Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank the Members for sharing their concerns and issues pertaining to this particular motion. These issues and concerns were addressed by the social program that we met with earlier last week. And we made a commitment to go back to the House and also to the committee in six months’ time to identify where the progress is at with the short-term/long-term action plan that’s been developed by the people from the community.
Mr. Speaker, just to highlight what’s been taking place pertaining to this motion, September ’07 is when it all started with identifying concerns and issues from our trips to the communities. As Members have shared in this House through various avenues, we’ve heard concerns, so we took immediate steps with my department and the Housing Corporation to find solutions to these issues.
We did conduct meetings in the communities at the regional level in September 2007, November 2007
and December. We did form committee representatives of ECE, Housing Corporation, local housing authorities, chairpersons of each housing authority and also the community reps and tenant relations officers, as well. So there were a variety of parties that were involved in the discussion. The group also met just last month to develop an action plan on long-term and short-term goals.
Those action plans came from the grassroots people, the people who are involved with the issues at hand. They’re the ones giving us the feedback to say these are the issues we need to deal with. They’re giving us solutions to work these challenges that we’re faced with.
Mr. Speaker, like any other projects that we take on or transfer assignments, we go through growing pains. It takes time to take on the new initiatives and make it work. We’ve been through so many initiatives in the past, transferring assignments and projects, and this is not the first time we’re going through this. It’s been two years, and it’s still a work in progress. We are faced with challenges. We’re aware of that. The community reps have identified it. That’s why we developed these plans.
The arrears that some Members have highlighted, as well as at the community level, were there before the transfer assignment, the transfer of the program. So we can’t say this created more arrears in the community. They were there before the transfer.
Also, just moving forward on this, I think we should be given the opportunity to initiate this short-term/long-term action plan with the community representatives, the LHOs, the client service officers in the communities, the regional reps, because I’m sure we fully believe they can make it work. They’re the ones who are the eyes and ears of our departments, both my department of ECE and also the Housing Corporation. We are continually closely working with them.
I see this as building on our relationship that we have in the community. We are continuing to build on the positive working relationships that we have with our department and directly with the communities.
Continuing on the working relationship also with the Members, I very much appreciate, myself and Mr. Miltenberger, getting input and feedback from them on identifying possible or potential solutions to challenges or problems we are faced with on a day-to-day basis at the community level.
Mr. Speaker, I won’t take much time, but I think one of the areas that the committee identified was a huge communication breakdown between the organizations, between agencies. There is a plan in place to deal with that communication. That’s probably where assessment and individuals not
sure where to go to…. That has been an issue in the communities. We are making progress on that.
As we speak, the short-term action plan is currently being worked on, and we are making progress towards that. Now we need to identify long-term goals and objectives at the community level.