This problem seems to be occurring mostly in the Mackenzie Delta region where we have isolated communities, that income support workers are brought in because there is no local income support worker. I’d like to ask the Minister if there is a possibility that we can transfer

the authority of the paperwork to the local housing authorities and then have the cheque cut directly from the regional office to those communities.

We already know how many clients we have. We already know who is on income support. We already know who gets the supp. I’d like to know if there’s a way that we could speed this up by transferring dollars from one department to the Housing Corporation from ECE to hopefully resolve this problem before the date the Minister mentioned of June.

We do have LHOs right now that are quite capable of taking over the assessments. However, we were hoping to wait until the June date to make sure we had everything set to go before we implemented. But if there is an opportunity for some of the LHOs to maybe take this on a little earlier, I can follow up on that and see if the LHOs are ready. I know most of them are, but we’ll see if the opportunity is there for us to do this. I will follow up on that.

I would also ask the Minister if he could inform the communities that this is going to take place. I believe the community of Sachs Harbour does not have an income support worker now. They used to have an income support worker but do not have one now and they have to bring someone in from Inuvik. Same thing for Tsiigehtchic, they have to bring someone in either from Fort McPherson or Inuvik. If they can find a way to work with these communities that are facing this challenge where the people are being charged economic rent and the problem is that hopefully we won’t have to evict anybody because this transfer has taken place. I’d like to get a commitment from the Minister to inform the communities and maybe have something posted so the people can realize that even if they are being charged economic rent, they won’t have to pay the whole thing unless the assessment has taken place.

That has been a concern raised by folks across the Territories, because Housing, according to their policies, are obliged to charge economic rent if the assessments aren’t done. There’s been an issue getting some of the assessments over from the income support workers quick enough. The LHOs have been charging full economic rent. However, they’re understanding the situation and they do make adjustments to the tenants’ assessments once they get the proper documentation.

I will commit to the Member that we will try to get the message out there that there is an opportunity for those that have been charged full economic rent waiting for the assessment from ECE. I’ll make the commitment that we’ll try to get the message out there that once the proper documentation is in place, then it will be adjusted.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The time for question period has expired. I will allow the Member a short supplementary question. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also believe that we have to work with a lot of the housing authorities. From the information I saw, the majority of the housing authorities are in a deficit situation and a lot of it is because of the time that they get paid from ECE for the rent supp. I think, if anything, we can hopefully work with the local housing authorities and the tenants and get them out of the arrears they are in to keep the residents from being evicted from their units because of technicalities due to transfer of paper from one department to another.

There have been a lot of challenges with the transfer over. However, we’re quite confident that once the assessments are transferred back to Housing, then I think we’re going to see an improvement in a lot of the services we deliver; especially the arrears. There are a lot of people who have been accumulating arrears because the assessments are not being done quickly enough. So we’re working with tenants and we will continue to work with the LHOs, because this has affected their overall financial position and we’re quite confident once we move the assessment back to the LHOs, that will continue to improve.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 9, written questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

With respect to the service levels of therapy provided to clients:

1. How many hours of patient service are

provided in each respective therapy area by the client’s community in the NWT and out of Territory for the 2008-2009 fiscal year?

2. How many therapy service requests are

outstanding as of January 1, 2010, by community in and out of Territory?

3. Please provide details of the established

service limitations and/or caps for therapy services such as injuries, speech therapy, stroke recovery, slip and falls, et cetera, and whether those limitations are established by

the department, third-party insurers or Government of Nunavut.

4. Please provide the status of any agreements

with Nunavut for these services, the amount of billing undertaken for the last three fiscal years and the amount of outstanding receivables related to that billing.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

1. Would the Minister provide a list with

descriptions of emergency funds that are available from each and every GNWT department for residents of the NWT, to assist them with costs related to an extensive infrastructure failure?

2. Would the Minister provide a document

showing the redistribution of GNWT water and sewer funding to NWT communities which includes funds for the City of Yellowknife for future fiscal years 2011-2012 through 2014-2015?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier of the Northwest Territories.

1. Can the Premier please explain why the

government has not yet implemented a residential school aftermath advisor in the GNWT?

2. Can the Premier provide me with an analysis of

what such a full-time position, similar to the special advisor to the Minister responsible for the Status of Women position would cost?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8 on the Order Paper.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is an issue that has been of great concern to the community and to the Member. We have taken a number of measures to come up with a plan to rectify the situation where the moisture in the cement flooring has caused some swelling of the covering that was placed on the floor. We have now gone back into the community and have come up with a plan with the contractor. Several tests were done and it was found that some of the vents were closed to allow the slab to dry and get some of the moisture out of the floor. We have ordered most of the material, most of it’s on site, and as soon as the floor is ready, we will come up and have the contractor in the community to rectify the situation. Thank you.

Will the contractor do the same type of material replacement or is there an alternate solution to have a floor that adheres to the cement? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we had the contractor do an analysis. It was determined that there had to be a change in the methodology of applying the product that was going to be the finished surface. There has to be now a buffer in between it. There also has to be some allowance for airflow so that the system can be rid of the moisture that builds up. So it’s a different product completely from what we were initially trying to use for this flooring. Thank you.

What is the exact expected date of completion of the new floor, Mr. Speaker? Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve been assured by officials that we’ll have the floor in place as soon as possible. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can come

with me to Nahanni Butte to look at the project and, hopefully, if he does find an appropriate date, that the floor is complete. Thank you very much.