Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a short follow-up to previous exchanges I had with the Minister in regards to the situation in Wekweeti. I think the Members that were there saw a beautiful community. We were told that it's a rare community in the Territories, especially in regards to smaller communities, where most people who need housing have housing there. It's a community where it's quite traditional and I guess I'm a little surprised to hear that because those units are not public housing units that there isn't really a lot we can do to help those who may need some help to keep what they have. I think if you look at the bigger picture of the government's objective, which is to keep our people self-reliant and self-sufficient and this is the kind of place where we want to keep them succeeding. The fact of the matter is, this is not new, this is something that happens in many of our smaller communities where there are no services or very inadequate services available in terms of people, you know, they can't go and get a mechanic to fix their cars or a lot of things. Our community people are very self-sufficient in that regard, but you can't produce a doorknob or there are lots of things you just simply cannot do no matter how much you try. So why does the corporation not think of a way to help people who are living in their housing even if it is not public housing to help them fix that because there are simply not enough resources? I mean I think they did fly some technical people in, they tried to get some work done and they needed the Housing Corporation or they were told by Housing Corporation that they couldn't use some of the people that they had flown in, or I think in this specific case the lady who had her house frozen because she had to go away, there was extensive damage, probably where she could not afford to repair it herself. I'm wondering, in a general sense, wouldn't it be better off for the corporation to step in and help her out with maintaining the house she has, because we'll be doing far better than having her be homeless and all the problems that go with that, or that it happens that the house is damaged beyond repair. I mean that would just be really unfortunate if we ended up having that happen because everybody said well we can't do that or it's not within the housing mandate. I think it is within the housing mandate. I think there are lots of things we could do to help out, especially those who are already in the community with their own house, just help them out when they need it so that they could just keep on being self-sufficient. So I'd like to hear from the Minister, what's a way to fill that gap? Thank you.
Sandy Lee on Item 17: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 13th, 2007. See this statement in context.
Item 17: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 17: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 12th, 2007
Page 840
See context to find out what was said next.