Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. Will the Minister look at working on policies, if a person wants out of a lease who is suffering from family violence, such as verbal abuse? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, I will look at those policies and look at how we could work with domestic violence within the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I have had previous conversations with this Minister, and some of the responses that I have gotten back are very -- if you're in that type of relationship, one of the things is a mutual agreement amongst the lessees to end this. This, I feel, is locking the person who is being abused into an unhealthy home life. Is there a way that we can look at these things right now and work with the local housing authorities right away to make sure that these are not barriers that may keep them in family violence? I know that, under one of the stipulations, it was an EPO, emergency protection order, but you're not going to get that, from my confirmation, with verbal abuse, sometimes.
[Microphone turned off] ...and have this agreement broken and honoured so that we are not in support of domestic violence. Just send me your stuff, and I'll make sure that we are not going to be dealing with this further.
Another issue that has recently arisen: can the Minister confirm what happens if one of the lessees in a home refuses to file their income tax or pay statements? I know, with the Member for Nunakput, that that is the way right now of how we calculate our rent. This is something that I have heard in my community that, in these family violent relationships, they are using against each other.
In regard to filing and using the T4 slips and filing with CRA, if we do not receive those official documents, we would just be going forward and calculating their rent month by month. Once again, I would encourage the Member to bring this forward. I would like to deal with this immediately.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
