Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked about the problems that exist even with the transfer of the Public Housing Program back to the local housing organizations. I have questions for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, was the Minister aware that when the transfer took place, that the policies that remained and were developed as a harmonization tool with ECE and the NWT Housing Corporation would also remain in place when it was transferred back to the local housing organizations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the transfer went over to ECE, my understanding was that clients were going to go to ECE, get their rents assessed, and then they’d go back and pay the LHO. But as we’ve been hearing throughout the transfer, there had been a lot of difficulties with some not being assessed in a timely manner and we see some of the results of it today with the arrears. My understanding of the whole thing was that they were just going to go and get their arrears and… They were going to get their arrears assessed and then they were going to go to the LHO and pay the rent. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, my question basically was when the transfer occurred back again, when the decision was reversed to go back to the corporation or the local housing organizations, the rules that were in place, policies, procedures that were put in place to harmonize the two programs, did the Minister know that part of the transfer was also going to be occurring? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I apologize if I misunderstood the Member’s first question. With the policies going back from ECE to Housing Corp, I am aware that we are using those at the moment. However, we are evaluating the whole process and we will be making some changes, ones that will be better for clients. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to allocating resources to the communities to clean up the mess that was created by the harmonization? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, with the transfer back to the Housing Corp, of the assessment, it’s my belief that things… We’re just in the early stages right now, but things are starting to improve. We see the assessment rates, the collection rates have gone up to almost… Some of the assessment rates in the communities are 97 and 98 percent, so that is a huge improvement, and I think that as they continue to go to the LHOs to get the assessments done, then I think we’ll see a significant improvement. It will take some time, as I said in responding to Mr. Abernethy’s questions. We’d almost have to look at it on a client-by-client basis, but I think through the process of the LHOs we’re starting to accomplish that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, previous to the transfer to ECE from the local housing organizations with the program, it was a fairly simple program, and with the low employment rates in the communities everyone knew who was working, so the individual was assessed a certain amount. He was assessed a certain amount, he came in, he paid his rent. It was not a requirement for him to continue to report each month that he remained unemployed or his rent would be moved to a maximum. That system seemed to be working fairly well. It was changed and then we asked it to be put back to the corporation, but the program that was in place that created the problem wasn’t thrown out. Is the Minister prepared to revise that program to go back to something that is close to what was in place previous to the harmonization project? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, having to come into the LHO was a process that was in place even before the transfer over to ECE. Whether you are employed or not, it asked you to come in every month to verify your income. If you didn’t come in, obviously you are going to be assessed at economic rate, but if you came in later and verified your income, then they would make the necessary adjustments. So the program has always been there. It was just a matter of reporting when the transfer took place to ECE, because not all communities had an ECE office and, therefore, we find ourselves in a situation we are in today. But there is an opportunity, as I have said earlier, that we can go back and look at some of the files. We need the people to work with us on this one. They have to verify their income and adjustments will be made. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
