Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. Now that Phebie and David are retired here, Mr. Speaker, using innovation and current community inventory and low-energy efficiency programs would result in improving our community market with renovated homes. My first question to the Minister: if we have units sitting idle in our communities, would the Minister support a pilot project to single out a unit in Fort Good Hope, Tulita, and Deline to develop the necessary applications to various sources, renovate, and showcase a low-cost home in these communities?
Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation definitely is committed to using energy efficiency when we are looking at building new homes or even with renovations that are being done in the communities. One of the big things that I have talked in this House, and I will say it again, is we are going to be looking at these community housing plans, and we are willing to sit down with the leadership. One initiative that we really need to get out there and let people know about is the community housing support initiative. That can have an impact on some of the statements that the Member has said. In terms of the pilot projects, I think we will have to sit down with leadership to see what we can do to address this. It is a concern not only in the communities that the Member has mentioned, but also communities across the Northwest Territories. I also just want to really quickly commend the Member on his Member's statement and for appreciating the work that our staff has done for the people of the Sahtu.
Thanks to the Minister for that reply. My next question is: would the Minister support directing his staff to set up a working group to undertake this pilot initiative, with me as a volunteer adviser to the group, to single out these units and develop a renovation plan?
We have set up working groups in some communities, which have been working well to address some of the housing issues. This is something that we can look at speaking with the leadership and the Member about to address some of the housing concerns in the Sahtu region. As I mentioned, we are going to be holding a Northern Housing Summit up in Inuvik, and these are the kinds of discussions that we want to have with our leadership, with our administration, with our stakeholders, and with people who we have invited to the table, so definitely. I know that, when we do have this Northern Housing Summit, perhaps we can look at having a sidebar conversation with some of the leadership in the Sahtu region on what the Member is asking.
The Minister must be a mind reader. My next question was to take advantage of the opportunity while the leadership is at the Inuvik summit to single out these three communities that we mentioned, have a sidebar meeting with the leadership. So would the Minister make an appointment to meet the leadership in these three identified communities to discuss a pilot?
We could even do better than that. We can get our staff to reach out to the leadership right now. I know we have had some of our staff go into the community of Deline. We have met with Fort Good Hope leadership, as well, in terms of their housing plans. They are doing a good job. We have seen what was on the news recently in Colville Lake, and we want to support that. We want to let the leadership and community members know about the programs and services that we do provide and that they can access. We will commit to that, and we will actually reach out to the leadership ahead of the summit and start those discussions right away.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that reply. I have taken photographs already of the inventory. They are sitting idle, waiting for the assessment here to begin. I look forward to the summit engagements there, with the leadership in Inuvik. Thank you.
I will take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
