Alfred Moses

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...

I think it comes to the responsibility of all parties involved. I know the Member asked me questions in an earlier session, and I did say the responsibility also falls on the municipalities and the hamlets. We need all leadership. We need the NGOs as well as ourselves as a government providing this kind of funding to work together to see how we can find that type of funding to address the issue. If anything, I will commit to the Member that we will have those discussions.

I think it is something that the next government coming in in the 19th Assembly is going to be something that needs to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To be honest, we have a lot of non-government organizations that do a lot of really good work on behalf of residents of the Northwest Territories, our municipalities, our communities, our governments. As a government, we want to make sure that we can also provide support. This was the case with the SPCA. Previously, when the program was not through the Department of MACA, there was a one-time funding, I believe, of $25,000. As the Member has asked me in a previous session, we did give a one-time funding.

Coming from personal experience, coming from Inuvik, we do have the...

To be honest, we know that there is a housing issue throughout the Northwest Territories. We have been working and making strides with the co-investment fund that we were able to carve out with our agreement that we signed with the federal government to address housing needs for all of our demographics, populations throughout the Northwest Territories. Of course, seniors is one. We did the Seniors Planning Study. We need to address all housing needs across the Northwest Territories. In this case, we will work with our stakeholders. We will work with our groups and our communities to develop...