Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation some questions that kind of came to mind when Mr. Blake was asking questions about the survey. I would like to ask the Minister if they had considered going door-to-door if the survey online is not proving to bring some results. I was wondering if the Minister would consider doing a survey, maybe not to every household in the NWT but to maybe small communities and so on? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated before, the results coming in for the survey are actually pretty positive. We're at over a thousand already, which is significant considering we have about 2,400 public housing units and about 400 market housing units, so a thousand out of 2,800 homes is pretty high, recognizing some of that is government.
As stated previously, I will not hire someone specifically to go door-to-door. I think there are better usages of the funds. We are doing a very comprehensive, strategic radio campaign, and, at the smaller communities, where they have very low results, we will be putting pressure on our local housing organizations and really trying to get the government service officers out and trying to reach as many people as possible. I will emphasize to them to try to reach the seniors in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
A thousand surveys out of 2,800 is pretty good, but a thousand surveys out of 14,000 may not be as good. So, we're talking about, we're surveying, individuals that live in private homes, as well, and people that rent off other companies, and I wasn't I didn't know that this survey was restricted to public housing and market housing people only.
The MLA is correct that the survey is actually open to whoever wishes to fill in the survey. The majority of results are coming from people that are accessing housing programs. Again, that is compiled through Survey Monkey. I have stated that I will not hire someone for every community it would be a huge amount of money but I can look at any community that does not have either a local housing organization or a government service officer in that community, if there are any communities, then I will consider hiring someone for that community, but, any communities that have either a local housing organization or a government service officer, we will be asking those people to provide, to do, an intensive work for us.
I guess the idea of the survey, to review the policy, to improve policy, do some program planning, there must be some policies now that the Minister has really seen as outdated policies or this whole review and surveys wouldn't be occurring, so are there any policies which we would consider to be lowhanging-fruit policies that the Minister can look at immediately and make changes to show this House that she's serious about making changes to the policies?
Actually, at this point, now, we're just getting things in place. We had expected that the survey would be finished on January 27th. I was approached by an MLA in asking if I would consider extending it, like I had said. Again, this is the first time this is public knowledge or being put out there, that we have agreed to extend it for one month because it is important to get the results.
So, we're in the process of restructuring our whole office to make sure that we have enough people within the policy department to provide the analysis that we need, so we're doing that right now. We also are already starting to take off the information from the surveys that we've gotten. We will be producing at the we were hoping by the end of this session, but, since we're extending it for a month, we will hopefully in April have a document called, "What We Heard," and then, at the next session, we will be actually tabling it in the House so that it is public information.
Lowhanging fruit, like I said, there are three ways to do that. We have simple things, things that don't impact other departments or don't impact legally or previous tenants. Those things we will be looking at quite quickly, but, out of respect for the process, out of respect for when I became a Minister and promised to consult with people, to promise to use accreditation standards, we are in the process of getting things ready. We will not make major changes until the month is finished, in order to respect the input that will come from the people of the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at one point the NWT Housing Corporation did a comprehensive survey across the Northwest Territories in 1992, where they surveyed every household in the Northwest Territories. We're not asking for that. The Housing Corporation has been doing surveys for a long time, using statistical analysis on doing several households, but they do actually go to the households.
So, I would like to ask the Minister she had mentioned a few times that the cost was huge if the Minister could provide that cost of doing, not a complete comprehensive survey, but something that's been pretty standard in the past. What would that cost so that we could have an opportunity to analyze that cost compared to what we think the results that will bring? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, the request from the MLA requesting that I extend it because of the low numbers within the community just came to me the other day. I felt that I am working with them, working in consensus government, to try to meet the needs of the Members, and, in all honesty, for the best programs for the residents of the Northwest Territories.
I did not sit down and do a cost analysis. However, the survey itself can take between it depends how much time you want to put into it. It can take between 15 minutes to three hours. Some organizations have taken many days to do it, so, for us to sit down and look at 33 communities or even taking out the market communities, it is a huge amount of communities, a huge amount of potential time, and I am not a hundred per cent confident that that would be the best interest of the taxpayers' monies.
So, again, what we will do is a strategic radio campaign, and we will be working with our LHOs and GSOs to try to get them out there in the communities that have low results, to try to get as many surveys as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
