Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I spoke of policies of the Housing Corporation that need to change to provide work incentives and try to develop some sort of market in small, rural and remote communities. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister if the Housing Corporation is going to be working on some sort of policy, or if he’s going to be directing the corporation to actually make changes in the rent scale to provide work incentives on reviews that are being done by the corporation now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, there’s been a lot of work done on the Shelter Policy Review in the last little bit. Part of that review was looking at the rent scale. I have met with committee. I’ve given a bit of an update on some of the work that’s been done. I can inform this House that the rent scale review, for the most part, has been completed. We are hoping to use a lot of the data and some recommendations in there in the transition document to the 17th Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
Because it’s very important to communities and it’s something that the communities have complained about frequently over the last several years, I’d like to ask the Minister when he anticipates that there will be some sort of positive impacts of the rent scale in as far as developing work incentives. I mean, it’s not really the corporation’s responsibility to develop work incentives, to remove these incentives from the rent scale for working. Thank you.
I believe a lot of the work done on the rent scale review goes a long way in addressing some of the concerns that have been raised by Members of the Legislative Assembly and folks across the Territories. I think folks, for the most part, will be pleased with some of the information that will be coming out.
Again, because it’s such a major decision and one that requires a little more work, I think it would be best if it were put into a transition document as part of the 17th Legislative Assembly, and they can have a look at it and determine how early they want to roll this thing out. But most of the work has been done and, again, the decision, because it’s a major policy shift, would be one that would be made early in the 17th Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
The Public Housing Program for the most part should essentially be a stock program that helps people in a certain state of their life. If the government is directing staff or putting in a transitional document removing the disincentives to work, then will this government or will this Minister direct staff to further develop a process so that public housing people can easily transition into homeownership? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That is one of our goals: to work with the tenants in public housing and make the transition into homeownership as seamless as possible. We are hoping with all the new information... We are just completing the evaluation of the Housing Choices Program, which some recommendations again will be made early in the life of the 17th Assembly. I think, all in all, Mr. Speaker, a lot of good work has been done that has been addressing a lot of concerns that were raised in this House with motions passed. We’ve heard in every community that we’ve travelled to about some of their concerns. I think the new document will go a long way to answering a lot of questions and coming up with solutions, a lot of concerns that people have. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. As a representative from a small community, we were seeing one program in the Housing Corporation, the programs, I’m sorry in the Housing Corporation, are there to address all the housing concerns across the Territories, whether you live in a larger centre like Yellowknife, Hay River, or Fort Smith. That same program is used to address the issues in small communities. I would like to ask the Minister if in the transition document, the Minister could ensure that there is a different set of programs for small communities versus larger communities contemplated for the next government. Thank you.
That would be part of the Housing Choices Evaluation Program, if there is a difference in small communities versus small communities. As I said, it’s an evaluation we are undertaking right now. We are expecting to have -- as I said in committee the other day -- a preliminary report hopefully done by the end of our term here. So we are still available. We would be able to have a quick glance at it, and it would be a transition document and recommendations to the 17th Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Before I go to the next Member, I’d like to recognize in the gallery the presence of the chief from Behchoko, Mr. Clifford Daniels.
The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
