Lucy Kuptana

Thank you, again, to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Housing NWT continues to advance a multiyear capital plan which includes the construction and repair of over 500 housing units. The scale of this work ranges from modernization and improvement projects for housing assets in the communities to new construction, including duplexes for seniors and a large multiunit residential building plan for Yellowknife. These 500 units include 100 new public housing units for the territory. Of these hundred units, all are either under construction or complete. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for raising this issue. The Member is correct that the NWT social housing agreement signed in 1997 allocated $21.2 million in annual operational funding to support the delivery of the Northwest Territories Public Housing Program. The funding has declined and is scheduled to be fully exhausted by 20382038.

Since 2019, Housing NWT has been able to mitigate these annual funding declines with funding supports provided under a new bilateral agreement with CMHC. The funding under this agreement is being used to offset the decline in CMHC funding up...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's something I can look at. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A very general question and openended as well. What are we doing as Housing NWT realizing that one of the priority number one for this 20th Assembly is the affordability, suitability, and accessibility of housing. I think it's the 20th's responsibility to make sure that housing continues to be a priority of this government. And what we're going to do as Housing NWT to respond to this priority is some work that is being done and being done on the mandate and delivering that mandate to the House. So, again, we have to look at things. We have to analyze things. We have...

Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT routinely assesses the conditions of its housing assets through a comprehensive unit condition rating. And these unit condition ratings are done every couple of years for each housing unit across the territory, and we have 2,900 units across the territory so a lot of unit condition ratings. Through this work, Housing NWT prioritizes the health and safety of housing units. Housing NWT's preventative maintenance program, which is administered by the local housing associations, also targets the safety of housing units. Tenants in the housing units are encouraged to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Housing NWT is actively engaging with Indigenous governments and they're actively engaging through the NWT Housing forum. So they meet and then meet like annually discussing housing initiatives across the North. So Housing NWT's new mandate is to place a focus on collaboration with partners, including those Indigenous governments. Collaboration can take the form of intergovernmental agreements that outline priorities for both parties, but this collaboration can also be more informal.

We are pleased to see Indigenous governments take on an increasing role in housing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So for a tenant to avoid eviction, they can do the following things: The best thing a tenant can do is to maintain communication with the local housing association and then show that they're serious about complying with their tenancy agreement. That can be including adjusting their behaviours to reduce complaints about noise and disturbances, after 11 o'clock especially, and reducing or setting up a payment plan to pay down their debts to housing. If a rental officer hearing is set, it is important to attend and tell your story. So it's really important they attend the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Housing NWT recognizes that it is a social agency and not just a landlord. So in many of the communities, public housing is one of the only options available to house people with lower incomes. This means that Housing NWT will, except in extraordinary cases, work much harder than a private landlord to maintain a tenancy rather than moving towards an eviction. These efforts include extra steps to communicate with the tenant and change the behaviours that can result in eviction. Except in the more severe cases, LHOs complete a tenant success plan checklist to ensure that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope they haven't lost confidence because these are local agencies and these are local people that fill these positions, so it's important to have that conversation locally. And I'm willing to talk to residents. We are planning a tour of the Mackenzie Delta in April and I'm willing to have that conversation directly with any residents. So happy and looking forward to it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. We do have policies in place. It depends on waitlists, housing availability, the size of the household itself, the application itself. So we review these things. I don't know if we need to change these policies, but this is something that we can consider and have a conversation with the Member. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.