Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked about the lack of adequate housing for teachers in Lutselk’e. I would like to follow up on my statement with questions for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to working with me, and the local district education authority and the community, to see that an immediate solution is found for this situation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is an issue that continues to plague the small communities as having adequate housing for some of the professionals that go in there. I could inform the Member that in his community, through the good work of the North Slave Housing district housing office, they have come up with a solution to take care of the needs of two of the teachers. They have agreed to rent them an NWT Housing Corporation house, so that would take care of the issue. That will go on until the end of this school year and then we will look for a longer-term solution. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister give myself in this House an update on what the NWT Housing Corporation is doing on the long-term solution? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the longer-term solution is we are working with the Refocusing Government committee. We are in the process of speaking to a lot of the development corporations in the community. We have had some excellent buy-in. There has been a lot of interest expressed by the development corporations in accessing some of the programs. We do have some incentives that we are proposing to them. Also, one of the incentives is using some of our existing houses and see if we could turn those into housing for staff, if there is a surplus in some of the communities. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise this House when we can see some sort of program roll out so we can examine the long-term solution that the Minister speaks of? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we are hoping to have something together very shortly here to share with committee before we go into the next session that would help address a lot of the concerns expressed by some of the MLAs from the small communities, especially the non-market communities. We are hoping to have something very shortly here put together. We will be able to share that with committee and get some feedback and input from committee too. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mr. Speaker, as per an earlier commitment, during his next visit to Lutselk’e, can the Minister commit to meeting with the local DEA and the teachers so he can hear firsthand on the issue in Lutselk’e? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I will commit to meet with the DEA. It is always in our best interest to hear what the communities are saying, because they know best what is needed in their communities. If we can work in cooperation with them, that would make the whole process a lot smoother and we will be able to provide housing for staff and a lot of the professionals in the small communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
