Debates of October 19, 2006 (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I sense he’s been feeling left out lately.

Aw.

In my Member’s statement, I outlined the run around that our constituents must go through in attempting to pay their rent for social housing. Mr. Speaker, we want them to pay their rent, but the number of hoops that we are putting them through I think would be a discouragement to anybody paying their rent. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment inform this Assembly what he intends to do to reduce the apparent bottleneck in income support offices and speed up the transmittal of rental calculation information to local housing authorities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 135-15(5): Social Housing Rent Calculations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mrs. Groenewegen is right. As we have seen this program move from one department to another, the subsidy program has definitely shown us or caused us some problems with that transition. We have formed a working group that involves everybody right from my deputy minister to the head of the Housing Corporation and regional staff to try to deal with issues like the one that the Member brings forward. As we heard about them, we try to address them on a case-by-case basis. I am not sure if the Member’s constituent needs to come into the office every month. In this transition, some of our ECE offices have been looking at all the clients to see whether or not they might be put on a bi-monthly or tri-monthly system of coming in. That is certainly one thing we could do to try to ease the situation. I would certainly appreciate the opportunity to see if we can’t work with the Member and her constituent to address these circumstances. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 135-15(5): Social Housing Rent Calculations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this day of modern information technology, has the Minister given any consideration to a shared computer information system that would allow the ECE office to transmit the rent calculation information to the housing authority in a more timely manner, somehow that they could both access the same source of information? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 135-15(5): Social Housing Rent Calculations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will certainly challenge my department with that suggestion. If it would speed up the process, then I think it’s something we should take a look at.