Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Housing. Specifically, I have questions for the Minister. The need for housing is acute throughout the Northwest Territories, as we heard, for all people on the ever-growing waiting list, but the need is even more acute for people with disabilities.

Can the Minister tell me how many clients on the housing waiting list in Yellowknife and the NWT are people with disabilities? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I think about issues my constituents come to me for help with, housing tops the list by a wide margin. A person with disabilities and on the waiting list for years, sleeping in stairwells or couch surfing, young mothers with two-year-old children homeless and on the waiting list since their child was born, waiting, wondering where they are going to sleep that night.

Currently, the waiting list for socially assisted housing in Yellowknife has more than 200 families on it and it is not getting any shorter. At a constituency meeting in Detah this week, I was informed...

Obviously, 894 people for our population is very shameful. We have to do a better job. When people who lack safe, warm, secure housing see unoccupied Housing Corporation dwellings with no tenants in them being heated through consecutive winters, they are understandably frustrated and feel that this is a horrible waste and an unjust use of scarce public resources.

So, what changes in policy are being contemplated? I thought we’d done this already. This is going on for years. What policies are being contemplated or will we finally act to make sure that in the face of the desperate needs we see...

Thanks to the Minister. I heard 894 people. I believe they would be families. People.

---Interjection

Affordability issues for housing in Yellowknife increased by a whopping 65 percent over the last five years. Based on a lengthening waiting list, leaving disabled people and young single mom families in vulnerable conditions, it’s clear that the simple number of housing units is extremely inadequate too. This in a market community with ready solutions.

Mr. Speaker, let’s make the shameful public housing situation in Yellowknife a priority and look after our people. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister again. I don’t disagree with many of his comments, although I think if he looked at what our paybacks are with the current interest with the investments that this government has been doing, he would find that, in fact, the costs far outweigh the economic benefits to the people of the Northwest Territories. They’d certainly benefit people outside the Northwest Territories.

To date, this government has failed to address the growing lineup for seniors care beds across the Northwest Territories. As we heard earlier today, waiting lists are longer and...

I have no problem with these funds, of course, going to infrastructure, but I hope the Minister will include consideration of the evidence, which is the faltering economy and raising debt and failure in many areas with the types of infrastructure we’re putting in place, as he makes those considerations. Although we’re making some progress in small communities, housing issues, for example, continue to plague us for a much worsening trend in Yellowknife. We have never had sufficient financial headroom to adequately address housing. Yet our disabled and young single mother families wither on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize members of George Braden’s family here today. George was a couple years ahead of me in school. I appreciated the Premier’s tribute to George today. I know the family did too. George was a couple years ahead of me, but he always seemed miles ahead of me in terms of leadership. He was a very thoughtful guy and always far ahead of us. So, recognition to Carmen Braden, his niece, and Eli Purchase and Andrew Robinson, who are with us today, and my heart goes out to the whole family, of course.

I’d also like to recognize other constituents...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Residents from all regions of the Northwest Territories gathered last week to discuss ways to re-localize their community economy. The Building Localized Economies forum, hosted by Ecology North, was an exciting opportunity for people to share thoughts and experiences on how to capture local, lasting and meaningful jobs, restore our depleted environment and develop economies that actually serve communities.

They showed the combined domestic and local market economy that communities seek is far richer than the global market economy forced upon them today.

They explored the...

Thanks to the Minister. I’ve always thought that a well-served people will generate their own economy and give their returns to government. The recent Localizing Our Economies forum indicated a huge amount of interest across the NWT in creating strong local economies that benefit the people of the North through local food and energy projects, as examples. Such projects need little investment, compared to large infrastructure projects and subsidies to boom and bust resource extraction industries, yet they create relatively many local lasting jobs that return perpetual benefits to our...