Thank you. On May 18th, 2022, Government of the Northwest Territories and Tlicho government signed a memorandum of understanding on housing that commits both government to a formal framework for intergovernmental cooperation of housing. Can the Minister responsible for housing Northwest Territories share the key elements of the framework. Thank you.
Thank you, member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Housing.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we did sign an agreement with the Tlicho Government. I can have that document available for the member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister for Housing NWT share the vision and goals of the framework, how this MOU will change their current housing situation faced by the people in Tlicho region. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intent of the agreement is for both governments to be working in collaboration together in addressing the housing issues in the Tlicho area. The agreement is a is a fair agreement, a considerable agreement between both governments.
We are working towards establishing the working group as well too for housing in that region. The Northwest Territories as well, the Indigenous governments have received distinctionbased funding.
So through this agreement, we're trying to understand what is our responsibility when we are addressing housing in the smaller communities. It is a significant amount. We do have the expertise within Housing NWT, and this is this is a respectful agreement to making sure that we both meet the priorities of this of the regions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister responsible for NWT Housing provide information from the framework on the sale of Housing NWT assets, like houses and units. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now Housing NWT is going through our mortgage files. And, you know, I wanted to make sure that we are able to close those files by the end of this government. But unfortunately, we are experiencing a lot of arrears within those mortgage files. We have approximately 247, and 207 of those files are experiencing arrears. And then 115 out of the 247, the clients are either paying on a regular basis or periodically.
We did announce that each of the public housing units are for sale. Through that, we are going through our programming to making sure that we are not setting up the clients for failure but really looking at their eligibility and really wanting to see success amongst our public housing clients should we be able to sell the public housing units to our tenants. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, member for Monfwi.
Well, if the Minister wants to do something about it, they can transfer the unit about the if they want if she wants to do something about the arrears, they can transfer the unit to to the tenants living in there, give the homeowner, and bring other programs, like home assistance program back.
But anyways, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister responsible can the Minister responsible for Housing NWT provide information from the framework on the transfer of housing unit ownership from Housing NWT to longterm tenants. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I hear the member's passion as well too. I would like to see a lot of the housing units transferred over to the clients. But we are experiencing difficulties within the transfer. We're looking at the environmental, the condition of the units, the health and safety of the units as well too, and the liability. But it doesn't stop us from continuing to work with those tenants as well.
And as of today, I think we've received approximately 150 applications that are wanting public housing to be sold to the tenants. And I will keep the member informed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
