Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How many Housing Corporation staff have completed the Living Well Together training that supports cultural awareness and sensitivity among GNWT employees? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Housing.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With our staff and our client service staff at the local housing authority and within the corporation itself, it is important that we improve our services as well and looking at the Living Well Together and providing those numbers, I don't have that on hand with me right now. But government employees and specifically for the housing the Department of the Housing Corporation, they are supposed to be completing this program and really emphasizing on working in Indigenous communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am concerned, Mr. Speaker. The Housing Corporation staff in this particular case, as I stated in my Member's statement, continue to communicate with my constituents in a way that is not recognized, understood, or acknowledged, when it is the responsibility put back on staff to confirm clients understand the message.
Does the Housing Corporation have guidelines or standards to provide customer service expectation to staff? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for raising such an important question, and it's something that the Housing Corporation has included with our review of our policies and programming as well too. And coming from a small community as well, this is quite important for me because I do understand the language barriers that are real situations at the ground level and also the interpretation of our contracts and our documents as well too, that they need to be simplified and they need to be properly communicated. This is something I will take back to the Housing Corporation to improve our client service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
What expectation are put on regional housing authorities to ensure that clients with English as a second language are given fair and equitable support? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And it's very important for me to making sure that our programs and services are fairly communicated. I just want to inform the Member as well too that we do have the local housing authorities which are the percentage of that representation is the majority is Indigenous. And looking at how we could better improve those services, communicating and language, I will bring that back to the corporation and I will making sure that we do have an emphasis on those communication and those interpretation of those legal documents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the Housing Corporation use interpreters to communicate with clients whose first language is not English? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is something that I will improve with the corporation. And just, you know, I need to recognize as well too that we do have elders in the smaller communities. We do have just single languages that are spoken that are first before English and I will make sure that we do have those services available as well too, and not only at the local housing authority level but also at the district level as well too. It's very important to be having those options at the local community level. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
