Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked about the problems that exist even with the transfer of the Public Housing Program back to the local housing organizations. I have questions for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Mr. Speaker, was the Minister aware that when the transfer took place, that the policies that remained and were developed as a harmonization tool with ECE and the NWT Housing Corporation would also remain in place when it was transferred back to the local housing organizations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the transfer went over to ECE, my understanding was that clients were going to go to ECE, get their rents assessed, and then they’d go back and pay the LHO. But as we’ve been hearing throughout the transfer, there had been a lot of difficulties with some not being assessed in a timely manner and we see some of the results of it today with the arrears. My understanding of the whole

thing was that they were just going to go and get their arrears and… They were going to get their arrears assessed and then they were going to go to the LHO and pay the rent. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my question basically was when the transfer occurred back again, when the decision was reversed to go back to the corporation or the local housing organizations, the rules that were in place, policies, procedures that were put in place to harmonize the two programs, did the Minister know that part of the transfer was also going to be occurring? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I apologize if I misunderstood the Member’s first question. With the policies going back from ECE to Housing Corp, I am aware that we are using those at the moment. However, we are evaluating the whole process and we will be making some changes, ones that will be better for clients. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to allocating resources to the communities to clean up the mess that was created by the harmonization? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, with the transfer back to the Housing Corp, of the assessment, it’s my belief that things… We’re just in the early stages right now, but things are starting to improve. We see the assessment rates, the collection rates have gone up to almost… Some of the assessment rates in the communities are 97 and 98 percent, so that is a huge improvement, and I think that as they continue to go to the LHOs to get the assessments done, then I think we’ll see a significant improvement. It will take some time, as I said in responding to Mr. Abernethy’s questions. We’d almost have to look at it on a client-by-client basis, but I think through the process of the LHOs we’re starting to accomplish that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, previous to the transfer to ECE from the local housing organizations with the program, it was a fairly simple program, and with the low employment rates in the communities everyone knew who was working, so the individual was assessed a certain amount. He was assessed a certain amount, he came in, he paid his rent. It was not a requirement for him to continue to report each month that he remained unemployed or his rent would be moved to a maximum. That system seemed to be working fairly well. It was changed and then we asked it to be put back to the corporation, but the program that was in place that created the problem wasn’t thrown out. Is the Minister prepared to revise that program to go back to something that is close to what was in place previous to the harmonization project? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, having to come into the LHO was a process that was in place even before the transfer over to ECE. Whether you are employed or not, it asked you to come in every month to verify your income. If you didn’t come in, obviously you are going to be assessed at economic rate, but if you came in later and verified your income, then they would make the necessary adjustments. So the program has always been there. It was just a matter of reporting when the transfer took place to ECE, because not all communities had an ECE office and, therefore, we find ourselves in a situation we are in today. But there is an opportunity, as I have said earlier, that we can go back and look at some of the files. We need the people to work with us on this one. They have to verify their income and adjustments will be made. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. They are really about trying to introduce some common sense into the process of decision-making recognizing the need for rules and procedures. I would like to ask, first of all, would the Minister confirm that post-secondary students attending school outside the Northwest Territories who have a need for treatment or facilities or experts not available in the Northwest Territories must return to the Northwest Territories before they are actually able to access that and, of course, greatly increase cost and reduce medical outcomes? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is the rule. I agree with the Member that it is not commonsensical. It is under review. We are looking to change that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks for the Minister for that candid comment. That shows the Minister does have common sense herself and is willing to speak straightforwardly on that, which I appreciate.

Would the Minister also agree that there are many situations that, because of bureaucratic rules, end up costing the system more than would have been necessarily required and it actually doesn’t help in the medical outcomes that we are looking for? For example, it may end up in delays. For example, an appointment with a specialist that, because of bureaucratic rule, is delayed and that appointment

can’t be booked for another six months. That obviously has some medical implications. Would the Minister agree that these sorts of things are costly both in terms of financial costs and medical outcomes? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps I answered all the questions the first time, but I just want to... Sometimes that just invites other questions. Mr. Speaker, I just want to let the Member know that the scenario that he put together in his Member’s statement, it is the rule that requires medical travel to start from the NWT is a problem for students who are working and living and going to school somewhere else. That has been red flagged. As the Member knows, we are reviewing the Medical Travel Policy and that specific issue is something that will need to be changed. It will be changed and we are working on that. Thank you.

The Minister was referring to my first question. My second question, I was broadening it up to the whole business of common sense. I wasn’t talking about students in that case. I am sure the Minister, however, does agree that there are many cases of this lack of common sense, or perhaps a better way to say it would be lack of flexibility of the system. I am talking as much perhaps more of a system, if you will, Mr. Speaker, than the Minister.

Again, I do understand the rule, the need for rules and procedures, but I am looking for flexibility might be a better way of putting it. Will the Minister commit to developing the necessary flexibility into all of our health procedures to increase our effectiveness on prevention, early diagnosis and reduced costs that these sorts of examples portray, not just restricting it to students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, if the Member is speaking about the Medical Travel Policy, we do have rules. If there are rules for change, I am obviously willing to look at that with the Member, but I think his question might be a little bit too broad about flexibility. We do try to have clear rules and apply them. If the Member has any suggestions for change, I am willing to listen to them. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate again the Minister’s openness to approach here. Perhaps I will go through committee and see if we can bring that forward.

When can students, in this case, expect to see this common sense or flexibility brought to the process? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, we are reviewing the Medical Travel Program. It is quite an extensive review. I look

forward to bringing the results of that review to the standing committee so that we could work to make the program better. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier today, Minister responsible for the Executive, I believe.

In having heard from the participants of the summit that the elimination of poverty has to be the highest priority for this government, and me having advised the Premier of that, and it was also in a press release that came out a week or so ago, I would like to first of all ask the Premier if he can tell us just how that will happen. What will he do to make the eradication of poverty a high priority for this government and what will he do to make sure that the work on eradicating poverty is done before the end of this Assembly? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.