Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned in my Member's statement, my questions today are for the Minister of Housing. The housing situation and supply in the NWT is getting worse. How is the department planning on dealing with our housing situation that is on the records of getting worse in Inuvik and the rest of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The majority of our budget currently goes towards supporting one of every six households in the Northwest Territories with quality affordable housing through our public housing programs. One of our major challenges is to find funding so that we don't lose the units that we currently have. In our regional centres like Inuvik, we will need to work collaboratively with the municipal government and majority landlords in order to develop more affordable housing.
Mr. Speaker, what changes to the GNWT housing strategic or plan that they currently have is the Minister looking at to deal with this issue as the current strategy plan clearly is not working to improve the housing situation? As the study has shown, it has gone backwards in the last ten years.
The Northwest Territories alone has a majority of the housing problems and a majority of the housing issues in our territory. Right now that I have been through the briefings, I have looked and met with the department, a lot of the infrastructure that is there, the houses that are there, are not 100 percent owned by the NWT Housing Corporation, but then, going forward, I want to work with the report that has already been completed in the last sitting, and then I want to start working with the regions to establish a stronger front to come forward and to start working with our Indigenous groups, partnerships, and to see what the needs are, the core needs, in each of our regional centres.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to being bold and lead her department to try and find new ways to increase the total number of housing units and get people off these waiting lists and into actual housing?
Yes, I am committed to work towards our rental scale and looking towards to get people into their own housing units but also working in partnership with Indigenous groups. I am new to the position, but I am really for Indigenous partnerships and would like to see community-owned infrastructure.
Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to hear that because it kind of leads into my next question. Will the Minister again commit and be bold and lead her department with working with Indigenous groups to lobby the federal government to supply appropriate, long-term, sustainable funding to address our housing deficits in Inuvik and the Northwest Territories as a whole?
