Mr. Speaker, I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement earlier today with the Minister of Housing.
The fuel spills that are occurring in N’dilo and Dettah as a result of the aging fuel tanks are costing us a lot — two incidents, 160,000-some dollars, over $80,000 per incident — and it’s probably a couple of thousand dollars to replace the tanks.
Under the old SDPMI program, the Yellowknives Dene could replace the tanks and be reimbursed by the Housing Corporation, but under the CARE program it has to be approved ahead of time. This has proved onerous. This has been brought up with the Housing Corp for the last eight months. Again, it’s a straightforward, relatively low cost initiative. Is the Minister intending to act on this opportunity, or are there barriers to be dealt with here?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have standards in the NWT Housing Corporation that require us to review and assess our public housing units. We expect that we need to change the tanks at least every 20 years. We have our action plan where we have started doing.
In the area of private homes, we like to work with ENR to put the word out to private homeowners that they should assess and inspect their tanks on a regular basis to ensure there are no leaks. We have a program, as the Member has indicated, called CARE, that will provide for people in the lower income brackets to apply to replace their tanks if they need assistance. That program is for all the people in that income bracket.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for those comments from the Minister. That, too, is my understanding, and that’s the starting point for this discussion here. The Yellowknives Dene have raised this issue, as I said, over the past eight months on behalf of these elders who are low income private homeowners. Has the department assessed their tanks, and have you developed a schedule to replace those tanks according to the expression of concern and the tens of thousands of dollars this is costing both the Yellowknives Dene Nation and us?
Mr. Speaker, that issue has not come to my attention. I have not come forward with a plan to deal with the Yellowknives Dene. I have not been notified that there is an issue there.
Mr. Speaker, it’s been raised with the Housing Corporation, and I don’t think we can pursue this further if the Minister is not aware of this. I would take the initiative to provide correspondence, and I anticipate that the Minister, perhaps, could commit to dealing with this as soon as possible, since it is now eight months and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation has not heard back from the department on this. Would the Minister commit, once I provide him later today with this correspondence, to doing a quick response?
I’ll gladly take the information provided by the Member and follow up with our officials to see why it’s taken such a long time for a response to be provided to the Yellowknives Dene. We’ll also share that information with the Member.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you very much to the Minister for that commitment. This, again, is very costly all around if we don’t act. These are disasters waiting to happen. Rather than fiddling while Rome burns, I’d like to see some action. Does the Minister agree that this is an appropriate role for the Housing Corporation to play and that they have a responsibility under these programs to do this?
I would agree that the private homeowners have a responsibility to look after their own homes. We have programs that can assist them if their income is not adequate to meet their needs.
We have embarked on a campaign to replace our tanks that are on public housing units, and we will commit to working with ENR to launch a public information campaign to make sure people are aware there is a limited lifespan that these fuel tanks will stand up for. There are other concerns. There’s condensation and other issues that factor in there. There could be a shortened life other than 20 years.
There are a number of things I can commit to, but at the end of the day I want to make sure it’s clear that we need to be approached by the individual to assist, and we also need the individual to be providing due diligence in looking after their house.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
