Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and yes, I do.

One of the bright sides of the co-investment fund was that we were able to negotiate a $60 million carve-out that the NWT can use, and we are working with Indigenous organizations, as well as NGOs and our stakeholders that address housing needs in the Northwest Territories. Above and beyond that, we can still work with our partners to put in applications federally to that coinvestment fund.

As we work on that, I think that we are going to see some good head way moving forward, but there is not a limit, and I encourage all organizations, Indigenous governments, to come and meet with our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To our agreement with the federal government, our obligation is to provide public housing to just over 1,300 units. Currently, we go above and beyond that and provide about 2,400 units in public housing, plus market rent and other projects that we do within the Housing Corporation.

Most recently, when we were at the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association conference in Victoria, we did give that information to the membership there and talked about how we are making those strides to address housing in the North. We also know that there is a national Indigenous Housing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ensuring that housing programs and services reflect community values and priorities has been a key commitment of this government. Implementing Northern Solutions for Northern Housing also means working in partnership with other orders of government to develop more affordable housing. To meet these commitments, we have been working hand-in-hand with local governments to develop community housing plans that will guide and support their housing aspirations.

Mr. Speaker, the community housing plan process is well under way, with 12 communities across the Northwest...

Yes. You know, you have got to look at the priorities for each community. Do you want sewage and water, or do you want a nice gym? You know, we are all elected leaders here across the Northwest Territories. Do you want safe water, or do you want a nice swimming pool? If I can put it in that context, then I will. You know, do you want a nice track and field, or do you want people provided with the essentials? You know, we talked about housing earlier today, and we just want people to have a roof over their heads, but, when we have municipalities that are asking for above and beyond what the...

I do apologize. You know, I did laugh, but, at the same time, it does not fall only on us as a territorial government. There has also got to be responsibility in terms of the priorities that our municipalities have in their communities. We made some big announcements today. We made some big announcements yesterday with the federal government, and we are addressing some of these issues, and they are big issues. In terms of the funding gap from our territorial government, we will continue to work with our partner, which is the NWT Association of Communities. You know, like I said, I do apologize...

We have had meetings with various federal Ministers across the board on funding for on-reserve, off-reserve. In terms of housing, we have worked with, I have said in the House before, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. They were successful working with ITK to get funding to do some work, and then they partnered with us to look at our capital planning and our strategy, and that came right from the federal government. That went to the national Indigenous organization. One of the, I won't say the "priorities," but focuses out of that summit that we did up in Inuvik was to bring all of our...

As I mentioned in a Member's statement in the House during a previous session, we did negotiate a $60-million carve-out of the co-investment fund. I would like to let all leadership across the Northwest Territories and other partnerships know that we can go above and beyond that and still put in an application to the federal government to access more dollars.

We also have a strong partnership with the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. We have been working with them to work with our local leadership and our Indigenous leadership to access that funding. We have been pushing that during...

I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Victoria earlier this year. In our agreement with the federal government, we were committed to providing public housing units for our jurisdiction. I think it is about just over 1,300. We go above and beyond, and I made sure that everybody at the conference knew that we provide the 2,400, and we also look at market rent and other projects that we do.

We do have a number of programs that are going to address this need. For seniors, for singles, I made some comments the other day about the fuel tank replacement issues; Rapid Rehousing, our community...

The Member and I had a discussion around this, and, you know, it can be a little bit complex in terms of what core need is. However, the definition of "core need" is a federal standard, and it is used by all jurisdictions right across Canada. The core needs survey does allow us to look at the number of households affected by each area, and, while the definition of "core need" includes affordability, the majority of our program is used to address adequacy as well as suitability, and that was the exact conversation that I had with the Member earlier today. That is something that needs to be...