Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to rise in support of my honourable friend, the Member for Deh Cho's motion. I think what's significant about this is it's not just an affirmation to declare housing a priority or housing important but housing as a fundamental right of Northerners. And this is very significant because taking a rightsbased approach to the issue of housing would give new clarity to how fundamental it is to our citizens and, in particular, to Indigenous peoples who have struggled with a lack of affordable, suitable, and adequate housing for a very long time. And this is a perennial issue that led to the creation of the housing forum and increased collaboration, not just with this government but with the federal government as well. And I hope that we will be able to use this motion as the springboard to look into how all of our policies as the Government of the Northwest Territories address housing and whether or not they're addressing it adequately because taking a rightsbased approach is very different than a you know, a privilegedbased approach, let's say; an approach that says, you know, if you meet the criteria you can afford this program, we'll subsidize your housing or social housing or a rental supplement or whatever it happens to be. But instead to say we need to give everyone a home, we need to ensure everyone is housed, and we cannot we cannot bear to see people who are unhoused, and I think this motion's very important to start our journey as the 20th Assembly towards meeting that priority that we've all set collectively and achieving a more equitable and prosperous future because housing, of course, is not just for individuals. It's also for industry. It touches every aspect of what we of our communities, of our economy, and of our social fabric. So I'm very pleased to support this. And I thank my honourable friend for bringing it toward, and I will be voting to support this motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. To the motion. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know that I've been advocating for housing for our constituents, and we know that we are in a housing crisis in the Northwest Territories. It's not just in Northwest Territories. It's across Canada we know we are in a really bad situation to provide more affordable housing and to increase housing stock, especially in small communities.
In small communities, we never heard of homelessness before, but lately we do have a lot of homelessness and we have warming shelter. Why do we have warming shelter in small communities? If we had more housing to give away to our constituents or for our or to provide for our constituents, there would be no need for warming shelter. And I know that there are some people in the small communities, they are against the warming shelter because it doesn't do anything to help to provide more housing. It creates more of a homelessness. That's what I've been hearing from people in small communities.
And we know that there's a lot of people on the waitlist as well. There's a lot of families. We have families of six, with six children that were on the waitlist recently, and there are and there are some people who have been on the waitlist for more than two years, and those are the ones that I've been advocating for and they're still on the waitlist. Even for single unit, we don't have enough unit to allocate to our constituents that really deserve. A lot of them just want their own place. Once I know that having no home does have an impact on mental health. It really does affect their mental health, and that's where we know that there's a lot of problems with addictions. And it does have an impact on the wellbeing of a child. And because of because there's not enough housing, a lot of our kids are in care. Some parents, they give up their children voluntarily to the system because there's no housing for them, no home for them. And those things have to stop. And for that reason, I really do support and I'm very grateful, thankful, to Deh Cho and to Range Lake, yes, to Range Lake, for bringing this motion forward that it is it is a fundamental human right. So thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. To the motion. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too rise to give support to this motion. As you know, yesterday I brought the issue up of housing and there were some questions I brought up. Again, the housing corporation is going on 52 years old. I mentioned the policies just don't work for the people here in the Northwest Territories. And, you know, I just want to just briefly touch on that. But at the same time, you know, we had 70 years of residential school, federal day school and, you know, I was kind of hoping that and I did mention this to Cabinet and some of the Ministers there as well, that we're going to have to start thinking outside the box because the money that we get from CMHC's just not there. You know, we got 14 more years left in this housing corporation mandate and but the thing is that, you know, for 70 years, you know, we've been in residential school, federal day school where, you know, Government of Canada wanted to take the Indian out of the child for at least 70 years. And here we are today, our institutions are full, our jails are full, our people are on the streets. We got homelessness. Housing's still a big issue, and it's one of this government's mandate for the next we got four top priorities. So anyway I think moving forward, though, we're going to have to start working together with Indigenous governments and really go after the Government of Canada now because Canada's going to have to take ownership of this problem we're having here today, and this government doesn't have the money. And we're going to have to come up with a plan for the next 70 years to deal with this issue because they're the one that created this problem. And it's up to us to work together to try and go and chase that money down from Ottawa. At the end of the day, they got to take ownership of that. So I do support this motion because of that.
