Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice.
We know that over 700 rental units have mould or pests, across the Northwest Territories, but only three tenants got an order against the landlord to fix the problem. So clearly something is not working, Mr. Speaker. I want to know whether the Minister acknowledges that the current mechanisms to ensure healthy rental housing are not working. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there were 700 applications made to the rental officer and only three resulted in orders then yes, there would be a problem. However, I'm not sure all 700 of those individuals submitted applications to the rental office so it's hard for me to say. If there were three applications submitted and they all received orders, well then it seems to be working well. So with just that information, I can't really answer the Member's questions.
However, if there are these issues in your, you know, rental unit, please contact the rental officer. This is what they do. If you have mold, if you have pests, and your landlord's not dealing with them, contact the rental officer. No one's going to contact them for you. They're not going to come to your house and do an inspection out of the blue. So people need to step up and take that first step. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, sometimes accessibility can be the issue. Saskatchewan provides tenants with an online fillable complaints form to launch an environmental health investigation into unhealthy housing. I'm not aware of a similar ease of use form that's available here that initiates an instant investigation. So I'm wondering if the government will consider a more accessible, efficient mechanism to trigger investigation by the environmental health officer through the rental office? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The rental office doesn't I guess is not a conduit for environmental health. So this is something that I can confer with the Minister of health on and get her take on it but right now that is not something that happens. They're two different entities and two different departments. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the problem right now is that multiple departments aren't able to work together in order to get this done. I mean, right now the Department of Health and Social Services says on its website that environmental health officers can investigate issues where a landlord has failed to take corrective action.
So I'm wondering if the Minister can tell me whether his department, or the department of health, tracks the number of landlord investigations by environmental health officers and the results of these investigations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been informed by the department of health that environmental health officers do follow up on landlordtenant complaints, and they do track these requests. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the piece that's important in that is that information making it from the environmental health office to the rental office so that the rental officer has the ability to then hold those landlords accountable. The environmental health officer doesn't have a mechanism to hold those people accountable. By looping in the rental office, by seeing if there's other issues going on with those rental offices, it brings it to a onestop shop and actually empowers the rental officer to have kind of that bird's eye view of what's going on. And so there are things that have happened before that have really gotten results from landlords in town.
I look at what happened here in Yellowknife with an apartment building. Tenants kept asking for a security guard. They kept asking for a security guard. They didn't get a security guard. That landlord realized that they were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars from people pulling fire alarms. The next thing you know, they had a security guard because they were paying dollars. And so dollars speak, money talks, Mr. Speaker. And so I'm wondering if the Minister will consider empowering the rental officer to fine landlords that refuse to complete repairs that have serious health and safety impacts on their tenants? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Residential Tenancies Act provides for any person who fails to comply with orders or directions of the rental officer to be charged with a summary offence under section 91. That charge would be heard in territorial court and, if found guilty, would result in a fine not exceeding $2,000 for individuals or $25,000 for corporations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
