Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, specifically, only one home was destroyed in my riding for the situation of my constituent. So that is why this case was handled differently. Does the Minister believe that any victim of a natural disaster whose home was destroyed should be treated the same regardless of the community they live in? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. First of all, I want to acknowledge that any situation causing the loss of someone's home and belongings is a tragic event. My heart goes out to those who have experienced their losses especially that I've seen during my term. During my term, I've seen a number of fires that have taken homes throughout the Northwest Territories and, you know, the corporation has tried to work with those clients in trying to help them to get them housed immediately.
In this case, where is a wild spread of a natural disaster, the assistance is offered through the disaster assistance policy through MACA. The incident that the Member refers to was deemed not to be widespread natural disaster and therefore that policy did not come into effect.
For the corporation, we are responsible for our units in these situations. So for an example, in Jean Marie, where four Housing Corporation ownedunits were impacted, the corporation took responsibility for repairing and replacing those assets. Personal losses from the tenants in those homes would be dealt with by the disaster assistance policy and not by the corporation. For private homes, the primary relief available repair by typically do not replace private homes that are lost in natural or manmade disasters. Examples, House fires. But like I had said, that the corporation when we hear of these emergencies, the local housing authorities do reach out to the clients and do try to allocate them units as soon as possible and where we would avoid putting them on the waitlist. We would treat this as an emergency. And for somebody who had been on the waitlist for the past three, four, five years, six months, whatever, we would make sure that we address those emergencies accordingly. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, can the Minister tell us if the NWT Housing Corp considers natural disasters that destroys people's homes on a casebycase basis, or is there an uniform approach from the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation in dealing with people's homes destroyed by natural disasters? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. We don't have a policy that guides us into those type of emergencies in replacing private homes. We are responsible for our own assets where they're, you know, damaged by natural disasters. The corporation would try to replace those homes or else they would have to go on our next forecasted capital budget for those replacements. We have experienced where we have lost our own assets and we're not able to replace those units as soon as possible. But then I fully understand with the disaster assistance policy, it had to have been widespread and my apologies to the Member that we did the best that we can to address this issue and trying to find alternative solutions to work with the Member. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, can the Minister tell us if the NWT Housing Corp treats victims of natural disasters differently based on the type of disaster they were in or are all victims treated the same across the board? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Housing Corporation has been consistent with our approach to the homes lost through disasters. The corporation does not hold responsibility for the loss of private homes. It is only responsible for the loss of its own properties. But like I had mentioned before that we try to work with those clients and we try to find solutions for them. And to help them to get on to the waitlist, and we avoid that we make sure that there is a unit that possibly is vacant that possibly could be available to the individual but according to the policies we do have right now, we don't replace private homes. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.
Madam Speaker, the Minister's previous answers to this situation always references the income threshold. My constituent would like to be treated fairly and receive a fair rental monthly fee for the unit he is now in. This type of policy is something I would like the Minister to investigate and think out of the box. Does the Minister believe that any NWT resident who is a victim to a natural disaster is deserving of compensation if their home is destroyed? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will follow up with the Member because this is a file that I've been working with and it's just really obviously who I'm speaking about so I would like to follow up with the Member separately. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
