Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During my Member’s statement I was talking about some of these perceived arrears that public housing tenants have in the Northwest Territories. As I said, there are some people that believe that a number of these arrears aren’t, in fact, real. I would like to ask the Minister responsible some questions about those potential arrears. Has any analysis been done within the Housing Corp to determine whether or not this is, in fact, true? Are there some individuals who have possibly unreal arrears or have we done any assessment to determine that, in fact? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have begun the work of looking at the arrears that were accumulated during the transfer over to ECE. We have noticed that the arrears did increase significantly during that time, so we are working on trying to find a way that we can get these arrears identified and have them dealt with. Thank you.
I was wondering if the Minister could give me a bit of a timeline as to when he thinks that work might be done and if those individuals are identified to have arrears that aren’t in fact real, what’s going to be done to help offset those arrears.
Mr. Speaker, this would probably be a fairly lengthy process because we’d almost have to go on a file-by-file basis. But with the tenants starting to come back to the LHOs to get their assessments done, there’s an opportunity for them to verify their income that they had during that time and adjustments will be made on the arrears. Thank you.
That’s good to know and I’m happy to hear that. I’m curious, will there be any sort of public awareness campaign or anything done to encourage the individuals who might be in arrears to come forward with this information in order to identify areas where they may, in fact, not owe large sums of money so that they can get back on a financial pathway, to a positive financial pathway? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as far as an official public awareness campaign, there are no plans for that right now. We are working with tenants as they start to go back to the LHOs for the assessment. They are being told some of the processes that they could go through. In forums like this particular one and in my travels throughout the Territories this summer and different assemblies I went to, I did the same message that we had to start working on the arrears and there was an opportunity for tenants who accumulated arrears during the transfer over to ECE to come back, get their income verified, and adjustments will be made. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
