Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked in my Member’s statement about the calculation of income on rents and I want to ask the Minister here, probably for people who are in public housing who get the rent assessment, and they go through the calculations of income to pay the rent, and they pay CPP and EI when they’re working, and when they’re not working they also ask for their income and they also get calculated on their EI. Some of the people are saying that Housing is double-dipping into the rental income. I want to ask the Minister if that’s true.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the consultations across the Northwest Territories on the rent policy review, one of the things that we heard from people was they wanted a system that was fair, more predictable and simple. That’s why we had gone from 421 different rental assessments down to 22. We responded to those concerns. Some of the items that the Member mentioned, the EI payments especially, well, EI payments are usually to provide for the basic necessities of life; food and shelter being two of them, and clothing.

The calculation of the income to the rent, the people in Deline are saying, again, that housing is double-dipping into the process here. They are being calculated on CPP and EI when they’re working, and when they apply for EI, that EI is calculated into their rent assistance. So they’re saying that Housing is double-dipping. Plus, there’s the Child Tax Benefit that goes towards Pampers, milk and food, and Housing is also charging them that benefit. Is the Minister going to look at this again to see if this is true? Is Housing double-dipping?

Again, I don’t believe the Housing Corporation or the LHOs are double-dipping into the income. We do go by gross income while they’re employed and then once they’re unemployed, then we would use whatever benefits they may be getting from unemployment insurance.

As far as the Child Tax Credit goes, again, it’s to provide for the basic necessities of life, and shelter is usually number one on the list.

I would like it if the Minister would come to the Sahtu and come to Deline and explain this process here as simply as possible to the people in Deline on this issue here. They still feel that they are being double-dipped by the Housing Corporation and that that’s not fair.

I’ll ask the Minister if he would make a commitment to come to Deline and explain this process to the people in Deline.

Before all these rents went into place, there was a lot of discussion between the LHO tenant relations officer and the clients to explain the situation. We can have staff go in there again. I have tried a couple of times to travel with the Member into the Sahtu, and I would be willing to go possibly again into the Sahtu after Christmas or after the New Year. But my preference would be to have staff, who know a lot more about how rent is being calculated, explain to the residents of Deline and the Sahtu, and I would be present, too, if things work out the way they should. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need to support first responders. I was really highlighting about the importance in the communities, how they need that type of support. Without those first responders, whether you are in Ulukhaktok, Gameti or, certainly, Lutselk’e, first responders provide a critical role. If they are untrained, they put themselves as well as the person they are trying to help at great risk.

Knowing that every community deserves some type of support, is the Minister of Health aware in some manner or such of what type of program exists to help support training for first responders from the Department of Health point of view? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are various programs available to train first responders. The Government of the NWT has developed an interdepartmental advisory committee that is actually led by MACA that includes the Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, and Health and Social Services. We are looking at all of the various areas to see what would be the best way to provide that type of training to possible first responders in the communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, like I said, we are looking at that. We need to cost the whole project out. It would be a fairly expensive proposition, because inside the first responders, we are also talking about how we get to the individual, and that would mean ground ambulance. We are

also talking about remote areas where it’s not coming by highway and how we’re going to be able to respond to that as well.

We need to examine this. We need to develop some cost implications to our decisions and then move forward from there. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I look for clarification on the official record from the Minister. By all means, I really hope I’m wrong on this particular case, but I have been informed that community health nurses at their health stations have no ability to leave their station to provide health care if there’s an incident on the highway or within close proximity. Maybe the Minister could help shed some light on that particular case. If it is a rumour out there or misinterpretation, maybe he can help put that to rest. The fact is we want to make sure people are helping.

Are nurses hamstrung or nurse practitioners not allowed to offer services and help in incidences? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that is an issue, there is no doubt about it. We don’t have the nurses that can go out to a site. If there is an accident or anything right now, the nurses are not the people that end up at the site. I think it has happened in the past, but there are some barriers to nurses going out, leaving their stations to go out to an accident site or a location or to somebody who may be very sick. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been quite fortunate as I’ve grown up and had many courses and training, and offered training as an instructor for first response types of techniques. I have even had the few occasions of waiting out in the Mackenzie to help people who have been in serious jeopardy. But I couldn’t have done that without these types of skills through St. John Ambulance and Royal Life Saving Society and many other types of support mechanisms along the way. The reason I describe it that way is, without that type of support and confidence, you can’t just do that.

What can the Health Minister do today and not allow this problem be governed by committee, because we all know what that means. What can the Minister do today to help support small communities who have equipment, who want to do the right thing? Let’s see how we can empower them. What type of leadership can the Minister provide on this issue? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, this particular situation has occurred recently and has occurred in the past. We’ve responded to it in various ways. Right now there is no actual requirement for a nurse to go out and go onto the

site of an accident, for example. We will, as a department, deal with this situation, because we would like to be able to respond as well. This is why we are looking at a possible way of trying to develop some first responders in the community that can do that work for us. We will work with the authorities and give direction to the authorities to work with our interdepartmental advisory committee to be able to do that. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on the idea of transitional housing for our small and remote communities. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, firstly, to explain the purpose of the one-year residency requirement to access housing programs. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure if the Member is referring to one year to access public housing programs or the home ownership program. I am pretty sure the Public Housing Program, the residency requirement is set by the LHOs. As far as the home ownership program, that is set by the NWT Housing Corporation. That is set so we could have long-term Northerners be first in line for accessing some of our programs. So if somebody moves here a month before one of the programs, they would have to wait for a year before accessing any of the home ownership programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I think a guideline like that certainly works well in a larger community where people are on a waiting list. It probably has happened in the past where people did get bumped by somebody new moving in. That really makes sense there, but for people returning to and coming to live in the smaller communities where housing is scarce or there is none, that same one-year residency requirement just doesn’t work, because there are no homes there. We are expecting them to perhaps couch surf for a year until they become eligible to come back.

Will the Housing Corporation look at this idea on providing transitional housing for people returning to small and remote communities? Thank you.