Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the issue of lack of legislation to protect new homeowners. If their home is built and there are problems, in essence the new potential homeowner is the one left holding the bag and that risk. Mr. Speaker, with some thorough research, I was unable to find any policies that exist in our government that helps protect these types of people from these risks. I am going to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, because he is also the Minister who would be in charge of consumer protection services so I think that should rightly fall under his prevue. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister aware of any little known or dark policy that has never been invoked to help protect new homeowners if one of their houses goes up and fails and turns into quite a costly adventure because the builder walks away or builds a poor house? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not aware of any policies that are out there, but there are some policies within the Housing Corporation where a one-year warranty usually comes for those that are constructing units for the corporation. The best advice that I can give is if the homeowner is entering into a contract with a builder, first of all make sure they are a legitimate builder and do the research on that and always make sure that you have a warranty built into the contract. If they refuse to put one in, then I would have to seriously consider signing on with that particular builder. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am aware that CMHC actually has the clause built in about protecting the loan. Mr. Speaker, as I cited today, back in the ‘70s Alberta instituted protection for home buyers to make sure that their home had a warranty if something happened. We don’t have to look very far here in the recent past with Bayview Estates when the builder ran into problems and the project came to its knees and a grinding halt. That put those potential homeowners at significant risk. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister look into the issue of potentially creating legislation that could provide this type of protection to people who want to buy new homes, and so when they put an enormous amount of risk, as money is concerned, they are protected? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, the folks of Alberta and B.C. are covered under CMHC. The number of people that they capture is in the hundreds of thousands and we are a very small jurisdiction. It would be quite an expensive process to enact legislation to bring it forward. Do we have the resources to do that right now? There is obviously a demand for the resources, so we would have to seriously consider that before we proceed to go ahead for such a small jurisdiction. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, people building houses in some particular cases do not require trade certification. So, in other words, the homeowner, or I should say potential homeowner, could be put at significant risk trying to fulfill part of their family’s dream of owning their own house. This government shows little interest in doing this. Mr. Speaker, it is the cost of taking a serious look at legislation that already exists. It is the cost of printing it on paper, which really isn’t that expensive. Mr. Speaker, it is not a big cost. Would the Minister commit to this House that he would investigate the realities of could this be something that this government could consider in its life? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if it is a matter of printing someone else’s legislation onto our paper and our letterhead, it is something that we try to stay away from, because we always say, and we have said in the past, that we need legislation that is built in the North, for the North. To go and copy other jurisdictions’ legislation, that’s something we wouldn’t look at. But I could commit to the Member that we can do some research and see if there’s a demand for this particular type of legislation.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for that commitment there. I think that’s an excellent solve for this particular issue, I’d be willing to help the Minister with some of the research I’ve done to show that perhaps it maybe isn’t that complicated to bring forward this idea. If the Minister would be willing to see what is out there, would he be willing to potentially take this on as a legislative initiative if we can do it this time around or certainly set it up so it’s a consideration for the next government in 14 or 16 months from now?
Like I said, we will do the research and see if it is feasible to enact this particular type of legislation. We have to understand that there is going to be a cost factor to this and do we have the money for that right now with all the other demands on the budget. I have committed to the Member that we will do some research and see if this is a particular piece of legislation is being called for in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
