. Speaker, it’s not our intent to try to and put these people out. They’re been given every opportunity to work out a repayment plan and honour their commitment, and, unfortunately, that hasn’t happened so there has been an order for an eviction. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Considering housing issues are the number one problem in the territory, will the government commit resources to developing and supporting a regional coalition to assist families so that they do not have to be evicted? In addition, will this government commit to reviewing the way that the Housing Program is currently administered by seeking third-party community-based input from Nunakput? Thank you.
As part of our Shelter Policy review that we briefed committee on the other day, we had made a commitment to engage all the communities. I actually just had a meeting this morning with staff members and it is their intent to have regional meetings and meet with as many of the leadership in the communities as possible to get their input as to the best way to deliver housing in their communities and what improvements we can make.
We take our work very seriously and we want to make sure that we give everybody an opportunity across the NWT to engage with us so we’re not faced with situations like we have today, not only in the Member’s riding but we have a few other ridings where arrears are a serious issue. But we also have a number of communities, small communities, where they do an excellent job managing their arrears and making sure that collections are on time and up to date.
We have had situations where the responsibility for the assessment has come back to the Housing Corporation and I have committed to going back, we’re working checking back records there to see how much of the arrears were accumulated during the time where ECE was responsible for the assessment. Again, I have committed to getting that work done and reporting back to Members. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, I’d like to remind you of your rules concerning question period and answer period. We’re well over halfway through question period and we haven’t gotten halfway through the Members yet. So, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
