Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to ask some questions to the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. This time of the year the NWT Housing Corporation has application deadlines for homeownership programs. Depending on which community, these deadlines may vary. In many cases residents are not fully aware of the deadlines. My question is in regard to a communication strategy. Can the Minister tell this House if the Housing Corporation has a communications strategy for its homeownership program in the application phase?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Communication of our programs is indeed an area that we have been trying to focus on in the last few months. We’ve really been working towards trying to set up a system where the people in the communities would be more aware of what our deadlines are, what’s really in our new Housing Choices programs. Currently we have embarked on informing the Members that the deadline is soon approaching, if not already in most communities, to put in their applications for the different programs. This has also been put in the newspapers so that the general public is aware. We plan to enhance that strategy come April 1st. We are currently working on a new system so that we’ll have our regional staff in the communities talking more about specific program information. I was made aware many times that the housing information is not getting to all the communities, so we are trying to step it up a bit and will be launching an intense program April 1st.
Many of my constituents speak aboriginal languages and aboriginal languages are their first language. They’re not familiar with some of the legal and technical terminology, even things like inspections, applications, leases. My question is, can the Minister tell me what extra efforts, if any, the NWT Housing Corporation staff do to address that very important component of the client relations?
This is a very important part of our being able to communicate with the clients and the people that come forward to apply for our programs. We certainly make notices given that if there is a requirement for an interpreter, we can certainly facilitate that. We try to ensure that our technical people at the community level and regional level are able to communicate and be able to provide information. We have new programs that can walk people through the different steps available through the budgeting process, through the banking, through the credit systems, all the different components that involve house purchases. And also to be able to live in our home rental houses.
Maybe that’s supported lease. I think an orientation program is very important when clients are signing documents. I know of a case recently where an elder did not sign documents and at the end of the day that person was one signature away from the family owning a house because the elder passed away without signing the document. However, my question for the Minister is when signing documents -- this is now just if the individuals get approval -- is there a guarantee that the individuals understand? Is there any way that the corporation guarantees that individuals understand what they’re signing?
We make every effort to ensure that the client is fully aware of the agreements that they are signing and any kind of arrangements that are done through the Housing Corporation. In terms of how do we guarantee that the elders understand or people understand is a difficult question to answer. The response, I guess, is we do ask the client if they do understand. If there are areas that they are struggling with in terms of comprehension of what it means, then we certainly take the time and effort to make sure it’s explained to them. We really, in the last while, incorporated programs that would explain every aspect of an agreement to our clients and we try to ensure they understand it fully before they make any further arrangements.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Tu Nedhe communities, the need, the core need -- just going from memory here -- but probably 40 to 50 percent. In Tu Nedhe there are 300 households. So we’re talking about 120 households split between two regional offices: North Slave for Lutselk’e and South Slave for Hay River. My question is, can the Minister tell me if the program staff is able to go door to door for everybody in need in Tu Nedhe during the application phase?
I believe the question is if we have our staff go door to door to see if they’ve all applied. No, we don’t do that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
