Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister Responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. I spoke in my Member’s statement about my inability to get hold of copies of policies that relate to the allocation of public housing at the request of various residents. I go to the Minister of the Housing Corporation because I feel that the Housing Corporation is the parent corporation for the local housing authority.
So to the Minister: I would like to ask whether there are established, written policies that govern the allocation of public housing — whether or not those policies exist.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, there are policies — some in great number, some of considerable age, which is why we’re doing the policy review — and I make the commitment to the Member that she can have access to any Housing Corp policies she would like.
I am pleased to hear from the Minister that I can have access to the policies, but I guess I’m going to ask him through his office if he would provide me with copies of those written policies, because I can’t seem to get them from anywhere else.
I’d be happy to sit down with the Member and have the Member go to the Housing Corporation. She can pick which ones she’d like. We’d be happy to make sure she gets copies of those.
No offence, but rather than sitting down with you, I’d rather have the book and do it on my own time.
Laughter.
However, that said, I’m glad these policies are being revised. I would like to know when we can expect a revised copy of this policy book, which I can’t get a hold of.
Mr. Speaker, this work is underway as we speak. One of the things that has happened since we started this new Assembly is.... There has been a working group that brings in the LHOs of districts and headquarters to start looking at these policies. Some of them date back almost 35, 40 years.
While I accept with a degree of good grace the rejection of the Member to my offer, the offer is there to have her go over to the Housing Corporation, and she can look at the walls and shelves of binders. She can let us know what copies she’d like, and they’ll definitely be provided.
Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the fact that we have walls and shelves of binders and policies simply points out the difficulty that residents have in getting a fair housing application done.
I guess I have to ask the Minister again: how does a local housing authority make a decision on an application for public housing from a resident if there’s nothing concrete for them to go to except walls and shelves full of documents in Yellowknife?
Mr. Speaker, those documents are very concrete. We’ve taken to heart the issue raised by the Auditor General about how these processes work. We need to better connect with district offices, with the LHO and with headquarters. We’ll work at that. We’re looking at the processes in terms of making sure they’re clear and applied fairly wherever you are.
I’d just add at this point as well that as we look at the amalgamation of health, social services, education and housing boards into a community service model, multi-purpose board, that is also going to bring together the ability to better coordinate the activities that affect, in many cases, often the same constituents or clients.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The time for question period has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, replies to Budget Address, day 5 of 7. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of standing and special committees. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
