Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to say it’s a good day today for the seniors of the Northwest Territories, and by thanking the Minister and thanking this government for delaying the implementation of charging seniors rent until September. Also, to go a little further, then to implement a two-phased approach to the seniors’ rent by giving them the opportunity to look at the reasons why we’re going to implement the rent at a lower cost than what the Minister and the government really wanted to do.
Today is the beginning of June and I guess there is Christmas in June also, because it’s a good present for the elders. I want to say thank you to the Minister for listening to us, listening to the concerns.
This government has the obligation to take care of its residents, especially the elderly people, the ones who are very vulnerable in the communities. The decision to delay should also be seen as a period that this government should sit down and listen to the elders and tell them why they’re going to be charging them rent and, more importantly, to listen to the elders while the elders tell them why it makes it hard for them to pay rent in our communities.
This government and this Housing Corporation need to work with us on this side and they’ve done that. It’s a start in that area and I applaud the Minister for realizing this, and that it needs to be done in a way that is effective and efficient and that we can move on this together.
I wanted to say to my colleagues here, to the gallery, to the Minister, thank you very much from the Sahtu elders and the seniors across the North that we’ve done something good for the seniors. We’ve done something that we hope we see that the seniors do want to make a contribution, but we need to sit and listen to them to see how we can do this together.
So I want to say thank to the Minister, Robert C. McLeod, for this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
