Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us how many tenants relation officers are currently employed in in the region? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to clarify, in the region -- with the question, does she mean the Monfwi riding? Just need some clarification, Mr. Speaker.
My Member's statement is on Tlicho region so I'm talking about Tlicho region and in Behchoko. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the clarification. Based on the information from Housing NWT, with the housing authority in Behchoko we have four maintenance positions and four administration positions within the authority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker for that information. Can the Minister give us the average time a person is expected to be on the waitlist for a public housing unit when we have four maintenance people working there? So thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, I can't provide an average time on the housing waitlist. I know there's -- from what I understand with the information, there is over 135 families on the housing waitlist for Behchoko, but I don't have an average time waitlist. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have a lot of people on the waitlist for housing, and we know housing is a crisis in the whole of the Northwest Territories. But I think in Tlicho region, we are experiencing the worst, especially in Behchoko, so. And we have four admin staff, four maintenance people, and we have lots of houses that's in great need of housing repair, and we have about at least over ten houses that are boarded up. So with that in mind, can the Minister say how much time or money the Government of the Northwest Territories spends on collecting housing arrears and how much it costs to keep track of all these internal billings? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The time and money to collect and look at housing arrears is something that the work four administration staff do within the housing authority. But to let the Member know that we are working on a territorial housing needs assessment, and this information will hopefully be provided by spring with Housing NWT. But that includes all the unit condition ratings, the information from the bureau of statistics, internal reviews, working with housing authorities.
Something else that we're also doing with Housing NWT in the Member's riding is we're working with the Tlicho housing working group on any housing issues within the riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi on your final supplementary question.
(audio) that response. So how much money is the department spending on collecting housing arrears to keep the office running? That's what I was trying to get at. Is it necessary for the NWT Housing to exist? You know, because we're not getting anywhere with them.
So my final one, will the Minister commit to visiting Behchoko to see the conditions in some of the housing stock? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Minister, I think it's important that I visit the communities, go into people's homes to look at the existing conditions that they live in public housing, and I have told the Member I am open for a visit and willing to go with her into Behchoko and to go to people's homes to talk to them about their living conditions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Next on my list I have is I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
