Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Reconciliatory Review of Housing NWT's Collection Approach:
WHEREAS clients of Housing NWT fall into arrears for a variety of reasons and many clients are unable to get out of arrears in their lifetime;
AND WHEREAS opportunities for employment and to generate income are limited, especially in smaller communities;
AND WHEREAS many clients live on fixed income and limited sources of income;
AND WHEREAS it is a mandate item of this government to support seniors to age in place by increasing supports for seniors to stay in their homes and communities;
AND WHEREAS it is a mandate item of the Government to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
AND WHEREAS there are elders and Indian Residential School survivors in the Northwest Territories with pensions that are being garnished to pay back Housing NWT arrears;
AND WHEREAS the garnishment of a pension to pay off a debt to Housing NWT is unreasonable and unjust;
AND WHEREAS section 62 of the Financial Administration Act provides the authority for the Financial Management Board to forgive a debt or obligation owed to Housing NWT if it is considered unreasonable or unjust;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that this Legislative Assembly calls upon the Government of the Northwest Territories to pause the garnishment of elders and the Indian Residential School survivors' pensions to pay for Housing NWT arrears immediately;
AND FURTHER, Housing NWT identify all elders aged 60 and over and consenting Indian Residential School survivors in public housing who currently owe arrears or who are having their pensions garnished.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Monfwi. You'd like to speak to the motion?
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, not just now but I've been hearing a lot from my constituents, and others in the Northwest Territories, those who are living on fixed income, that their money are being garnished to pay for housing arrears and other arrears as well, and this is causing a lot of hardship for our vulnerable, especially the elders. It is hard on them especially now with the high cost of living that they have to pay. You know, there are they have to pay for they have to make a choice of either paying for a bill or groceries and this is a lot of them are having difficulty making ends meet. So many are saying that they cannot afford to have their pension garnished or any income that's coming to them. So for that reason, I am supporting this motion as presented to stop all the garnishment, or all the garnishee from pension or debt and debts forgiven. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I support this motion. As I understand it, there's about $13 million in arrears with the Housing NWT, and that includes current and former tenants. And as I understand it, about half of that amount would be covered by the motion perhaps. So, look, this is a real issue for many people. It causes tremendous hardships, and we need to find a way to get through this and around it and over it so that our residents aren't seeing their incomes garnished. And so I support this motion in finding a better way to approach this. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm in full support of this motion because this we're having too tough times right now and back home in my riding in Nunakput, Mr. Speaker, in regards to it's the whole territory. I think that something like this, residential school survivors and all the debts owed in regards to housing, I mean those houses were paid ten times over by now and the state of those houses are not worth the price that we're paying. Something like this is going to really help the people and not make it so difficult to make decisions either pay your bills or feed your family, especially with what's coming forward in this House next week. So I'm in full support of this bill. I wish all my colleagues on this side of the House in an open vote to the floor too to make the right decision for the people they represent as MLAs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I too stand in support of this motion, and it is why I wanted to be the seconder on it. To me this is a true act of reconciliation with Indigenous people. It's come to my attention, and I want to thank my colleague for actually being really informative in helping us as a committee to understand really what the situation is like in the smaller communities. I agree with my colleague about the state of the condition of a lot of these buildings that we are, you know, putting off onto low income people in the communities. They aren't worth the money that they're being held to and often it's come to my attention that it's also an issue where perhaps at times people sign documents and they weren't aware of what they were signing. ESL plays into it as well. Don't mean to laugh, Mr. Speaker; I'm just a little distracted today. So yes, no, I just wanted to say that I agree here.
One thing that I think is really key here is any time and this is a conversation around the forgiving of student loans in the US. Any time that you're getting people out of debt, the money that they would be paying towards or spending on those loans or the interest will now come back into our community and our economies and, therefore, that money will stay in the community instead of going into the government coffers which is just only going to help the people that are affected but not only them, the people around them. I think one of the biggest things we noticed, or has been noticeable to me, has been the issue of overcrowding. So, you know, you hear about it and you think you know, you can say oh okay, there's six people living in this house, but until you go into a community like we did with the Member from Monfwi and see that there are, you know, seven adults, children, everybody living in this one or twobedroom home and you really get an understanding of what that means and really what how that impacts people's quality of life. So that being said, I just want to say that I strongly support this motion. I think it's a true act of reconciliation and it goes to furthering the priorities that we set as the 19th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too support this motion. I stood up in this House many times about the lack of compassion by the NWT Housing department and how seniors are I like the one part where it says especially with the motion that says "and whereas it is the mandate item of this government to support seniors to age in place by increasing supports for seniors to stay in their homes and communities."
