Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in the House, the housing Minister advised that we do not work through legislation, and that "the Housing Corporation works solely through policy." Given that the NWT Housing Corporation Act sets out the Minister's authority, will the Minister please clarify what she meant by her remarks? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Member, for your comment. The Housing Corporation is established under the Housing Corporation Act, and we do work with our policies in order to deliver our programs and to best meet the needs of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you for that. If there are policies guiding the use of T4 slips as proof of income, I have not had any success at finding them online as of yet. What policy guidance governs the local housing authorities, and will the Housing Corporation commit to making their policies easily accessible online?
I would just like to elaborate on the T4 slips that are required for the rental scale for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. When we were establishing our rental program, we found that, when we established and we set our rent using the T4 slips, they were mainly to accommodate the people who had disabilities who were on income support and who were high-income earners, so it would just eliminate the time that they would have to be spending and reporting to the LHO offices. Going forward, we do have an assessment that is required that can be completed and filled out, and that is the responsibility of the client.
There were two questions that were asked. I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker. Can I have the Member repeat the second? Thank you.
I am wondering if the Housing Corporation would be willing to commit to making their policies easily accessible online.
This is a conversation I am having with my staff currently. We were looking at making our programs available online so that people would be able to access, as simple as even completing their rental assessments, access to the policies that we currently have, more communication with the general public, more communication with our clients. I have also wanted to just express that I have instructed my staff to also start advertising. One of our first advertisements just went out in the newspaper. Throughout the next three years, we will be seeing that consistently. I would like to make the programs more accessible to the people, also, who don't have the access to the internet or to technology and that they are able to get into our LHO offices and being able to program-deliver productively.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have created an arm's-length corporation to enable housing to be more flexible. My question for the housing Minister is: how will the Minister make sure that deep and transformative innovation are part of the everyday work of the Housing Corporation? Thank you.
With the delivery of the programs for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, we have had a lot of successful stories going forward that haven't been advertised. I think to make it more accessible and make the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation more integrated with our clients and with our stakeholders, we have had opportunities with Indigenous governments and building relations with them, building programs with them, as well.
I would just like to elaborate on the Northern Pathways program that we have had. I am very excited to speak about this, that we do address the homelessness. That is one of the largest areas of concern in the Northwest Territories, and we did work with the K'asho Got'ine land claim organization out of Fort Good Hope, where they took the initiative to deal with their homelessness on their own with the support of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and funding from the federal government. Also, I wanted to address that we had similar initiatives that were completed, homelessness strategies, in Aklavik, Fort Simpson, and Behchoko. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