The other thing I want to mention as well as we move forward, as land claims get settled here in the Northwest Territories, sooner or later we're going to have to start talking about Constitution, and that Constitution's going to have to be between the claimant groups here in the North and the Government of the Northwest Territories. And that's something that I just want to remind people of. But housing is a number one priority, and it's a housing crisis. So I do support this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu NedheWiilideh. To the motion. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to speak to express my support for this motion and also the following motion that's closely related about taking action to address housing as a human right.
So obviously this motion would bring us in line with legislation passed at the national level. In 2019, the federal government passed the National Housing Strategy Act, and that committed organizations and governments such as ours or asked us to reform our own housing laws, policies, and programs to align it with a human rights perspective. So I would be pleased for us to do that now. And I think it's fitting that recently this Assembly did decide that housing would be a top priority for this Assembly. And I just wanted to point out too that I think it's important to remember that making housing a priority is more than simply an issue of physically building roofs and sticking people under them. And I wanted to quote from Jesse Thistle who is a notable Indigenous expert in housing and homelessness in Canada. And he says he tries to give us some more perspective on what homelessness is from an Indigenous perspective.
Indigenous homelessness is a human condition that describes First Nations, Metis, and Inuit individuals, families, or communities lacking stable, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means or ability to acquire such housing. Unlike the common colonialist definition of homelessness, Indigenous homelessness is not defined as lacking a structure of habitation rather it is more fully described and understood through a composite lens of Indigenous world views. These include individuals, families, and communities isolated from their relationships to land, water, place, family, kin, each other, animals, cultures, languages, and identities.
So that's a bit of a long quote but the point is that taking action to address housing and homelessness also involves addressing some of the underlying issues that lead to inadequate housing and homelessness and trying to understand what relationships and supports have been broken to take people to this point and how those can be restored.
And I think this motion also fits well with the principle of housing first which is that people need housing first and foremost before we can expect them to move forward in other aspects of their lives, whether that's furthering their education or getting back to work or taking care of their kids or trying to heal from addictions or whatever the issues are. All of those things become impossible if you don't have a home or to have a house adequate housing.
And if those reasons are not enough to convince people, I think it's important to also point out that there are financial reasons to make housing a human right and to address homelessness. Multiple studies have shown that it is cheaper to house and support people on their path to recovery than it is to just manage their homelessness through emergency responses, police callouts, hospital work, and ultimately jail. According to a study done at McGill University through a housing first approach, we can see reductions in the price of interventions from about $20,000 per person to $6,300 per person per year. So that's a 69 percent reduction in costs. And another study done in Alberta found that those who were housed through a housing first program between 2007 and 2013 experienced significant reductions in their use of the public systems. So that was 85 percent fewer days in jail, 64 percent fewer days spent in hospital, 60 percent fewer interactions with emergency medical services, 57 percent fewer interactions with police, and so on and so on. So simply put, continuing to try to manage homelessness costs a lot more than ending it. So for all these reasons, I will be wholeheartedly supporting this motion put forward by the Member for Deh Cho and Range Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. To the motion. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will be supporting this motion. I heard a number of concerns. I have visually seen the state of our buildings in the communities. You go to small communities, you really see the demand, demand seen in a number of ways. There's a young constituent of mine that was couch surfing for seven years and her reward and determination was seen by having her own home, compliments to the community's application to the federal Rapid Housing Program. So those are proven results, and I think moving forward as we enter into a new fiscal year, I would encourage the department and in government to stand behind developing the updated needs assessment, the business case, and go to Ottawa and sell it.
The community and this government, I think we all realize that, and I was quite surprised on my last mining Roundup attendance in Vancouver at later part of last month, here we have a mining company recognizing the need for housing on the approach that strong families, healthy families living in their own home, makes for a strong workforce. So it's even recognized by industry. And I thought to myself that's very complementary to the statements made by this one company to recognize outside of their corporate objectives to mining to recognize how can we develop and make stronger communities. So they voluntarily helped to say we recognize. If there's anything else we can do to help, please let us know. So there's that's my recommendation. Put your words into action, develop the business case, and sell it. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Members, to the motion. Member from Nunakput.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank the Member from the Deh Cho and the Member for Range Lake for bringing this motion. It raises an important issue worthy of careful consideration by this House.
