Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to join my colleagues today in talking about housing.
Having been a Member of this House for the past several years, I must say I’ve been witness to some very bad and costly decisions that governments have made over the years. One of the most ridiculous and bizarre moves came when the last government decided to transfer responsibility for social policy and the $34 million to administer it from the Housing Corporation to ECE. The fact is, Regular Members in the last government told the government not to do it, but it didn’t matter because, Mr. Speaker, a funny thing seems to happen when Ministers travel south to F/P/T meetings. They come back with some ideas that their provincial counterparts are trying, and they think, wow, I’m going to try this out on the people back home.
The problem is, Mr. Speaker, oftentimes these ideas may work in southern Canada, but applied back here in our reality they are a complete flop. Mr. Speaker, make no mistake about it, this decision was a disaster and its shockwaves are still causing untold damage to many of our residents.
As if the decision wasn’t bad enough, Mr. Speaker, ECE had to hire 12 more people to deliver a program that was already being delivered by the housing authorities, and incurred an additional $1.2 million in operational expense as a result. Yes, it is still hard to believe any government, in their right mind, would have made that call.
Finally, this government has done the right thing and put responsibility for social housing back where it belongs. But, Mr. Speaker, this government has taken its time when it comes to reversing the damage the transfer has caused. The money was not immediately transferred back and I have yet to see an HR plan for dealing with the 12 positions that ECE had to hire to administer the program. This decision has cost this government millions and millions of dollars when it did not have to.
Mr. Speaker, this is consensus government. The last Regular Member’s Caucus told government not to proceed. Motions were passed and ignored.
Mr. Speaker, lessons need to be learned, responsibility has to be taken and in the case of the transfer of the Social Housing Policy, I sure hope Cabinet was taking some good notes. Mr. Speaker, they’ll have to listen to the wishes of the Regular Members because we speak for the people of the Northwest Territories and those who we represent. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
