Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’ll try to keep my comments down to a dull roar. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and my questions are directed to the Minister of Justice with regard to the Residential Tenancies Act.
The issue of the lack of jurisdiction of the rental officer over transition housing was raised in the Report of the Rental Officer, 2010-2011, which was tabled last December. I’d like to know, there are a number of issues in there, I can’t remember the number – four, five, or six, I believe – that the rental officer raised as issues that needed to be dealt with by the department and in the Residential Tenancies Act. I’d like to know from the Minister what actions he and the department are taking in regard to the recommendation on transition housing and the other recommendations in the report.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’ll try to be a little quicker on this one. I’ve already answered this question last week when we talked about other changes that the Members were looking for in the Residential Tenancies Act.
Six recommendations were put forward by the rental officer. We’ve committed to doing an analysis of those recommendations as well as the recommendations to find a hammer, if you will. We will review those. We are going to bring those back to committee in the fall, an opportunity to have a discussion and set some direction on how we want to move forward.
The Member is right; one of the areas that the rental officer wants us to look at is the application of the Residential Tenancies Act on transitional housing. I do have to remind Members and everybody else that there’s always two sides to every opinion and one of the most significant landlords of transitional housing here in the Northwest Territories has discussed this in the past, and at that time they actually recommended not to go forward with this particular provision as it would actually complicate their service providing in their institution. There are both sides to every story. We are going to do the review. We are going to bring it to Members for some decisions.
Thanks to the Minister for his response. I appreciate that we are going to get some data, some investigation, some evaluation of the current situation and that something is going to come back in the fall. I look forward to that.
I guess I would like to know, then, and interestingly I’m not so sure that the Minister and I are talking to the same people involved in transition housing because there’s differing views obviously. I’d like to know from the Minister, if we’re not going to have a report until the fall sometime, Lord knows legislative amendments would be a long time after that, so I want to know if the department is able to do anything, if they are looking to take any action to address the issues in the rental officer’s report in the interim while they do the investigation.
As I’ve indicated, there are a significant number of alternate opinions on this one, so before we implement something, we do have to take it through the public process. We do have to take it through my colleagues on that side of the House to make sure that everybody’s informed and that we make an informed decision. Once that’s done, whether it’s legislation or policy or procedure, we will do as the House directs. Thank you.
I’ll try my question again. I appreciate that we have to do investigation before we make a strong recommendation. There needs to be some analysis done and there needs to be some consultation done. What I’m asking the Minister is: Prior to that report from the department and the Minister coming forward, can the Minister advise if there is anything that the rental officer can do in the interim to try and address the issues that he has raised? I’m thinking, perhaps, of mediation or dispute resolution, et cetera. Thank you.
I’ll direct the staff at the department to talk to the rental officer to see if he has any suggestions. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will be short. I’d like to know from the Minister if it is his intention to bring forward amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act within this 17th Assembly, if that’s what’s recommended. Thank you.
Once the research is done and we take it to committee to have a discussion, if that is the wish of committee, I would be happy to take it forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