I don't think there is anyone in this Chamber who doesn't agree that we are in a housing crisis and that adequate, affordable, and suitable housing provides a foundation for people's wellbeing and quality of life. I am happy to see the interest of the Members in the House on the critical need for housing across the North, and the work of my colleagues is important and genuine. It comes from a good place, and this is a great start.
In my first remarks in the House back in December, I spoke about disparity and how homelessness in the Arctic and this shouldn't be thought of as an impossibility. My previous volunteer work as a member of the Inuvik Homeless Shelter Society grounded me and spurred me to advocate for those that are less fortunate and those that are homeless.
Mr. Speaker, we all agreed, as the 20th Legislative Assembly, that adequate, affordable, and suitable housing in the Northwest Territories is our number one priority. That priority will find its way into the mandate currently being developed based, in part, on the priority.
So this motion seeks to affirm housing as a human right. The right to housing is the subject of international treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. These are international obligations that fall within the federal jurisdiction. As a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international human rights instruments, Canada has agreed to take appropriate steps towards the realization of the right to adequate housing.
At the federal level, in the National Housing Strategy Act, Canada has already legislated a right to adequate, affordable, and suitable housing as a fundamental human right. In section 4 in the National Housing Strategy Act speaks to the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing, which is acknowledgement, first, that the right to housing has not been realized; and second, that it will take significant time and resources to move towards that state. This federal Act already applies throughout Canada.
And as my colleague from Tu NedheWiilideh mentioned, the federal government is the only government in Canada with the fiscal capacity and resources needed to help realize a right to housing. Under the National Housing Strategy, the federal government has been make significant investments in housing across Canada to aid with the progressive realization of a right to adequate housing. The GNWT and Housing NWT are willing partners of the federal government in all efforts to address the housing crisis in the North. However, like other provincial and territorial jurisdictions in Canada, we want to ensure there is no confusion about the federal government's responsibility for providing funding toward meeting this international legal obligation. So today Cabinet will be abstaining from the vote; however, should this motion be carried I can commit that Housing NWT will participate in the standing committee's further study on this matter. Quyananni Mr. Speaker.
Member, thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Does the mover wish to close the debate?
Okay, Member from YK Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker; I was fine either way. There's another housing motion and I would have picked up on that one but that said, maybe I'll have less to say on the next motion. Mr. Speaker, as unlikely as it is, I'll try.
Mr. Speaker, we all know housing adequacy is a challenge in every single riding. I've been to Wrigley and I see families struggling with their opportunities. I've been to Aklavik, and I've seen people look for places to live. And they have to come to the larger centres struggling asking themselves where are you know, where can they live? The dignity of an individual's journey is their own but the fact is as a community, as a territory, it's our responsibility to share and help raise that dignity to ensure that to help ensure they're part of a working functional community and territory. It's our responsibility to ensure that we be part of the solution, a fundamental pillar that they have some type of adequate housing. And as challenging as it may be and it is challenging. Let us not pretend or glaze over that trying to house some of the folks out there is easy. It is not. And I tip my hat to housing and many of the social organizations that relentlessly day after day after day, Mr. Speaker, work with people trying to get them into safe environments, try to create inclusion with them, and try to make sure that in some way in their own way they can be inclusive members providing some element and form in the fabric of society.
Without housing, Mr. Speaker, without appropriate housing, we all know about the employment's struggle that they suffer with. We've heard from other Members such as mental health illness challenges. We know it doesn't necessarily create disabilities in and itself, but without housing it has the creation and power to have an overwhelming effect on those through stress do get types of disabilities, and those who have physical disabilities, Mr. Speaker, it adds even more weight. The journey is individual as I said, but as the community we must work as an integrated partner in trying to be a solution to these things.
