Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take the opportunity to recognize a former Inuvik resident working here in Yellowknife, Mr. David Bob, as well as Richard Latourneau and Diana Marie-Jacobson. I will also take the opportunity to just thank the official board members for all the work, dedication, and passion that you guys have for languages. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following seven documents entitled, "Follow-Up Letter to Oral Questions 80-18(3) and 278-18(3): Status of Amendments to the Cities, Towns and Villages Act," "Follow-Up Letter to Oral Question 131-18(3): Amendments to the Cities, Towns and Villages Act for a Hotel Tax Levy," "Follow-Up Letter to Oral Question 164-18(3): Emergency Planning Resources," "Follow-Up Letter to Oral Questions 172-18(3) and 178-18(3): Arctic Winter Games Athlete Selection and Travel," "Follow-Up Letter to Oral Question 195-18(3), Ground Ambulance and Highway Rescue Services,"...

We did see some really good results out of the Housing First Program, and working with the City of Yellowknife, as well as the Yellowknife Women's Society, to address these housing needs, and we will continue to work with them. We have to make sure that we also secure funding from our federal counterparts to address housing needs right across the Northwest Territories, and looking at that model and trying to get that model out into some of our regional centres, where we also see very high housing waiting lists, as well as homelessness in some of our regional centres, taking that model that the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in answering some of the core housing needs with a previous Member, we want to continue focusing and supporting those programs, supporting our LHOs, working with our stakeholders, our community governments, our Indigenous governments, to address the core housing needs across not only just here in Yellowknife, but right across the Northwest Territories. We do have high waiting lists for people trying to get into housing. We do have a lot of housing units that need to be retrofitted, upgraded; some of them are ending their years of life. We also need to...

As I mentioned earlier, we are committed, this government is committed to decreasing core need by 250 households per year. We have various initiatives that we are doing to address the core needs, whether it's home ownership repairs, new unit constructions, looking at seniors' housing, we're doing a senior housing study as well, but it really takes a really strong partnership with some of our stakeholders, as well as some of our community governments, Indigenous governments, to address this, and also work that we've been doing with the federal government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, in 2017 the NWT Housing Corporation did seek feedback from the residents and our stakeholders through our housing engagement survey. We did hear from our residents on what is needed in all of our communities. Further, specific actions to address core needs were detailed in the Towards Level Ground publication, which also includes costs by initiative. This government is committed to decreasing core need by 250 households per year, and each initiative developed under the Strategic Renewal of the NWT Housing Corporation is intended to address the core...

As the Member notes, we do have a very big mandate to address and work on and we have made that commitment as the government to get those mandate commitments done. I know that the Government of Canada has worked on a youth council, and that's something new that they have addressed this year. We are working on a mandate commitments as well as the general business of government, so it's when we are giving new direction on something like a youth council or policy. I mean, our priorities are making sure that we focus on our mandate commitments that we made at the beginning of this 18th Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree that the Youth Parliament is an exciting opportunity for young people to become engaged and involved in politics. I think we had a really good opportunity to see that during the most recent Youth Parliament.

Beyond the Youth Parliament, I don't think that there has been any action taken to establish a year-round youth council in this government or previous governments. As the Minister responsible for Youth, I will be happy to receive any recommendations from the Member, or committee, or any Member of the Legislative Assembly on how we can address...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, May 28, 2018, I will move that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Cities, Towns and Villages Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I mentioned, we do have the Rent Supplement Program that we help with our families that are in need. We also have programs through ECE in terms of income support. We do know that there are a lot of NGOs that do a lot of great work, working with us to address some of the core housing needs across the Northwest Territories, and the Member mentions that we do have a family of six. In some of our small communities, where we don't even have housing, those numbers go up, and that's what we need to work on addressing right across the Northwest Territories. We do have high waiting lists for housing...