Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Let me tell you about housing in my riding. Mr. Chair, as I travel throughout my constituency I’ve heard lots of the issues repeated time and time again. I’m pleased to say that we are making steps forward; however, in some areas we just seem to be stalled. A lot of constituents come to me and they’re really upset that they’ve been refused by Housing for programming and/or trying to get into a new HELP unit or the PATH program, and it’s all about arrears, about past arrears, past issues, and even accessing programming dollars, they have arrears. A lot of them can be managed with the new program to work with the clients and come up with a different management plan. However, many of my constituents really dispute the arrears because they are very old, some of them up to 20 years old but it’s still on their file and some of them even recent, as much as five years old. They’re disputing them, saying the work was incomplete or they weren’t satisfied with the housing, just for a number of reasons. This is the reason why I continue to ask the Housing ministry to look at an independent appeal system.

Constituents are frustrated because the way the system is now, they’re actually appealing to the person that told them no in the first place. It’s just not working and that’s the reason they’re getting frustrated. However, in some of our other departments, namely Education, Culture and Employment, if someone’s not happy with the program, they got rejected or something, then they’re allowed to look at an independent appeals process to plead their case and have somebody review it. I think this will go a long way in addressing their concerns, because I really do believe that some of their concerns are real. They had a house built up to $150,000, $200,000, they’ve had it turned over to them and the corporation wants them to pay full mortgage but at the same time there are lots of deficiencies. I’m not too sure a way around it. Sometimes it could be up to looking at a forgivable loan or else say, yes, you have a deficient house, it’s not worth $200,000, it’s not worth $150,000. Let’s work around that. But as it is now, the mechanism that we have in place is it’s $200,000. It’s $200,000 on the books and perhaps the Housing Corporation is obligated to stay firm on that, but at the same time I believe in the clients, I believe in my constituents that they felt they’re wrong, so we should have a real good look at it and I believe that establishing an independent appeals system in the NWT Housing Corporation will go a long way.

Another more recent issue that came up was there was an elder in one of my communities. His furnace broke down. His hot water tank broke down. It was just last month when it was very, very cold. It just so

happened, Mr. Chair, that he had exhausted all his programming choices. He had exhausted his RRAP, his CARE, every other program that’s out there. He exhausted them all. He’s on old age security and fixing a furnace in a remote community means somebody’s got to fly in and he just doesn’t have the means to repair his house. Fortunately, there was a quick solution. I believe the Housing Corporation had actually planned to go there the next day anyway and they were able to bring in someone to repair the furnace, so they managed that, but he still has a hot water tank that needs replacing but he’s exhausted all programming areas.

I think what used to work is we used to have a seniors repair program and that’s exactly what it was used for, was to help the seniors repair their homes in emergency cases like this. He’s not asking for very much. He’s asking to repair his furnace and replace his hot water tank, up to $2,000, and if there’s a tradesperson around doing work for the Housing Corporation, there could be a further savings there. That’s a missing component. It’s not only in that community I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it in other areas. I’m advocating on behalf of our seniors and the elderly and we really don’t have a program for them. We used to have it. I really think that we should bring that back. In fact, it’s probably something I’ll be working on here next week and have a debate of that nature in the House, Mr. Chair, as I’d certainly like to see a return to that.

Something that was curious was we got a HELP program and then we got a PATH program and I had thought when we go from the HELP program to the PATH program that the client actually builds credit. You know, he’s paying for two to three years into this house and I thought he gets a credit when he actually becomes eligible for a PATH program towards the purchase of his new house, but that doesn’t seem like it’s true, because I checked it out and a couple of clients were asking me about it. I really had thought that that was the case there, Mr. Chair.

As we deliberate the budget for the next nine days there, Mr. Chair, and I don’t want to beat the Health Minister’s record, but as we deliberate the budget today and perhaps tomorrow as well, I certainly will ask the Minister... As well, he’s free to comment on this issue too. I know it’s not there, but can it be there? Can we look at ways of having it there?

Housing and mould is always a big issue. People are coming to me. The reason they are wanting new houses or new rental places is because the home that they exist in right now is full of mould. It’s that black mould. It causes respiratory diseases not only to the adults and many of them have children. In fact, I ran into a family from Fort Liard that actually had to travel to Yellowknife for respiratory problems with their children. That’s what they told

me. They said my house is full of black mould and the furnace just moves all those spores around and around that unit. We do have a bit of a mould program but I would urge the Housing ministry to continue to see how we can mitigate it and best manage that. I know that I think they had a pamphlet, they say just go around and splash around some solution, but at the same time I think that maybe we should have a program, maybe a summer works program and kick into employing our Small Communities Employment Program contribution to extend them for another week or something, but if you get into these homes and do some of this cleaning and help the homeowners.

I did a Member’s statement a couple of weeks ago after I was inspired by seeing Holmes on Homes. Mr. Minister can invite him up to Tuktoyaktuk again publicly. Again, I was impressed that there was mould-free construction techniques and methodologies out there that does not add to the cost of new home construction. That is something that I raised with the Minister and I still think that Housing should have a good look at that, make it policy, make lots of things policy.

I think that when we are buying wood, I think I indicated to him that it was BluWood, this is becoming the standard now, and to investigate that further and report back to the House that yes, okay, it may be feasible to have mould-free construction guidelines and policies within the NWT Housing Corporation without causing additional costs. I truly believe that the NWT Housing Corporation should at least investigate that. It would just help our people, help our communities and help our homes, making every place a better place to live.

Maybe just in closing, Mr. Chairman, I do want to say that I am happy with the working relationship with the front-line workers in my region. I want to give them a pat on the back and everybody is doing their best. We had lots of challenges out there and the constituents as well. We are working very hard and trying to do our best. I think the best example, I had one constituent, after seven years finally got the programming that they want. It takes a long time to work through the issues of arrears, et cetera. But I believe that having an independent assessment to have a good look at those hard arrears cases out there, the constituents and clients deserve that, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much.