Now, imagine this, Mr. Speaker, if we could all get out of our comfort zone for just a bare moment, could we imagine day to day one of our selves going through this individual's struggle? I bring that challenge to myself daily. Imagine what it's like when someone brings forward a concern to me. What is it like walking in their shoes? What is it like trying to find someone to feed their kids? What is it like I try to imagine. And then to be truthful, I struggle to fully imagine the stress that many of these people go through. I can try, but the fact is the burden shouldn't be their own.
The vulnerable people who go through this, Mr. Speaker, I know it's not a daily stress, it's probably an hourbyhour stress about where am I going to be next? Not feeling welcome, Mr. Speaker; that shouldn't be the policy of the land. That's why this motion is very important by saying let's turn it around and make it the policy of the land to ensure we provide adequate housing.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to stress that the mover, the Member from Deh Cho, and the seconder, the Member from Range Lake, have my support and the community support of Yellowknife Centre because I think this is a journey we often forget that it's easy to say they'll figure it out on their own but maybe they're not as equipped as they are as we wish they could be, but that said we are part of the territory and a community, and it's our responsibility to join arm in arm when they need help. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. To the motion.
Question.
Thank you. The question has been called. Does the mover wish to conclude the debate?
Yes, and I want a recorded vote. Thank you.
The Member for Deh Cho. The Member for Sahtu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre. The Member for Range Lake. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. The Member for Monfwi. The Member for Frame Lake. The Member for Great Slave. The Member for Mackenzie Delta. The Member for Yellowknife North. The Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand.
The Member for Thebacha. The Member for Yellowknife South. The Member for Kam Lake. The Member for Hay River North. The Member for Hay River South. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The Member for Nunakput.
Members, the results are 11 in favour, zero opposed, and 7 abstentions. The motion is passed.
Carried
Motions. Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
WHEREAS Housing Northwest Territories has acknowledged the rate of core housing need in the Northwest Territories is significantly higher than the national rate;
AND WHEREAS core housing need in the Northwest Territories has been persistently high and has increased over time;
AND WHEREAS the lack of homes in the Northwest Territories that are suitable, adequate, or affordable contributes to the high number of homeless people in the Northwest Territories;
AND WHEREAS homelessness is a growing challenge facing all Northwest Territories communities;
AND WHEREAS Indigenous residential school survivors and people affected by the child welfare system are grossly overrepresented in the homeless population;
AND WHEREAS Indigenous people represent nearly 92 percent of homeless people in the capital city;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, second by the Member for Range Lake, that the Government of the Northwest Territories acknowledge housing as a human right by amending the Housing Northwest Territories Act to enshrine the right to housing in legislation;
AND FURTHER, that the Government of the Northwest Territories establish the Northwest Territories Housing Forum in legislation to provide recommendations and advice to the Minister;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories leverage the Northwest Territories Housing Forum to improve access to federal funding and implement culturally appropriate housing solutions in collaboration with Indigenous governments;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories collaborate with the Northwest Territories Housing Forum to bring homes out of core need within the earliest timeframe;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government establish a territorial housing advocate in legislation to review and evaluate the outcomes of the Housing Northwest Territories Act;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Deh Cho. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member from the Deh Cho.
Mr. Speaker, this motion calls on the Government of the Northwest Territories to take action on housing as a human right. The motion asks the GNWT to elevate the role of Indigenous partners into the legislation. It also creates a position that is dedicated to evaluating the outcomes of Housing NWT in legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I recognize that Housing NWT undertook a review of policies and programs in June of 2023, and this review led to a number of actions, including increasing collaboration and initiatives with Indigenous governments, improved client services and service delivery through local housing associations. It also states the department will create a comprehensive list of amendments to Housing NWT Act to be introduced in the 20th Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories states that NWT Housing Forum is part of the commitment to strengthen relationships with Indigenous governments. This motion proposes to elevate the NWT Housing Forum into legislation. It also provides the NWT Housing Forum the authority to provide recommendations and advice to the Minister. This is similar to the role of the National Housing Council under the National Housing Strategy Act. The motion also creates a territorial housing advocate in legislation. This is, again, modelled after the federal legislation. The purpose of a housing advocate is to review and evaluate the policies and programs of Housing NWT.
Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT has reviewed and updated their policies and programs. Now we need to evaluate whether these programs and policies are doing what they're intended to do. A territorial housing advocate provides an oversight role to ask the hard questions like:
Are the policies designed to reduce homelessness actually reducing homelessness?
Are the programs designed to increase housing affordability actually making housing more affordable?
These are the questions we want to be asking ourselves, which is why a housing advocate should be established in legislation.
This motion asks the government to recognize housing as a human right and to take action in legislation to improve the dignity and wellbeing of our residents. It speaks to our shared priorities as the 20th Assembly. And I will call on my colleagues to support it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. To the motion. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to support this motion as well. I think the motion we just spoke to is a more general one about this Assembly, about the committees of this Assembly, about us working as one to realize housing is a rightsbased approach to housing while this one is specifically aligned to government policies and programs and makes some very meaningful recommendations for reform to our housing legislation and operations that I think will bear good fruit in ensuring that housing is, in fact, a human right in the Northwest Territories. I look forward to the government's response. I think we'll get clarity on how far they're willing to move on this. But I think these are practical solutions that build on what's already been established that give statutory authority to ad hoc bodies that are currently operating and will give much needed clarity to this fundamental issue of housing in the Northwest Territories. I'm very pleased to support it, and I thank the Member for bringing this forward. Thank you.
Thank you to the Member from Range Lake. To the motion. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I echo and support the comments from my colleagues. I won't reiterate other than to say thank you. Nationally, it's a priority. Territorially, it's a priority. In my own region, certainly I've heard it loud and clear. In my riding and in my region, it's a priority, and it has been for a long time, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let's work with our Indigenous governments. Let's go shoulder to shoulder. Let's get the funding, and let's find a solution to this problem once and for all. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Boot Lake. To the motion. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to add on to the previous gentleman there from Inuvik Boot Lake here to share a solution. So in the community of Tulita, the applicant to the Rapid Fund Program was the hamlet, so they got X amount of dollars. They built the main access road. They put up the power poles. The site area was surveyed to allow for 31 properties. Of the 31 properties, the subdivision was built. The pads, the driveways, cable, power, and as you know I think the drop where the power pole is in the neighbourhood of $8,000. So all said and done, you've got eight units there, and you've got a surveyed piece of property to allow for another 31 less eight is 23. So you got 23 lots sitting there. The main road is done. The only thing that you have to do now or the developer, whether it's our government or the department, is to build a driveway and the pad. So essential to the need for housing, here you got part of the solution with the development of the subdivision that's already been done. So to me, that's progress. So let's not stop there. How can this government encourage another application for the Rapid Housing Program and build another eight more units? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Members, to the motion. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too wish to lend my voice to say thank you and express my appreciation and sincere admiration to the mover and the seconder on this motion. The fact is we need to show courage on this issue. It is an unsurmountable one in its own way, but we should not be afraid to stare it down and say we're going to tackle it. Mr. Speaker, I hope the Cabinet will do the honourable thing and recognize these rights; and furthermore, I hope the Cabinet realizes that ultimately our Indigenous partners may be certainly the gateway or onramp for opportunity here. Seeing them around the territory that they can access funding that for some reason either we can't, or we make too complicated but yet they can be way more nimble and have the accessibility to types of funding that can help. In my particular riding of downtown Yellowknife, that's Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Speaker, we all know it well, of course I'm sure we're happy to travel through it every day, but one of the challenges we see from the community from, you know, the business, from the neighbourhood, and even visitors, they see the challenges of people who are homeless and they're coming here because they don't have housing solutions in their region. And when you talk to some of those folks, I mean they'll identify most of them see somewhere outside of Yellowknife is their home, and they wish they could be there given the opportunities, and those are the opportunities they're lacking. So whether we have a housing once we recognize this as the journey we're willing to take by right, then we'll start asking ourselves how do we put housing, you know, whether it's in Lutselk'e, whether it's in Deline, it doesn't really matter. We have to start and build momentum and support. And I think the real opportunity to this challenge is get quickly into partnership with our Indigenous governments and use their strength, their ability, their wisdoms, and certainly their skills to get this done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member from Yellowknife Centre. To the motion. