Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I told you in my Member's statement today that, you know, we have a 60yearold elder that's being penalized from CERB in regards to housing and income support. I only have my housing minister here today, Mr. Speaker. What is the Minister, can she confirm that the government's position on counting CERB and other emergency pandemic payments as income for the residents of the public housing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question as well too. I'm quite surprised to hear this, that earlier to the pandemic when we were looking at the CERB payments they weren't to be calculated as earned income, and they should have not been calculated on the based rent. I'd encourage the Member to encourage his constituent to go back to the LHO and receive a rent reassessment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's really good news because I will be reaching out to my constituent and getting him to do that.
Can the Minister advise the department and the residents in the public housing to make sure not only impacted during the tax season for the pandemic support payments, to make sure that the CERB is not being clawed back and being penalized elders being penalized in the housing system? It's not fair, Mr. Speaker, especially when we were told at the start that the Minister said that we weren't going to be taxed on it during the pandemic because it was monies needed because there was no work and we all had to stay home. So people took advantage of that, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister just make sure that the what are we doing with the tax season? When they bring in their income tax, can they get reassessed that day and to be go, I guess, back in regards to getting it reassessed for like five or six months or until they took that CERB payment and making sure they're not having to overpay? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Member for the question. I strongly encourage all documentation that has been collected or has been received in applying for the CERB program provided by the federal government, that they provide those documents to the local housing authority and receive the rent assessment. And for the elder that the Member had spoken about, I'd like to follow up with him separately. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. There's a lot of assessments that are going to be done being done right now as to not include the CERB payments. Were received last year, Mr. Speaker. The CERB payments and clawbacks that are happening to the residents right now, they're being penalized from Housing, that's what I've been told, and from the federal government and from us in regards to income support. Income support's even worse, Mr. Speaker, when you're cutting off people who have nothing already, that are relying on that to feed their families, Mr. Speaker. We need to get this sorted out, and I'm really looking forward to working with my Minister and my Premier to get this sorted out for the people in my riding and across the territory, because it's not only my riding that's going to get affected with CERB, it's going to be the whole territory in all 33 communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I've said that the CERB payments should have not been calculated into the rent calculations. But I will follow up with my department, making sure that this message gets down to our headquarters and right down to the local housing authorities. Should there be any confusion, I will follow up with the department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, the state of our housing across Nunakput is in we're in pretty poor shape. We can't keep up with the, to get them retrofitted. We can't keep up with the windows, the doors, the appliances that they have to pay the power to. We have to get on top of that, Mr. Speaker, especially the overcrowding that we are going through, right across the territory right now. Especially in my riding.
Mr. Speaker, what has the the Minister done in regards to overcrowding, to lessen overcrowding in Nunakput communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I was quickly trying to grab we do have a hundred unit roll out that is happening within the lifetime of this government. My apologies as I was not able to pull up that document right away, but we do have some builds that are going to be delivered in Nunakput. And overcrowding, Mr. Speaker, is an issue that we have throughout the Northwest Territories but we do try to work with community governments in trying to address this issue throughout the North, and I do understand the Member's riding as well too, that there is limited amount of housing and in most communities, we are the only housing deliverer. But I will follow up with the Member as well too and look at further solutions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
