Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of the Housing Corporation. I'm wondering if the Minister of the Housing Corporation will remove the community residency policy? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And currently with our strategy and our renewal and the review of the whole Housing Corporation, we will be looking at all policies within the corporation.
But looking at removing the residency requirements, I want to say that, you know, we have 33 local housing authorities that are operated by community members. Most of the hires are from the community as well too. They do have the authority within those local housing organizations, the boards, and the chair, to look at lifting those residency requirements depending on if they see that as an issue in their community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the opportunity to go and talk to all of the different LHOs and let them know how this policy is inadvertently affecting residents of the Northwest Territories. So will the Minister have that conversation with LHOs and remove the community residency policy from the Housing Corporation's policy network? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, in respect to the local housing authorities and how they manage our service contracts at the ground level, I'm in full support of whatever they decide. Myself coming from a smaller community, I see that, you know, residency does become an issue. I've had where I've experienced some residents moving back into the community that were out of the community for X number of years that decided to return. I've had people within that were sitting on the waitlist for seven years, three years, and the number goes on. We need to maintain fairness and consistency when delivering our programming. We also see the effects with our students returning back to the communities, incarcerated people returning back to the communities, and we have to be fair when we're allocating these units. But in respect, we do have residents that have been sitting on that waitlist for quite some time that end up with that do have medical issues as well. The applicants come with different needs throughout the Northwest Territories, and we try to work within the local housing authorities and supporting them when making these decisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'd love the opportunity to respond to each of those points, but I think you'd cut me off.
It sounds to me like what needs to happen is a reassessment of the priority point system that's allocated to residents whose names are on the waitlist so that all of these issues, that the Minister is stating that add to fairness, are the ones actually being evaluated.
So will the Minister remove the community residency policy and instead look at revising the point system? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm open to a lot of different changes throughout the corporation. The Member has raised an issue that I see throughout the territory as well. And it could be something that's brought back. I'd like to bring that back to my department and look at that as well because we are under review of all policies throughout the territory. But like I had said, we need to maintain the fairness and consistency in our smaller communities respecting our service agreements that the boards and the chair people do provide for us on our behalf. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Mr. Speaker, I've been bringing this policy up in this House since February of 2020, and so I appreciate that the Minister's willing to go back and talk to the department and bring it back to me but after two years, my patience is wearing thin. So I just want the policy, really, to be reevaluated for what it is, because it isn't fair.
So I guess my next question for the Minister is how is it fair, then, if the Housing Corporation cannot stipulate how a waitlist is used however ECE can stipulate that anybody who wants access to income assistance must put their name on a housing waitlist even if they don't need housing? So I'm wondering why the discrepancy and when Housing Corporation can step in and when they can't. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have the conversation with my colleague as well in looking at that waitlist for income support. But I really want to stress that, you know, I hear what the Member is speaking about and it is an issue throughout the territory. But we have 2600 units throughout the Northwest Territories. We have a significant waitlist. The last number that I got a couple of years ago was 900 people on our waitlist. We don't have enough units to house every single person in the territory. That is why we need to maintain fairness and consistency with the policies that we do have.
But I will have this conversation with my department and really look at that point rating system as well too and how we could further accommodate people of the Northwest Territories. But I really want to emphasize one community, we could have 25 people on that waitlist, an additional 10 people coming back into the community I will bring that back to the department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
