Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that we have received recommendations from the Information and Privacy Commissioner to implement the ATIP policy into municipalities and, in all honesty, I agree with it. It is important that consumers, that residents, actually, of the Northwest Territories have protection of their information and that they can access that information and that officials are held accountable. These are all good things.

I think that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is working very closely with the Department of Justice to look at all of the issues...

Until the details of the National Housing Program are released by the federal government, I can't actually say exactly what funding is coming within that strategy. However, what I can say is that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation does see a huge need for seniors' accommodations, and so we will be focusing within the next fiscal year on doing a total research project on how many seniors are out there in need of public housing, what specifically are their needs, and within that we will be developing a seniors programs that specifically are tailored towards meeting the needs of...

I do believe in being inclusive, and so within that, when we were doing the developmental policies, it did not just come from headquarters. Within the policy developments, we have the regional departments that are actually part of that policy development team. In fact, we have LHOs, local housing organizations that were part of that policy development team, so we have tried to be as inclusive as possible.

We heard the comments from residents who were working with the service providers that are on the ground, the local housing organizations. Yes, we have been trying to be as inclusive as...

At this point, I cannot state if we would be looking at implementing it all into all of the 11 languages. We are still looking at the phase to look at: what are the issues? What are the solutions? We have not talked with the municipalities after that to see what their needs are. At this time, no, I will not commit to making sure that the information is successful in all of the 11 languages. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As stated earlier, we are still looking at some of the issues and possible solutions. We are pushing forward. The ATIP Act will be amended because it is the right thing to do. We are looking at the training needs, and so, like I said earlier, perhaps a shared agreement might be an interim solution until we can provide the training and support to build the capacity of municipalities to take it on on their own.

To address the needs of housing is not only a Government of the Northwest Territories issue. It is not only a homeowner or a residents issue. It is a bigger issue. It belongs that all governments, including municipalities, including the federal government need to have help within this to be able to deal with that, so, yes, we have been actively engaging with the federal government to access housing supports. In fact, we have secured a deal with the federal government that we would have a Northern Territory strategy that would provide assistance only to the Territories. That has already been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Voices on Housing Survey was a phenomenal success, with 1,500 responses throughout the territories. Every community actually provided responses to it, which shows the need for housing. I take this issue very seriously. Housing is a basic need.

It is one of the critical things that we need before people can move forward and do other things for self-development and wellness. I focused the whole summer, actually, on meeting with the Housing Corporation every two weeks, and we hashed out policies constantly. We have quite a few policies that are coming forward based on...

Mr. Speaker I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories Annual Report 2016-2017," and a "Letter from the NWT Association of Communities to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs Regarding Governance Training and Elections, dated September 19, 2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When we talk about accessing funding within the next fiscal year, it makes it a little difficult, as, like I said, there are some needs, there is training, there is capacity, there is equipment that needs to be built, so it will not be a short-term strategy. It will be a longer-term strategy that we need to look at. We have not forgotten the community of Tuktoyaktuk and the issues that they face now, with having the new highway that will be opening, but, like I say, we need to make sure that any provision of support that we provide is done in a comprehensive, accountable way to ensure that the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take a moment to recognize a constituent, David Wasylciw. Welcome to the House.