It's astounding on where they want to go. They have some plan and they just think that they got the go-ahead to do it without checking things out. Well even without checking things out themselves, they just went ahead and did it. But there will be more on that later, it's not like they are going to institute it by April 1st. That is what the Minister tells me and I am fine with that. There will be time enough to fight that battle on another note.
Just with that, a day doesn't go by, Mr. Minister, that I don't get a fax or a letter or an e-mail from somebody having problems with their houses. In this case it has to do with getting a loan for repairs. This person says, hey, they are just treating us like beaver pelts. It's not what we are worth but about how much money they can get out of us. That is how our whole focus has changed away from social housing, and people do not really understand what is going on, especially when a lot of the fault is through the Housing Corporation. The people are still blaming it on faulty construction, and there was already an inspector inspecting my house and now that it is broken down within five years, how come I am expected to pay for it. I have told them right up front that it is the corporation's fault.
That leads me to my other point, Mr. Chairman. What I have been finding out for a year-and-a-half is that they are coming to me and expecting me to make things right. So I will go to the Minister and the corporation and say look, this person is having this kind of problem, but it just dawned on me -- and I think I've told this House before -- that they are appealing to me, is what is going on. I go to the corporation and say can you make this right? I'm saying, why are they doing this? I talk to the corporation and they are saying if that person has a problem, why don't they talk to their local manager and use the system? I say, well, that kind of makes sense, so I go check with the people and what is going on is that it's not really an appeal process if you are going to talk to the person that said no to you in the first place. What kind of an appeal system is that?
I think I have brought it up before. I said our Housing Corporation Act is very old, it's from about 1978. I think that it is really time to revisit it. I am sincere about this. We have to revisit it, restructure it and ensure that there is a responsible, independent appeal process somewhere where people can go. In fact, we have been beating up on ECE pretty good here, but they have an appeal process that works and if we have something like that with our Housing Corporation, that would go a long ways for our clients and for our constituents knowing they did everything they could to right a wrong; exhausted every possibility to right their wrong. That's all they want and expect, that we look at what has been wrong and go through it thoroughly. Like in this case, this person was on the right track getting things done and then, for whatever reason, we changed ministries and this person got lost in the shuffle and they contacted me again to say what's happening with my roof, it's rotten. I thought we had a solution and now we have to start all over again. That's really frustrating because that person does indeed have to start over again right from filling out their application and all the way down.
I'd just like to tell the corporation, aside from this issue, I just wanted to point out the real people and the real issues they're frustrated with. Things will be a lot better, I think, if we institute some kind of appeal program. The Yukon Housing Corporation, in fact, when they redid their act, they included an appeal system and it's quite successful. In fact, the way we do it, Mr. Chairman, is every time our clients or the constituents get a letter from the Housing Corporation it says if you don't like this decision please get a hold of the district manager. That just doesn't work. You're going to the person who said no. Why would I want to keep going back to the person who said no?
The way they do it in the Yukon is if you don't like this decision -- and it happens with ECE, too -- here's the independent appeal board you go to, here's where you bring your concerns, and I believe there's even a hearing where you can attend if it's going to be held in your community or you can send somebody there. That's due diligence, that's due process, that's hearing people and that's what I'd like the Housing Corporation to do and move towards. It makes life a little bit easier for the people and that's all we have to do.
Another area that concerns me today is what the honourable Member brought up in his Member's statement today is the affirmative action program. I'm not too sure where the Housing Corporation is going with that. I notice it's visibly absent from the main estimate reviews as a target or achievable goal. I know we're doing quite well in the communities, but overall, when you come to the Yellowknife area, our affirmative action targets go right out the window. So I'm thinking, is it possible to start to put our affirmative action targets back into the main estimates? Apparently, I don't know how long ago it was, Mr. Chairman, we used to have a central HR position and the affirmative action targets were listed in there for each department and when we spread it over the departments, gave the authorities back to the departments, that was gone. Those targets disappeared from the main estimates and the budgeting process. Now it looks like we're moving back to centralizing this HR thing and for me it's important to have it listed again because I know how bureaucrats operate now. They operate with what's in here. If the affirmative action targets aren't in here, they're not going to make any efforts in order to achieve their goals and objectives. It's not a goal and objective if it's not written down, Mr. Chairman.