First of all, we have done of few things. We have done a Housing Engagement Survey in 2017, and we're going to do another one in January of 2019. With that, we're developing these community housing plans for all 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, and through that survey, what we've developed is we're doing a strategic renewal within the NWT Housing Corporation. We're going to be reviewing all of our NWT Housing Corporation programs, and we're going to be reviewing them for potential improvements, as well as looking at improvements in our homelessness programs. We continue to do compassionate training for our staff at the LHO, so they know the clientele that they're working with, so that they can help them in the circumstances that they are in. Anybody in that situation, as long as they get on the waiting list for the NWT Housing Corporation, then they can apply for income assistance to help them with market rent.
Unfortunately, here in Yellowknife, another issue, too, is the market availability, as well as in some of our regional centres. So we're doing a strategic renewal, and hopefully that will address that. Income threshold is something that we might want to take a look at, as well, something that was done with income assistance.
I need the Minister to come down to the level of the client. A strategic renewal is not something this family is going to participate in, is going to directly benefit from. What they need is more appropriate housing. The Minister is telling me with endless lists that there is this, that, and the other program, and my question is: how are people on the waiting list made aware of these programs which may resolve their problems?
I want to say, again, that the staff at the LHO offices, local housing organizations, the regional offices, are getting out into the communities. I've instructed them to go out into the communities, let them know what programs are available to them, and make sure that any clients who come in are aware of programs such as the Homelessness Assistance Fund, subsidized rent programs. We also have, as I mentioned, the NGO rental partnership program that will help individuals in such cases. It is on a case-by-case basis, however, and I encourage any families, anyone who is in a situation where they're looking for housing, to go and speak to their LHO officers to make sure that they're informed of all the programs, all the services, that they're entitled to.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has suggested at one point that the family apply for income assistance, and that's in spite of the fact that one parent is working full-time and making the effort to provide for his family. We keep saying in this House, "A good job is a social program." Is that really the best suggestion the Minister has, to facilitate more spending of government money rather than addressing the problem at hand? I still don't understand how this family is going to access suitable housing. Thank you.
One thing that this government does is it does provide a lot of social supports to residents of the Northwest Territories. It was only an option. I didn't say to go and do it. It is an option for anybody who finds themselves in that situation or needs a little bit of extra help. We do have the Rent Supplement Program, as I mentioned, to help supplement the living costs that are associated with staying in your own unit, or a market unit, and that's something I would encourage.
We're here to help, as a government, whether it's through income assistance, through the programs we have at Housing, or any other programs that we have initiated or developed during the life of this government. We will continue to do that. It was an option, and I'm just throwing options out there in terms of anybody who is listening who might need a little bit of extra help, and that is what this government is here to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during my Member's statement I talked about my desire to see the old Stanton Hospital being used as a nursing school. I would like to ask the Minister of Education some questions on that.
Mr. Speaker, today the Minister of Health released a statement on the use of the existing Stanton Hospital as an extended care, long-term care, primary care, outpatient rehabilitation services facility. I would like to ask the Minister of Education if, in spite of that statement, the door would still be open for this government to use the old Stanton Hospital as a school. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to start by saying that, when I was out campaigning, I heard from the doors in my riding in Range Lake many, many ideas, great ideas for the use of the Stanton Hospital, but I do have to kind of qualify and say that one of the mistakes that I have made since I have been here was that I ran for election too late. My honourable colleague here had already made a whole bunch of plans that he wanted to use for the old hospital before I could get my list in.
I would love to be able to use it for not only that, but a long list of great ideas to use that Stanton Hospital for, but my understanding at this point is that the old hospital is going to be totally used, and there is no more space. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
All of those uses fit perfectly with a school. Mr. Speaker, I am sure people have heard of university hospitals. They educate doctors, and doctors will actually work in the hospitals and become doctors, going to school at a university. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister sees or agrees with me that the existing Stanton Hospital has potential to become a nursing school?
On a more serious note, in all honesty, it would be a great idea. There is more need than there actually are resources, but we do work closely with the Department of Health and Social Services. Our nursing program is one of the most successful programs that we have in Aurora College. That was shown in the foundational review, and we need to support that as best as possible.
It is important that our nursing students get access to clinical practicums, to provide appropriate services and to actually learn the hands-on skills. I can commit that we will continue to work closely with the Department of Health and Social Services to make sure that our nurses have the best access to providing patient care that we can.
I spoke many times in this House about the great potential of keeping seniors in their homes and the great deferral of cost should we keep seniors in their homes. I am going to repeat it again: for every senior who we keep out of long-term care, we defer $140,000 in today's money. With that, what I am asking the Minister to do is to work with the Cabinet colleagues, all Cabinet colleagues, including the Minister of Health, so that they could develop a school where the students are flowing through the Stanton Hospital and then ending up back in their communities to run homecare programs in their communities to keep the elders in their homes as long as possible.
