Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was talking about the housing problems and issues that we have in Paulatuk. I would like to ask the Minister of Housing what is holding up the Housing Corporation’s work to solve the problem of unfair arrears in the community of Paulatuk.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had a good trip into Paulatuk and we had a good public meeting. There were a lot of concerns raised by the residents of Paulatuk. We received a great number of correspondences as to some of the problems that we’re facing. I did commit to them that we would have a look at the question of arrears. There was some question there as to the amount of arrears and the time it was taking to get assessed. I did commit to them that we would work with them.
As it stands right now, the LHOs are starting to do the assessments again. For the assessments that were done prior to Housing Corporation getting the responsibility for assessments back from ECE, tenants have the ability to go into their LHO, provide the proper documentation, and the LHO will then work with ECE and if there’s a need to, the reassessments will be done. The onus is again on the tenants to bring in the verification of income and we’re hoping to do that across the Territories. We have heard the question that there has been a lot of arrears accumulated during that time. This is a process that is going to take awhile. We are working with it and will continue to work with it with the residents in Paulatuk.
What has the Minister done about the arrears problem in Paulatuk since our last visit?
I just explained to the Member the process that we are undertaking right now in helping deal with the arrears. There was a question of extremely high arrears in Paulatuk and we heard some of the stories from some of the residents there. We are undertaking the process again. The LHOs are doing the assessments currently, since the transfer back as of June 1st, for the assessments prior. Tenants have the opportunity to bring in their verification of income into Housing and they will then work with ECE to try to do the reassessments if it’s needed.
It is a big mess that ECE left behind in the communities and all across the Territories. Has the Minister told the LHOs how to resolve the problem? Will the Minister try to come back into the community? We had about 65 people in attendance at the meeting for the questions that we did have. Is the Minister, with the correspondence he does have, how is the department making out with regard to answering the community and myself?
We just recently, or this fall, I believe, we were up in Paulatuk and I made a commitment to the people of Paulatuk that were at the meeting. It was a well-attended meeting. I did make a commitment to deal with a lot of the issues that they were bringing forward. There were a lot of individual issues that were brought forward by way of letter to myself and we are responding to those individually. If time permits, sometime this spring, having been given an opportunity to try to work out some of the issues that they raised in Paulatuk, as time permits I’d be glad to go back in.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope it’s before April. I’d like him to come before Christmas or let one of his staff come to the community with me to meet with the community. When you’re getting the mayor of the community calling me regarding the issues and the way things are being handled over there, it’s a great concern to myself that these issues are not being done, because it’s a satellite-run community out of Inuvik. So nothing is being passed in regard to the paper. Why did NWT Housing Corporation not go back to the program before ECE?
There were some issues that came out of the whole transfer that we heard of. We are working to try to address some of the concerns that were raised. Paulatuk is just another good example. We have many communities across the Northwest Territories I still have to go into and visit and continue to get the message out there that this is not something that can be done overnight. There has been a challenge as far as the assessments go. We’ve heard that. I can tell you that Paulatuk is not a satellite-run community anymore. We have a management team in place in Paulatuk that is dealing with the situation there. Unfortunately, there was a time when a lot of the operations of the community were run out of the Inuvik office because we were unable to get staff in there. The assessments were being faxed to the Inuvik office and the assessments weren’t being done in a timely manner. We recognize all that. Now we’re taking steps to try to deal with it. If the opportunity arises and I make it into Paulatuk again, hopefully by then all outstanding issues would have been dealt with and people will understand exactly where they are in the community as far as arrears and assessments and everything else go.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
