Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, the Honourable Robert C. McLeod. Since 1996 a policy came into place in this government where seniors living in public housing over the age of 60 would pay zero rent. I believe the initial intent of this was to target seniors in small, remote communities where people in the housing units had not ever been involved in the wage economy, had come more from a traditional economy, but in the government’s wisdom decided to apply it to every community and every senior living in public housing regardless of means or income. Now we are being forced to revisit that very, very generous program.
I would like to ask the Minister, as a result of the consultation with some of the seniors by MLAs, the complaint has come forward that seniors were not adequately consulted on this change. I would like to ask the Minister what efforts were undertaken by the Housing Corporation to ensure that seniors were consulted before the implementation of this new policy.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We feel that we’ve had considerable consultation across the Northwest Territories on the whole shelter policy review. We had an opportunity to meet with NWT Seniors’ Society and received their input. We believe that this is an issue that has been consulted quite extensively across the Northwest Territories.
Some representatives and leaders of seniors’ organizations are now asking to postpone the implementation of this policy in order to conduct further consultation. I would like to ask the Minister if he thinks that further consultation would result in a different decision by his corporation that he oversees.
As I said, we feel like we’ve consulted adequately and if we were to delay it as per the wishes of some Members across the NWT, I don’t think too much would change. Therefore, I don’t see much need to delay the implementation and take this out again.
In terms of the feedback that did come back from the seniors, can the Minister please tell us if there was a categorical disapproval, or did this new policy review meet with categorical disagreement from the seniors, or was there also some widespread support for this?
As with most changes that are made within the government where you start charging people money, there is going to be some concern and that concern was obviously raised and we hear it continue to be raised. What I was quite pleased about was the amount of support that it had from seniors across the Northwest Territories and I always use the particular example of a gentleman, a senior living in public housing, saying I only make $1,500 a month but I’m willing to pay my share.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly that has also been my experience, that the message is mixed and I have in fact heard comments from some seniors saying that if I’m a tenant of the Housing Corporation, at least if I’m paying my $90 a month rent I feel like I can phone them up when my tap is dripping or I can ask for the kinds of services that any tenant would ask the landlord for. Certainly the feedback that we have received is very mixed as well.
I’d like to ask the Minister if it’s this government’s intention to then proceed with the implementation of the rent charged for seniors beginning on the planned date.
It is our intent to implement all the changes as per the shelter policy review on July 1st of this year and that includes seniors’ rent.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
