Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, the Standing Committee on Social Development received a presentation from the NWT Housing Corporation about the senior planning study. I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of the work done by the corporation. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why the corporation's primary focus is on the communities of Hay River and Yellowknife when, if you look at the projected seniors population of 2028, we have four communities that will see seniors' populations increase over 90 percent? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank and welcome the Member's comments about the public presentation that we had with committee yesterday. As Members know, seniors are one of the fastest-growing populations not only in the Northwest Territories, but right across Canada. In terms of the question that was asked, in terms of Yellowknife and Hay River, they are the two largest seniors' populations in the Northwest Territories, and we do know that there is existing seniors' infrastructure that will require replacement. I have said that in the House before. I just want to remind all Members that we have also invested over the last few years in building seniors' complexes in the communities of Aklavik, Fort Liard, Whati, Fort Good Hope, and Fort McPherson. As I mentioned in a statement that I addressed last week and in answering questions this week, we are going to be developing community housing plans, and looking at the priorities of the communities and getting their input into where we need to invest our dollars. I'm looking forward to that, meeting with our leadership and community members, and I do appreciate that the Member is concerned with the results of the study. We look forward to using that study to look at how we are going to invest dollars going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand that we are going out and doing community housing plans, and that's really good, but there are 33 communities, and some of the communities are seeing elders' populations grow, increase drastically, here. I spoke in this House about elders in the Nahendeh riding who want to stay in their home communities and prefer their own homes. However, O and M costs may be difficult for them, and they would like to maybe stay in a housing unit. Will the Minister be willing to look at adding fourplex units for communities in the NWT Housing Corporation's plan, should communities show a demand for this type of infrastructure before the housing plans are done?
During yesterday's public presentation, we did get some discussions back and forth about the respect for our elders. I think all 19 of us, and anybody in this House, do respect our elders and want to promote and work with them to live as long as they can in their units. Yes, obviously, we would be looking at fourplexes in the communities, should the communities want to pursue that. It would be energy efficient over the existing designs that we have had in the past, and also it would reduce the cost of construction. So as we work with communities and leaders developing these community plans, I would be more than open to looking at these fourplexes. As I mentioned, we want to keep our elders living in their units as long as we can, and also providing those units in the five communities that I mentioned previously, and having respect for our elders, their knowledge and what they can continue to provide to our youth and our communities.
I couldn't agree more with the Minister. Elders are very important, and they are our foundation. I am greatly happy to hear that the Minister and the corporation are looking at that, and they will look into it maybe even before community plans are done, if the communities come forward. My next question is: in some of the smaller communities, we do not have contractors or tradespeople. In other regional centres, contractors do not find the projects big enough that are happening in these small communities to bid on, so we can see projects delayed or not done at all. Can the Minister advise if the corporation has looked at this challenge and thought about a possible solution, such as using the local housing authorities' staff to help deal with these types of concerns?
Yes, we have looked at that. We know that there is a concern in some of our smaller communities that don't have contractors or anyone who can do a housing maintainer program or do repairs for some of our homeowners, and even our elders. We do provide support through our care prevention maintenance programs, as well as seniors' aging in place programs, as well as other resources that we can bring to the table. As we discussed yesterday and as I have said in the House, we are going to be looking at a northern housing summit, and in the public meeting yesterday I did say, once that is all settled and confirmed, we will be putting out an invitation to committee to come and listen to that, but it's something that we are looking at and will be addressing and providing those services to the communities. I thank the Member for bringing that up, because that is something that we have seen and we are going to be looking at addressing.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Minister for all his answers to this point, and I think it's great to see that the corporation is looking at this and trying to help our elders in the smaller communities, so that's a very positive step. During the presentation, and now on the Floor, the Minister spoke about a northern housing summit. I found this to be very exciting when we were at the presentation and here on the Floor. Can the Minister please tell the House where the summit will be held, when will it be happening, and who will be invited to the summit besides the Standing Committee on Social Development? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Once the dates are finalized; we're just going through a draft agenda right now. All of our staff and our stakeholders are pretty excited about the summit. It's going to be the first one that has ever been held in the Northwest Territories. We have been providing that information to Indigenous governments. We also have met with the Seniors' Society and the NWT Disabilities Council to have them come and do a presentation. Right now, we are looking at having the summit up in Inuvik, mainly because, as I have said in this House, we have had a very strong partnership with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. They have worked on partnering with us in our capital planning and the work that we've done, and we want to showcase the work that they've done for the NWT Housing Corporation. So we are looking at Inuvik. Once the dates are finalized, I will share them with committee. Once again, we did do an open invitation to committee, and we can actually open it up to all Members, but we are working with the stakeholders that have an interest in our housing needs across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
