Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the homeownership programs, specifically homeownership programs for seniors needed to be developed by the Housing Corporation. I have some questions for the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister direct his staff to develop a seniors-specific program for repairs and maintenance of senior homeowner units? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do provide a lot of assistance to seniors, and as I quoted some numbers the other day when I was speaking to the motion, the number of seniors that are accessing our programs, our CARE program, for example, which allows them to access more money than they would have under the old system, we had quite a few seniors that took part in that. But I’ve heard the Member’s concern and I heard the motion the other day. I haven’t had an opportunity yet to sit down with the senior staff, but I do know that we are doing an evaluation of our Housing Choices program and hearing the concern of this Legislative Assembly, it’s one area that we’ll have to have a look at. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister direct the staff at the Housing Corporation to develop a strategy to ensure that all senior homeowners are contacted during the delivery stage? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we give opportunities for seniors to contact us and in the response to some questions on the floor last year I did commit to the Member that those seniors that wanted us to come to their units, we would come and we would provide an interpreter so they can best understand the programs and some of the options that are available to them. As far as going door to door, again, we like to work with the seniors and obviously we want to help them, and if the seniors feel like they are in need of work on their home, then we give them the opportunity to contact us and we go to their homes with an interpreter and work with them to fill out an application. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, prior to or during the program delivery stage, at the application stage, will the Minister direct his staff to go to the homes of the seniors and not wait for the seniors to make contact? There are only a limited number of senior homeowners in the communities. Will the Minister direct his staff to actually go to the homes or the staff to go to the homes? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we do like to assist our seniors. We have the government service offices that are going to be in some of the communities which would be able to assist some of the seniors. As far as going door to door, that’s a topic that I’ll have to take up with senior management and see if it’s something that we would consider doing. Again, like I say, we like to have the clients initiate the contact and then we’ll do what we can from there to accommodate them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although I think it’s essential that the staff go into the seniors’ homes, I don’t think it’s a difficult task. There is probably enough staff to be able to go into all the homes. Aside from that, whether the officers are going into the homes or not, will the Minister direct his staff to do all that is necessary to gather the documentation to ensure that the initial application is completed? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is one of the reasons that I had to go into the seniors’ homes and bring along interpreters so they can best understand the options and what they may be getting into. That would be a good opportunity to make sure all the proper documentation is placed so they can have a complete application that doesn’t hurt their chances of getting assistance.
I can say again that we do provide a lot of assistance for seniors. Under the old program, it was a fixed 10-year forgivable period so they had to wait 10 years before they were able to apply again. Now, with the new program, it can be from one to 10 years, so in three years seniors would be able to apply again. I think this is a benefit to seniors. The money is a lot more, from $20,000 to $90,000, that they could possibly qualify for. Of all the CARE applicants we had last year, 71 percent of those approved were seniors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
