Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of the Housing Corporation with regard to my Member’s statement and looking at alternatives and options to work with tenants that are finding themselves in situations of either being evicted or having arrears and finding ways. As the Minister should know, in most of our communities we have 45 percent unemployment. There are very few jobs to go around. I think as a department you should consider looking at what you can do to help these individuals work off their arrears by either simply cleaning, painting, or in some cases, like I mentioned in Tsiigehtchic where they demolished housing units which were going to be demolished anyway, and allow those individuals to take on some training and give them some opportunity to get some work experience, but more importantly, pay down their arrears with 50 percent of the income that they arrive at.
Has the department looked inwards of the Housing Corporation and the housing authorities of how they can work along with their tenants to pay down those arrears? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Housing is always looking everywhere to see how we can help those folks pay down their arrears. Part of it was allowing people to get into a repayment plan where they pay X amount of dollars. In some cases, one case in particular, a lady paid for five or six years until she managed to pay it all. It was very small amounts she paid each month. But the Member has a point, though, and it was an innovative solution that was reached in Tsiigehtchic. That’s one thing we try to encourage our department and all our folks out in the front line to try to come up with innovative ways that we can work with these residents to give them an opportunity to pay down on their arrears. We are always open to suggestions and open to new ideas.
This is one that we just actually had a fairly brief discussion at the beginning of the week with senior management over at the Housing Corp. So this is one that we would consider. Thank you.
As we know, we have aging housing stocks in the Northwest Territories. A lot of it does need upkeep, and that’s where I’m trying to focus my question on. Those units need some improvements such as painting and the possibility of doing minor renovations and also replacement of, say, electrical fixtures. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could get his department to look at what is on the business plans for capital investment in those different communities and see if some of those investments could be used for the tenants in those units to maybe do some of that work and work off their arrears by simply painting their units so you don’t have to bring a contractor in from outside the community. Those dollars will stay in the community and will help those individuals to pay down their arrears.
We look for every opportunity that we can work with the communities. I know of a few communities where the local LHO will do a lot of their own maintenance and improvement work over the summer. In some cases they’ll bring as many as 17 people on board to do the summer work. They also hire a lot of students to work at the LHOs for the summer.
As far as the employment goes, we have to be very careful that these folks, that if they do enter into some kind of agreement with them, we have to be sure that they qualify or are able to do a fairly good job, because we don’t want anyone just going into a unit and just slopping paint all over the place and thinking that’s acceptable, which it really isn’t. We have to be sure all the work is done according to the standards that the local housing authorities have.
It’s not a simple question of cash switching hands. Sweat equity is a way that people do work things off, and I know in the past, people did trade, barter, and did whatever they had to do to help the other person out. I think that should still originate in this government. I think we have to be conscious that people do have talents in our communities, and if you can make use of those talents and tell them you can work it off, I think that’s all I’m asking for.
I’d like to ask the Minister to take this into serious consideration. Since you look at the arrears that are out there, I think it’s going to take many, many years to pay down the arrears simply at $30 a month or whatever. I think you have to find a way of working with them to pay them down sooner and get these people back into housing.
I’m very well aware of the talents that we have in the small communities, having seen it first hand and knowing that they’re quite capable if you give them an opportunity of performing the work. The training that a lot of these folks have gotten over the past number of years working casual for the local housing authority during the summer is something that’s allowed them to continue to work.
I take the Member’s point, and I can assure the Member that as a corporation we’ll continue to try to work any way we can with the tenants to find ways that they can possibly work off their arrears and that. It’s a decision that’s made by the LHO but with some direction from headquarters. I can assure the Member that I will have discussion with staff and we’ll see if there are ways that we can find solutions to help those in the communities.
The Member is absolutely correct; arrears in some communities are quite high and it would take a long time to pay them down. We’ll do what we can as a corporation to see how we can alleviate some of that pressure.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko. Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
