Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’m going to continue my statement from

Monday and speak about housing problems in Nahendeh. In 2009 the NWT Community Housing Survey confirmed that Nahendeh tops the region with the highest rate of core need at 36 percent. This survey also reveals that 236 houses or 32 percent of total households are inadequate and require major renovation or repair. I am looking forward to seeing repairs completed on both public housing and privately owned housing.

However, in some cases homeowners are in arrears with the NWT Housing Corporation. In many cases it is because they still owe money from previous repairs of their homes. Some of these people claim that work was not properly done or was incomplete and thus they were not willing to pay for it.

I have not heard about the use of the independent appeal process that I spoke about for the last couple of years, and I’m not sure if it is actually functional, Mr. Speaker. If this process was accessible, I think that homeowners could make a case that their debt should be cancelled or reduced. Many homeowners who need repairs on their homes are still in arrears from previous repairs. If major house repairs are not completed, core needs will continue to escalate in Nahendeh. There must be a way this debt can be forgiven and required repairs be completed, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.