Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of NWT Housing Corporation pertaining to the Aging in Place, as it's laid out in our mandate. Mr. Speaker, in answering questions in February, questions from me, the Minister responded to a question I was asking about Aging in Place by indicating that she would be meeting with the federal government on March 10, 2016. I want to know what the results of that meeting were? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the last meeting that we had with the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers we had strongly advocated for Northern consideration within the national housing plan. The result of that meeting is that the federal government is going to do a Northern Strategy, so that meeting was very successful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister when the Northern Strategy would come into effect and if there's any money associated with the Northern Strategy insofar as money from the GNWT or money from the federal government? Thank you.
I cannot say exactly if there will be any money or when there will be money. It is hopeful that there will be money, but until the federal government releases that, we don't know. I will be meeting again at the end of this month, with them again, advocating for a northern strategy, and as soon as I find out then I can bring the results back.
Mr. Speaker, our mandate is not incumbent upon money from the federal government as far as the Aging in Place goes. I'd like to ask the Minister if there has been any budgetary discussions pertaining to a program that will allow seniors to age in place?
There's actually quite a bit that we're doing to assist seniors to age in place. So there are many programs; we have a CARE Major program that will do major renovations such as ramps up to their buildings, et cetera; we have CARE Minor; that'll do small programs, and then we have the preventative maintenance that we do every year that goes in and looks and tries to just nip it in the bud and make sure that their houses are in sustainable shape so that we're not looking at extended renovations.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke about the deterrents that were associated with a lot of the programs NWT Housing Corporation is delivering, deterrents that make the seniors apprehensive to apply for the programs that are in place. Has the Minister had a discussion with staff or with Cabinet on features that might be added to a program that specifically looks at allowing seniors to age in place in their communities without a lot of the deterrents? Right now, those individuals are not applying for the programs for various reasons. So I'd like to see if the Minister has really focused in on trying to allow the seniors to age in place without a lot of the deterrents that I spoke of in my Members statement. Thank you.
It is a mandate of the 18th Legislative Assembly and we do take the mandate very seriously. I think that all Members actually have a serious concern for our elders and a respect for them and want to promote them to stay in their own communities. So we're doing a number of things. Actually, one, prior to the engagement survey, that we're asking every person in public housing, every person that is taking part in housing programs, what's working, what's not working, what they want to see, so I'm taking that very seriously. Once that's received, we'll be going through every single policy, every single program that Housing provides so that we can alleviate as many barriers as possible for people.
The other thing specifically that we're doing right now actually for seniors is since September and ongoing until the end of November we've made a commitment, and we're going into every single community and we're reaching out to seniors specifically to tell them about the programs that we have to assist them in understanding what they are eligible for and to try to identify any barriers that they have. So we're taking our commitment very seriously and we are going into every single community as of now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