Now with the two cases that I've had on my agenda and mandate for since I've been here and nothing has been done with either one, that to me is unacceptable. And I want to I support this motion 150 percent to ensure that this justice is finally hopefully the other side would listen and understand where many of us are coming from. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as some of my colleagues have stated, the current state of arrears in the Northwest Territories is just over $13 million held by about 914 people. The housing corporation has already has a collection policy and the principles of that collection policy stipulate that Housing NWT will
Adhere to a standardized and consistent approach to collections;
That arrears should be collected in a timely and efficient manner;
That tenants and clients should not accumulate large rental or mortgage arrears that are difficult to collect, and,
That arrears should be forgiven where collection is not possible.
Mr. Speaker, I think it's valid to talk about and share some of the stories that were shared with us as committee members when we travelled to communities and had the opportunity and privilege to sit with elders across this territory and hear their stories. Some elders lived in homes for their entire lives and all of a sudden one day received a bill for arrears. They had no idea where they came from.
Some elders came to us and told us of their stories at the age of in their 80s and in their 90s, and they're paying over half of their pension towards their arrears. That leaves many elders with less than $300 to pay for all of their monthly expenses. $300 today in Yellowknife, not even in our small communities, you leave with maybe three bags, four bags of groceries. And that's not the only expenses that somebody would have to live and survive in the Northwest Territories.
So garnishing pensions in an unreasonable manner off of our elders is not taking care of our elders and empowering them to survive and thrive in their home communities let alone even here in Yellowknife.
Mr. Speaker, some of the elders who are carrying arrears are women who have experienced family violence in their homes and are carrying the damages that were inflicted to that infrastructure through family violence and are walking around with this huge weight on their shoulders from those damages and those arrears, unable to access additional housing programs to secure stable housing. There are other elders who spoke to us and they are carrying arrears from income that was earned by other members of their family. And so by preventing homelessness and allowing people to live in their homes, like their children or their nieces and nephews and their cousins, they were incurring arrears. And this policy was changed over the life of this Assembly, but those arrears were not addressed and mitigated by the housing corporation.
In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, these arrears, as you've heard my colleague say, they cause extreme hardship for the people that are holding them and prevent them from being able to move on and address other concerns in their lives. Some of those concerns are really privileges. So rather than holding on to arrears or or sorry, rather than the weight of arrears and being able to turn around and help their family maybe take care of children, because that's a role that a lot of our elders fill in the territory, is that care provision for the younger generation and that care provision ends up turning around and enabling a lot of healing in our territory. So that's a very important one.
Mr. Speaker, it is incredibly prudent that or it's incredibly important that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation have prudent management when it comes to managing arrears, managing rents, and managing the policies that they actually put in place. So they need to not only understand why people have rent but also be able to mitigate why people have arrears and address that properly. And if the housing corporation is going to have policies to address this, then they actually need to follow them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too, you know, agree with this motion and support it fully. You know, in the past years the federal government, you know, they've got to take responsibility for some of this. This government has to take some responsibility as well. And, you know, and I've been around long enough that and worked with people and went to meetings with them and seeing, you know, the lack of understanding of agreements being signed and what they are getting themselves into. You know, we do have legislation out there that allows this government to look at all these arrears and write off the ones that are uncollectible. And it's a simple process. We just have to start that process somewhere. So I think, you know, with this motion I think this is a good start and hopefully it gets done sooner than later. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I too support this motion. You know, I've been dealing with the housing concern of a constituent of mine who has actually passed away, and the estate of her her family is trying to deal with arrears that were done. You know, and now we're going like, when we look at what my colleague has said as how are we going to get these arrears paid for when we've lost this person; we've lost this family member and we're dealing with this? So, you know, this is a way that, you know, we can move and push the housing corporation forward to actually act on what they say they are going to be doing. And so yes, again I'm not going to repeat anything that my colleagues have said, but I just wanted to highlight that, you know, this is an issue even when people are gone, we're trying to collect arrears. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Monfwi.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the support of all my colleagues. Can we have a recorded vote, please.