My question for the Minister today is: will the Minister of Education work with all of the Cabinet Members so that they can look at this as a tremendous cost, a strategic spending item that will be a long-term investment and long-term return on the money that we are spending?
I will start by saying that, in my personal opinion, I think that all of Cabinet actually works very closely together, and we have very close relationships and are very respectful to each other and our needs. Within that, we do work closely with Health and Social Services to make sure that practicums are done within the old hospital and in the new hospital that will be coming. The Aurora foundational report does state that we need to look at our facilities. I will be talking to Cabinet about that, and to my colleagues, and working closely.
We all support each other, and it is important that we support each other. I know I am not supposed to speak for Cabinet, but I will at this point, saying that, in all honesty, we are all here because we care, and we recognize that. We try to do the best to support each other in our portfolios, and I will continue to do that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, in addition to working closely with other Cabinet Members, if they would also look at the document that was produced through the Department of Health and Social Services that looked at long-term care needs in the Northwest Territories, and see how they could use the old hospital to make a change, or look at that those numbers and change those numbers so that what appears to be now something that is looming, as the seniors are going to need long-term care, that this facility could be used to change those numbers.
Even though I know the Minister of Health has factored that in, I think that the school was never factored in. I would like to know if the Minister could commit to giving the information on what would happen if that was to be turned into a nursing school. Thank you.
Again, we work closely within Cabinet. We have a social committee that we talk about, and often we talk about how our different portfolios affect each other. I will commit to bringing the issue to the social committee.
The other thing I should state is that, within the Aurora College Foundational Report, it did say that we are too scattered. Not in those words, but it said that what we don't do well is that we jump on every opportunity, so we need to be more strategic. I took heed of that. We need to be strategic in what we are doing. I don't want to make commitments and say that we are going to go off and do this, we are going to go off and do that, because that is actually going against what the review is saying. We need to step back and look at all of our programs and make sure that they are providing quality programming. I do know that the nursing program is one of our best. We need to support that as much as possible, but we also need to be strategic and not reactive in how we provide our post-secondary education. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement I talked about the backlog at the NWT Rental Office, and I am not the only one of my honourable friends who has brought this up. The Minister has had plenty of time to look at this problem and to find solutions. I would like to ask the Minister if he has taken responsibility for this backlog, and what solutions he has offered to fix this problem. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of this issue. In fact, it has been raised in this House previously, and, in response to a question by the MLA from Yellowknife Centre, we sent some information out, and perhaps I could relay some of the information contained in the letter to the House.
Between April 1, 2017, and January 31, 2018, there were 353 applications filed with the rental office. As of February 21, 2018, 182 of those had been heard, and of those, 57 per cent were heard within three months of the application filing date, 30 per cent were heard within four months of the application filing date, and of the 12 per cent that were heard beyond the four months after the application filing date, some of those within the 30 per cent category represent files that were adjourned or postponed either because of service of document problems or one of the parties requested an adjournment.
We are well aware of the problem. Members will recall that there was an issue where there was a reduction of one rental officer, resulting from the retirement of a long-standing rental officer in 2016. There was some difficulty in replacing this person. In fact, what we did was we have entered into a contract to add a part-time rental officer to the office. We are hoping that wait times will be reduced. We will continue to monitor the situation.
The Minister knows as well as I do that it ought to be 60 days, period. The number of caseloads isn't going to be reduced in the foreseeable future. The backlog is only adding more. Clearly, this new position isn't enough. Can the Minister commit to increasing the employees to the rental officer, or at least developing a proposal for the business plans to bring more resources into that office, more human resources into that office?
We will continue to monitor the backdate, the backlog in the rental office and, if necessary, will look at adding additional people. I think we want to look at how things go over the next few months. I will get an update of the figures that I have provided to the House. If there appears to be a worsening of the problem, obviously, we would have to look at other alternatives.
While the Minister continues to survey the results, my constituents are losing thousands of dollars by this backlog. If he is not willing to bring forward more resources, what other things can he do to reduce the waiting times at the rental office? What kind of policy or directives can he apply to make this problem resolve itself?
As mentioned earlier, we do recognize this as a problem. We have taken a number of steps, including increasing the number of hearings via three-way teleconference and scheduling face-to-face hearings outside Yellowknife more promptly. We are attempting to streamline the office and become more efficient and give people a shorter time in which their matters can be resolved. We do recognize this is an important issue.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when examining the cases that have gone in front of the rental officer, there are many that seem to be a result of the lack of willingness of the parties to work it out on their own and some misunderstanding of what the rental officer can do. I would suggest to the Minister, because I am not all about criticism and would like to give him some solutions today, that perhaps he commit some resources to educating potential landlords and tenants of their responsibilities and rights under the Residential Tenancies Act. Is he willing to put forward some education like that so we can get rid of frivolous cases that are jamming up the system? Thank you.
