Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve talked to the Minister of the Housing Corporation on the plans to charge rent to the elders, and the Minister gave me a significant number of 700 seniors that are going to be impacted and some of the seniors that said it’s okay. I have a hard time believing that of elders in my region. I don’t think it’s going to be okay. I don’t know where the Minister is getting the okay from the seniors. I want to ask the Minister responsible for Seniors how he is working with this government here to be responsible for seniors that the government is now planning to charge rent to the elders and how he is protecting the seniors that are low income, don’t have much money, even though the Minister has indicated that there’s an exemption. It’s pretty difficult for some of our elders who are living in poverty to now look at this rent payment beginning July 1st.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Tom Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I have a meeting set up with the NWT Seniors’ Society on the 21st of March. Previously when this discussion had come up at the Seniors’ Society, in different capacities that I served as I met with the Seniors’ Society, they had indicated that they did not have an issue with seniors rent through that society. I have not been involved in any form of consultation with the seniors that are in public housing.
We have one representative on the Seniors’ Society and that representative doesn’t have any funds to go around to the five Sahtu communities and talk to all the seniors in their own language who are living in public housing units. Can the Minister responsible for Seniors look at coming in and having a meeting with the Sahtu elders and say, is this what you want? Is this what you agreed to? Come and hear the people who are struggling and who are poor and say, is this what you want? If not, we need to do it now.
I certainly have no issue with contacting the various seniors organizations at the community levels not only in the Sahtu but right across the territory. I had not thought about this discussion particularly previous to today, but I do have no problem whatsoever discussing the issue with them. I don’t know if I’ll be able to actually have any face-to-face meetings with the seniors.
Maybe I could help on my end. I can certainly visit the people in the Sahtu and go see the elders who are living in the public housing units. The same with any MLA here when they head back to their ridings. Talk to the elders and ask, is this what you want your government to do, start charging you rent come July 1st? Sit down and talk with them. Hopefully then we can get back to the Minister responsible for Seniors, who will work with your colleagues and say is this what we want to do as a government. I ask the Minister if he would be willing to be open to our feedback once we have our constituent tours with our elders in the communities
I welcome feedback from the NWT seniors. I have met with them in the past in this capacity and intend to meet with them next month in this capacity again. At that time my thought is that I think the seniors would meet with the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation to discuss this issue. I’m also prepared to discuss that issue as the Minister who represents the seniors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of the elders in the Sahtu region cannot afford this. Yesterday when I talked to one of the constituents, they said, what? What is this government thinking about? There are some seniors maybe in larger centres that could afford to pay a little bit of rent, but not in the Sahtu and maybe no other communities. They have a hard time and pretty soon they’re going to maybe get eviction notices if we continue down this path. I ask the Minister responsible for all seniors and elders, can he help us work with his Cabinet colleagues to look at what can we do to help the government with the fiscal financial restraints that we have within the Housing Corporation and help our elders in our small communities who are poor.
Yes, I’m prepared to represent the seniors and have a discussion with the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation on this issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
