SUSAN LEBLANC: My question is for the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Last week, after changing the rent supplement program to no longer allow a statutory declaration in place of a lease, the minister told reporters that “it’s got to be quite rare that someone doesn’t have a lease.” I can table that. In fact, Speaker, it is not. For example, data from the CBRM shows that 6 per cent of rental agreements don’t have lease agreements and 28 per cent don’t have leases in rooming houses. I can table that. Given this information, will the minister reverse this policy change and allow statutory declarations in place of leases?
HON. JOHN LOHR: What in fact has happened is that before we made our change it was just routine. There was the option of one -provide a lease or provide a statutory declaration. We’ve changed the policy so that we require a lease but if there is not a lease available, we will accept a statutory declaration, if there are other corroborating documents along with that. We are not slamming the door on that, but we’re saying it’s not just a routine (a) or (b), one or the other. There needs to be more corroborating information with that statutory declaration.
SUSAN LEBLANC: This is new news and has not been shared, I think, with constituency offices or the public. This change that I just talked about comes on the heels of a slew of changes to the program that will make it harder for people to qualify but the government is being opaque about the details of the changes. The minister last week said that maybe a power bill could be used in place of a lease. Today he is saying a statutory declaration with corroborating documents. My office wasn’t given any of thisinformation or options. Nova Scotia Legal Aid staff lawyer Nora MacIntosh was given a $900 fee estimate when she simply tried to access the policies the department uses for the rent supplement program. I can table that. My question to the minister is: Why is the government so secretive about how to access this already restrictive program?
JOHN LOHR: What I can say is that we have one of the most successful rent supplement programs in the country. I’ve said this before in the House: When I meet with my other provincial counterparts, one of the questions they often ask federal ministers is, Can we use that money for something else? They’re not fully subscribed with their rent supplement program. We’re more than fully subscribed: We’re four times over. We’ve got a $52 million program -of which approximately $42 million is provincial money -in what was meant to be a cost-share program. I have raised that issue with the federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities. We need the feds to stepup more than that. That’s clear. We’re working hard on this program. We’re proud of the program we have.