I doubt whether the parties involved in those cases regard them as frivolous, but the rental office does offer public education materials. When appropriate, landlords and tenants are encouraged to resolve matters outside the formal application process. However, it has to be said that not all individuals are prepared to be flexible. Many want their day in court. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Justice. During our last sitting, the Minister stated that the corrections service has established a committee to examine the feasibility of implementing a therapeutic community model to treat inmates at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre.
The therapeutic community model considers substance abuse as a symptom of much broader problems in a residential setting and uses holistic treatment approaches that have an impact on every aspect of a resident's life. This represents a substantial shift in our approach to corrections. In fact, the Minister has stated that the department is currently in the final stages of curriculum development for the pre-treatment healing addictions program to be facilitated out of SMCC.
I would like to follow up with the Minister, because this is, like I said, a substantial shift and hasn't gotten much attention. Part of this therapeutic model relies heavily on case management. I would like to ask the Minster: since case management is essential to the success of this model, will new staff be hired to ensure appropriate case management? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think those of us who did have the opportunity to go to see the program as it was working in British Columbia were very impressed with the program. Clearly, should we go ahead with this; it would represent a significant change in the way in which we are doing business.
To fully incorporate such a therapeutic model at SMCC, a staffing base would be required to further support the offenders' recovery and growth. They currently have the staffing and resources required to support this model, that is very good news, including management as well as unit case management and program staff. Clearly, training in the philosophy and approach exemplified by Guthrie House would be required for a therapeutic community to be fully implemented in the Northwest Territories.
The news is encouraging. We were very impressed with the Guthrie House model and are thinking about having such a model at SMCC. Thank you.
I was more encouraged last time I asked the Minister about this, because it sounded like they were moving ahead with this. Now, I hear a lot of "maybe we will do this." I would like some clarification: are concrete steps being taken so that the department can move forward with this therapeutic model at SMCC?
We are currently looking at the possibility of transitioning the SMCC in Hay River to a therapeutic community model. We are spending time on this. Certainly, as I said before, we were all impressed when we went to Guthrie House. I think we should move ahead with our review to ascertain whether we can replicate that model in the Northwest Territories, because clearly, we have to start doing business in a different way.
Again, I heard "possibility" in there. I was under the impression, or maybe it was just hopeful thinking, wishful thinking, that the department was moving forward with this. The Minister mentioned a review. Can I have some sort of timeline of when this review will be complete and when he can give a definitive answer of whether or not this transition is going to take place?
I don't think I can provide a timeline and a definitive answer at this time, but we will check with the department and get back to the Member opposite.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The clock is ticking. We don't have that much time. They say, at the end of the Assembly, the departments are just waiting out the Ministers. I would like to see the Minister get moving on this. Will he commit to getting me a timeline and some information on the work that has been done so that I can ensure that is shared with committee? Then we can hopefully press to move this forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I certainly would be pleased to provide the Member opposite with an overview of the work we have done to this point. Hopefully, I can also provide some timelines. I think it is a very appropriate question. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am encouraged by the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation's statement earlier. Sharing information with planning of this type is very essential. We all know the national strategy holds a variety of programs and resources. My question is: will the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation provide dates available for an information sharing and development leadership meeting in one of the Sahtu's five communities? Thank you.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the moment, I can't provide exact dates. Recently, I went on a tour through the Deh Cho and made sure that, after listening to the constituents and listening to community members, we contacted our regional office to make sure we had our program coordinators go into the community, update people on programs, do inspections that needed inspections done, and give that direction to the regional offices to make sure they can go into the communities and talk about program services that are available to the residents in terms of partnerships and looking at development.
As I mentioned earlier, we are going to be doing community housing plans, so every community in the NWT is going to have a community housing plan which, at the end, will help us when we do our capital planning strategy. However, I will be willing to sit down with the Member and talk about going into one or a couple of his communities to do something like this. I know, back in December, our staff did go into, I believe, Fort Good Hope or one of the communities and gave an information session as well as just listened to what the residents had to say, but I am willing to sit down with the Member to coordinate something like this.
Thanks to the Minister for the response. In consideration of the life of both governments, I am encouraging the Minister if his staff could accompany us and provide dates of options so the leadership can analyze the dates of option and information provided. Will the Minister provide dates open?
Not here, on the floor of the House, I cannot provide dates. I will look at my schedule and look at the availability of my senior staff who will be able to come in and chat with leadership, not only leadership but also community organizations, any other non-government organizations, as well, that want to participate in creating options. I know that we had the Yellowknife Women's Centre attend a meeting in Behchoko today, actually, and talk about options for Housing First in Behchoko, and we can do something similar in the other smaller communities. Plus, the program that I mentioned, the Northern Pathways to Housing pilot, we are currently talking with the K'asho Got'ine Housing Society on seeing how we can develop that, and we are just in the planning stages.
Thanks for the previous invitation. I will take the Minister up on the previous invitation to sit down and discuss available dates so that we can present that to the Sahtu leadership and strike when the iron is hot, here, on the available time to us for the National Housing Strategy and funding resources they provide.
