Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yellowknife housing is becoming ever less affordable. How will the Minister improve the affordability of housing in Yellowknife over the course of the 19th Legislative Assembly? Thank you.

I'm wondering if the current housing plans for the NWT Housing Corporation include the changing demographics of our population, particularly age, and also as it relates to women, women with children, people with disabilities, and elders?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. Long-range energy plans, community land use, and community wellness plans are completed independently, as are economic development and resource management strategies. Will the Minister commit to working with her colleagues to bring these planning exercises together and complete all communities within the 19th Legislative Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, for the last 40 years, Canadians have determined core housing needs based on adequacy, suitability, and affordability. Core housing refers to a national set of measures developed in collaboration with the United States. Based on core housing metrics, in 2019, over 50 percent of housing in small communities required major repairs; and in Yellowknife, our greatest challenge was affordability. One in three Yellowknifers are spending more than 30 percent of their household income on housing costs. Over 900 people are currently on the waitlist for public housing across the NWT.

Things...

I am always ready to have a conversation about housing, so I appreciate that. Is the Minister prepared to work with communities and Indigenous governments to re-examine the definition of core housing and develop metrics of success appropriate to the challenges that we face in the 21st century?

I appreciate the Minister's commitment to have the discussion. My next question is: do the long-range housing plans currently done by the Housing Corporation account for the changing demographics of an aging population in each community in the NWT, especially as it relates to women, women with children, people with disabilities, and elders?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During our December sitting, I was pleased when the Minister of Finance affirmed her commitment to the modernization of a Public Service Act. I am wondering if the Minister could please provide us with an update. Thank you.

Can the Premier clarify if proper written notice has been provided to the former ADM under the Aurora College Act?

Mr. Speaker, I was lucky to grow up in the North. The North has a way of wrapping itself around the people who call it home, embracing people, land, and culture. Regardless of whether people plant their feet for a year, ten, or a lifetime, their roots are bound to this place and, more importantly, its people. In the North, bonds extend beyond traditional friendships because, here, we don't make friends; we make family.

Yesterday, the North lost a member of its family, Haylee Carlson. As children, we shared dance classes. I was drawn to Haylee's enviable vibrant confidence; as a photographer, to...

In appreciating the processes that have to happen, can the Minister provide us with an expected timeline of when we might see that?