Mr. Speaker, I think Housing goes to great lengths to try and accommodate all our seniors and try to help them
out as much as we can. If you look at the public housing portfolio, seniors over 60 don’t pay any rent, so that helps them out quite a bit. We have the Senior Preventative Repair Program. We have the Seniors Repair Program. I have even offered, as we have folks go into the communities, to have someone accompany them that speaks the first language in the community so the seniors are better able to understand some of the programs that we offer. We ask people -- and this would apply to everybody -- if they need something done to their house, you know, they’d have to give us a call and then when our people get in there they would go and see them.
I would have to follow up on that, but I’m sure our staff folks in the regions make it to every place that makes an inquiry or wants someone to come have a look at their house or possibly filling out an application. We have had cases where we’ve helped seniors even though it wasn’t the intake period. There were some emergencies that needed to be taken care of. I think Housing is very respectful of our seniors and our seniors’ needs, and I think we go to great lengths to try and accommodate our seniors in the Northwest Territories as much as we can.
The communication part of it, we will let them know when we are coming into town and when we’re able to take applications. If they were to phone the district office and say I’m going to be out of town, then maybe some accommodations could be made, but it works both ways. I think we’ve been doing that lately, is publicizing when we get into town and when the application process is. I know during this past application process in October, from what I’ve seen and what I’m reading in the papers and reading signs in the community, it was well advertised, so we had a fairly good uptake. But, I mean, I can assure the Member and all Members that we take looking after our seniors very seriously with the NWT Housing Corporation, and I think we’ve proven that in the past and we’ll continue to work closely with and for seniors in the future. Thank you.