Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the questions to the Housing Minister. I know the Housing Minister made some statements about the program reviews and things that are going to see, hopefully, some changes for the good for people in the communities, especially with purchasing, renovating and housing and such. I want to ask the Minister in terms of speed of the process. However, I am still receiving a lot of inquiries and concerns about people purchasing houses in my region. As a matter of fact, there is one lady right now that wants to purchase her house; however, it is going to take longer than she anticipated. I am not too sure if there is any way that she could purchase this house without the support of the Housing Corporation in terms of financial dollars. Can the Minister help with this situation so it could be rectified as soon as possible?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If she is going to purchase a house without the assistance of the Housing Corporation, then she would be able to do that on her own. I am not sure where it’s coming from. If you go to the bank for financing, then you really have no dealing with the Housing Corporation unless it is a Housing Corporation unit that she is looking to buy. I need to get the information clarified with the Member before I can respond properly to it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, clarification I will give the Minister is that this lady wants to purchase a house; however, due to some complexities, I guess, within the policies of the Housing Corporation, it will take months to purchase this house. She is doing it all on her own, yet it seems like the Housing Corporation has a whole bunch of policies that speak of more frustrating for her in terms of purchasing this unit. Get it off their inventory so that they can build another unit that they would allocate to other people in the community. It is just very tiring for this person.
Mr. Speaker, if I am to understand the Member, he is talking that this lady wants to buy a house on their own and it sounds like it is a public housing unit that she is looking to buy. Okay, that has something to do with the Housing Corporation. I would have to follow up with the Member and get particular details. I know we do have a policy where we are trying to rid ourselves of some public housing units. As we bring replacement units on, we are trying to reduce our stock. If we can have people out there that are looking to buy their public housing units, then it is something that we will look at. I will get the particulars from the Member and I will assure him that I will follow up on it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise the Members in this House what he is going to do to ensure that the sale of public housing units can occur in a timely manner within the communities?
Mr. Speaker, as I said before, we are always willing to look at the option of selling public housing units. However, we have to be sure that we are not depleting our stock in that community where we are unable to provide public housing to those that are in need. If there is an excess of public housing units or we are bringing in replacement units, then this is something that we will look at. If we are doing that, then sales should go through as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had been working with the Minister’s office on this particular subject. There are probably other ones that fall into this category. I want to ask the Minister in terms of speeding up the process. It seems like this person, in the eyes of the community, is very simple. You have a public unit house. They want to buy it. The Minister has encouraged people. How quickly can this person buy this unit? It certainly would save a lot of grief for the family and I think this could be done as quickly as possible. I will work with the Minister. I want to ask the Minister if we could do this within a month or so.
Mr. Speaker, I will follow up with the Member and we will see how... I will get the particular details of the situation and we will see if we are in a position to speed it up, because it is our goal to get folks out of public housing and into their own units. If this is one way we can do it, I will commit to working with the Member to see if we can make this happen. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
