Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the pleasure of hosting the Northern Housing Summit on April 23 and 24, 2019, in Inuvik. The summit's theme was "Northern Solutions for Northern Housing," reflecting the mandate commitment of the 18th Legislative Assembly, and its purpose was to encourage new partnerships in housing.

We brought leaders from across the Northwest Territories to Inuvik to share their experiences in a wide variety of housing matters. There were also presenters from the Yukon and Nunavut. Topics ranged from territorial and federal funding opportunities to local capacity development...

We are working on this lease-to-own program. We are trying to get that information out to some of our good tenants in the public housing units. We also have a home ownership program that we are piloting. The Northern Pathways to Housing has shown some really good success already, especially in Simpson. We have one in Behchoko. We will see how things work out in Aklavik. I think we are going to see some really good, positive things coming out of there. We will continue, and I have always prided myself on partnerships to bring better solutions together. I would encourage the Member to reach out...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As all Members know, we do have a capital plan to address housing needs across the Northwest Territories. As the Member knows, I don't really have to inform him, but we have done good work in Aklavik with the Joe Greenland Centre. We did do some renovations to that building. He was there. We opened up the Northern Pathways to Housing, which is a great program. We're also working on a seniors' complex in Fort McPherson, which should be completed this summer. Most recently, as Members know, and we're working on getting that report completed, we did have a housing summit...

I have mentioned in the House that we did get a carve-out of the Co-Investment Fund. We signed our bilateral agreement as well with the federal government, and we do have a great partnership with CMHC, as well as industry, and working with our Indigenous government organizations to address the issue. As I mentioned at the Housing Summit, it can't all be relied on government. We've got to have a partnership. We've got to work together to address this, and that includes CMHC. It includes industry. It includes our Indigenous government organizations, and we have been seeing that, Mr. Speaker...

A couple of things. Through the NWT Housing Corporation, we didn't have any housing clients in the high-rise. That's where we're doing the collaborative approach, working with all the departments to address the issue. At the same time, we are working with private industry. We're trying to work with the Municipality of Hay River. As you've heard in this House before, we do have the co-investment fund that we were able to carve out and put applications in. Those are some of the long-term solutions that we're looking at. It's not only the high-rise that is affected. We also had that senior...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In response to the fire, the NWT Housing Corporation has developed a multi-stage plan to support residents that were impacted. That's done right across all departments. We knew it was something that needed to be addressed right away. All departments worked together to see how we can make an impact. On that note, I'm going to commend the Member in recognizing that the community did step up and that the fire department was onsite right away, and that nobody was harmed in any way as well, and they were all out safely.

Our latest update, the NWT Housing Corporation has...

As I mentioned, we do know that there is a concern. Not a concern, but the available and suitable land and the lots that are available to construct new buildings is a concern, and we are working on that. What I'd say is that the government was working to try to address this, even before the fire began. Even before the fire had started, and the issue that we see ourselves before now, we were already in discussions with the Municipality of Hay River. I appreciate the fact that the K'atlodeeche First Nation has stepped up, and the work that we have done with the K'atlodeeche First Nations, as...

Before the fire at the high-rise, we did meet with private industry. We met with the Town of Hay River to look at addressing some of the issues that are coming out of the community. As the Member knows, the available and suitable land is at a premium in Hay River, and we are trying to work with the municipality to address that, and we are going to continue to work with them in terms of developing a plan. We know that there are a lot of things that are coming down the pipe in terms of economic-wise. It was very unfortunate that the high-rise situation happened, and we'll continue to work with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to get back to the Member on the detail. I did mention that, since April 1, 2016, there have been 183 units that we have demolished or sold. The detail that I can give the Member at this moment is that, during 2018-2019, we did sell 20 units and we demolished 20 more.

We are still continuing to work with communities and working with our residents in terms of findings ways that we can get them into a home ownership program or a lease-to-own program. I can get that detail from the Housing Corporation, and I will share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker...

In the last session that we had, we had a similar question, and I did mention that we had six communities that we were looking forward to developing community housing plans across the Northwest Territories. We set that as the goal for our first year.

Since we have had the Housing Summit and since we have been reaching out to leaders across the territory, we have about 10 community housing plans in place, and we will continue to work with our leadership and our community NGOs. I will continue to encourage our leadership across the NWT, whether it is NGOs or whether it is mayors and chiefs, to...