Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Braden on March 5, 2003 regarding annual reports of the rental officer and the status of the government as a landlord under the Residential Tenancies Act.

There is no statutory requirement for the rental officer to file annual reports. The rental officer's contract requires him to make annual reports to the Department of Justice. The reports include information on statistics, trends, issues, recommendations and the activities of the rental officer I would be pleased to make copies of the reports available to the Member if he wishes to see them.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT and its agents, the NWT Housing Corporation and local housing organizations, are subject to Residential Tenancies Act.

In the NWT, subsidized public housing is the responsibility of the Housing Corporation and either it or an LHO is the landlord.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct that there are some provisions of the act which do not apply in the case of subsidized public housing, the main one being the requirement to give a three-month notice of increasing rent. In essence, if an individual qualifies for subsidized public housing, the guidelines of that program apply. The rent paid is based on income, and when that income increases or decreases, the subsidy is adjusted immediately, not three months later. In such circumstances, the giving of three months notice would make no sense.

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, the act provides that a landlord can increase rent only once a year. This does not apply to subsidized public housing. If it did, it would obviously be impossible to adjust the subsidy and, in effect, the rent, on an ongoing basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.