Sheryl Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. Second question is can the Minister describe discussions that have occurred at the NWT Housing Forum to acknowledge housing as a human right. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last sitting I moved a motion for the Government of the Northwest Territories to recognize housing as a human right. Mr. Speaker, I believe that housing is a human right because without housing, there's no foundation. Without a place to call home, there's no structure, no stability. How can we expect people to go to school, participate in the workforce, or raise their families, to live freely, if they are inadequately housed?

Mr. Speaker, acknowledging housing as a human right implies that the government has to implement policies and programs to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have question 3, but I have some things that added underneath there. So can the Minister commit to providing more outcome based measures in NWT  in the Housing NWT annual report  commit to measuring and reporting on the number of houses in core need by community and the number of homes brought out of core need annually. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of housing. Can the Minister describe her position on acknowledging housing as a human right in the NWT. Thank you.

Just more of a comment, Mr. Speaker. I just want to thank the Minister for that, and I look forward to that information. Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER:

Question 246-20(1):

MR. TESTART:

MR. SPEAKER:

HON. R.J. SIMPSON:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, according to the income assistance regulations, an applicant is required to provide a home address before assistance is granted. So if a person is homeless and does not have a fixed home address, can the Minister confirm if that person will be denied eligibility to receive income assistance? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know of two constituents who are in a unique and unfortunate set of circumstances involving income assistance.

Mr. Speaker, there are two constituents in my riding who are a couple and are in a situation where neither of them have jobs. They don't have housing accommodations or any support of any kind. This couple, sadly, is caught up in the addiction process. They decided to go out and live on the land together because they wanted to sober up and, in doing so, they also attempted to get their income assistance. But they were denied and told they were ineligible to...

Thank you. That's all I have for now, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am looking at we could bring up, like in my riding, there's longterm and continuing care services. There's lots of my constituents or the older people that have to move to Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Simpson, or even in some cases, to Behchoko. It's tough on them. So I wanted to look at possibly looking at having longterm care in one of my communities. Because the riding is I know Dehcho is a big place but the riding the Dehcho is, again Fort Providence, Kakisa, Hay River Reserve, and Enterprise. And there are people that, you know, want to stay home. They want to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, I spoke of well, talking about medical travel. I looked at the and it looks like there's a significant drop in the main estimates from 20222023 to 20242025. That's a huge number that it dropped. And I brought up a constituent concern last week about that individual that was in Edmonton, could not be brought back to the North because an incident happened in Edmonton. And this individual had paid taxes all his life in the North. He needed assistance to come home. And I mentioned that his health was taking a toll for the worst. Well, I regret to inform this...