Okay. Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories meet its commitment to develop an all of government homelessness prevention strategy by April 2023. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment partner with the northern private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and Indigenous governments to develop oneyear lease agreements and rental assistance payments to accommodate private sector lease requirements to support housing partnerships and increase access to affordable housing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Housing Northwest Territories amend the collection policy and forgive any arrears up to $30,000 for Indian Residential School survivors as an act of reconciliation before the end of the 19th Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Housing Northwest Territories implement the principles of the collections policy and develop a strategy by the 20232024 fiscal year to forgive arrears that cannot be collected despite demonstrated effort. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much. I'm just hearing somebody saying no more strategies. And so I want to be clear, this is not a plan to make a plan. This is just how are you going to deal with this and do it. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, I also just think this is a great idea for our people. I also think that there is an economic benefit for forgiving people's debt. And I've mentioned it here before. We've heard the conversation in the US around forgiving of student loans and how that will actually help with stimulating economy because money that would then be spent on interest and principal payments will then be back into the economy and being spent by people. And I'm always struck by how the communities operate, from what I see anyway, is that any time someone is doing well or has the ability to help, they do. So, you know, if people here are having their arrears forgiven and they're no longer paying towards a debt, I don't think they're going to turn around and take this extra money and run off to Cancun for a vacation. They're going to turn around and help the people around them that are struggling. And so to me this will have actually more of a ripple effect in that sense because I know people are out there taking care of each other. And we've talked about how we're even at times, you know, taking care of people. You know, we've all helped people we probably have not even ever met. And so, you know, I think that's a piece that needs to be recognized here. It's not just removing this debt but it's also then the power of the money that will no longer be going towards this government debt. And then there's the saving on administration fees of people having to, like, spend time going after these people and trying to collect when it seems to be quite futile. Thank you, Madam Chair.
To the motion. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Something going down this path would be so good in regards to having our you know, the elders that were affected by residential school and the Sixties Scoop, something like this would go a long way, really meaningful, and I'm in full support of this motion.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, it's great to say that we want to forgive debt. You know, where do we cut it off at, I guess, is going to be the question. So, you know, I really don't have any hope that, you know, we're really going to any of this is actually going to come to fruition. But if it does, I guess what I'd like to see is that we need to if we're going to forgive it, we need to know how we got there as well. Like, what put us in that position and how can we stop from getting in that position again, putting the government in the position and putting the people as well in that position. Otherwise it's just going to it could be just a cycle that repeats itself and somehow we have to make sure that, you know, we deal with the root cause as well. Thank you.
To the motion. Member for Monfwi.
Madam Chair, this is good because I've always been, you know, bringing up arrears. And I do support the forgiveness of arrears for residential school and other people as well. But in my riding there are some probably not just in my riding, it's probably all over in the Northwest Territories with the mortgage as well. There are some residential school survivor who are in their 70s, they still have mortgage payment from the NWT Housing mortgage program. Some of them were refinanced. And their pension, they're paying their mortgage through their pension and it's being garnished. And their income tax are being garnished as well. So, like, I'm getting phone calls today like, this because income tax season is going to be over on April 1st and there's a lot of those clients that are being garnished, and most of them are the residential school survivor. They would like to see their income tax. Some of them have said they haven't seen their income tax for many years because it's being collected by the NWT Housing Corporation through their they're garnishing their income tax. So I do like this. This is a start. And I do support this motion. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Housing Northwest Territories eradicate the community residency policy and update the public housing point rating system with community membership as an additional factor with corresponding points and significant weight. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I you know, I have to say I found this one to be a shock when I realized that someone who is homeless has to be considered to be somewhere in order to qualify for a house. And the funny part about that was or funny, I shouldn't say funny. It's but if I don't laugh, I'll cry was that at times while I was, you know, advocating for someone in this position, I got a response from the department that was well, they left town. We heard they were in Yellowknife. And therefore, you know, their position on the list whatever. And I was, like, but they don't have a home. So if you don't have a home and how can the government be penalizing you for not being in the location that they think you should be in while you sit and wait. And in this instance, this person had been waiting for five years and only finally got a home through the Indigenous organizations and such, not through the housing corporation. So when I hear things like that, this just to me is a nobrainer. Let's put the residency issue to the side and just, you know, make that a point system that just adds into everything. Don't make two things happen at once. So I'm not explaining myself well. But thank you, Madam Chair.
To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Housing Northwest Territories develop a first right of refusal clause in leasing agreements to ensure family members of tenants receive the first opportunity to lease a public housing unit before the unit goes to market. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, I jumped the gun there. We heard about this a lot in our travels to communities. And what spurred this motion is there are families who have lived in public housing units for decades, and unfortunately when an elder who is the leaseholder passes away, their children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews who live in that unit with them, and have spent their entire lives calling that unit home, find themselves homeless and at the bottom of a housing waitlist because they are not the leaseholder, and they have no claim to that home. And so this motion is calling on a mechanism for those family members that have called that unit home for decades, and for their entire lives, a way to be able to add themselves to the lease and continue living in that home. Thank you, Madam Chair.
To the motion. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do support this motion because we do have a lot of if you go to our warming shelter, you will see some of the family members who lost their house after parents passed because their name is not on the lease. And that policy created a lot of homelessness in many of the small communities in the Northwest Territories. And we didn't hear about it not just in our riding but in other other community as well because parents are aging, and these are their forever home, and even you know, like I did a Member's statement on it yesterday as well, because when these family are moved who lived in those houses for over 30 years, you know, there's emotion attached to that unit. That's their house. That's where they raised their family. That's where the grandkids were raised too as well. So I really I support this motion because if we don't have this there and families who lived in that house for so many years, we're making them go through another trauma. And that has to stop. So therefore I do support this motion that it ends there. Thank you.
To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this report in 120 days. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion.