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will be supporting this motion. I've made a couple of statements on housing, how bad that it's needed in each of the communities, especially my riding. We have houses in Fort McPherson, Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic that are some 50 years old and still being used. There's some houses that are boarded up that the energy the energy efficient can utilize those homes and use some of our companies within our region, make energy efficient homes. In Aklavik alone, we have some 100 homes. We can't build 100 homes for the community of Aklavik so we have to be more realistic and use other alternatives like energy efficiency and just get onboard with the local Indigenous governments, try I'm sure they have some answers. They want to fix the problem that the government imposed on them, and I'm sure they have solutions. We just have to involve them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. To the motion. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do support this motion as well. Wherever we go in the Northwest Territories, housing is a priority for everyone in the small communities. And every you know, when we think about it, every government that comes along, they try to make housing a priority but fails to make any real meaningful changes. And we need to start thinking about the housing differently, you know, because small communities are different from larger regional centre. And to make to improve the housing situation, there is always a policy review. Like, why are we coming up with these reviews all the time when we're not going to make any changes? You know, the government fail the people in many ways by not producing good results. So I know that we cannot do this alone, and we do need to partner with the Indigenous government and other stakeholders in small communities to make meaningful changes, especially with housing, changing the policy to accommodate the people in the small communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. To the motion. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be brief on this one. I just wanted to thank the Member for Deh Cho for bringing this forward. I really appreciate her work, and the Member for Range Lake for seconding the motion.
Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to support this. This is absolutely an important issue to me, and I definitely know it's an important issue to the people of Frame Lake.
I made a statement about this earlier in session about the need for a prioritization or sorry, our need to prioritize this, our need to put money behind it to ensure that the priority is reflected in our actions, and so the motion runs exactly along the lines of how I felt about this issue so it'll be very easy for me to support this. I won't repeat what I already said in the House but, again, I just wanted to thank the Members for bringing it forward. Very happy to support it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Members, to the motion. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will be supporting this motion. In the last two years I've been advocating housing is a big issue in our riding and throughout the Northwest Territories, and to this day I still got a family member in Lutselk'e that are taking out 16 buckets of raw sewage from the bathtub. The only reason why is because they the homeowner is falling through the cracks of the policies of the Government of the Northwest Territories. So the other thing is that I also am going to be proposing to the housing corporation or Housing NWT is that, through partnerships with Indigenous governments in my riding, is to put together a proposal to CIRNAC in partnership with housing, like I said, but we need SEED money to help with the inspections and put the proposal together. So I got to start thinking outside the box to deal with housing in my riding so this is one avenue I'm going to do it. But overall, I'll be supporting this motion to help address the housing crisis here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Tu NedheWiilideh. To the motion. Member from Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again I wish to thank the Member for Deh Cho and the Member for Range Lake for bringing this motion. Like the previous motion, it raises important considerations.
First, I note that the motion calls for amendments to the Housing Northwest Territories Act as an action item related to the strategic renewal of Housing NWT. During the 19th Assembly, Housing NWT committed to pursuing a substantive review of the Housing Northwest Territories Act. I am happy to confirm that remains the intention of this government.
Mr. Speaker, I also appreciate and agree with the emphasis that this motion places on the importance of the NWT Housing Forum, which is another product of the strategic renewal of Housing NWT.
The NWT Housing Forum was established in early 2023 as a multilateral forum for cooperation and collaboration between Housing NWT and Indigenous governments on housing. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Forum has already played a key role in the policy and program review that was conducted jointly with Housing NWT between 2021 and 2023 during the 19th Assembly. The NWT Housing Forum continues to meet to promote cooperation and collaboration between Housing NWT and Indigenous governments on housing. In fact, it met again just yesterday. It is already doing some of the things that this motion calls for. However, it is important to note that the NWT Housing Forum is not the GNWT's to direct. It is coled by Housing NWT and the Indigenous government and its mandate involves more than providing Housing NWT with feedback. Participation in the NWT Housing Forum is voluntary and flexible, and I note it may not lend itself to a legislated approach. Of course, any changes to the structure or foundation of the NWT Housing Forum would need to be considered carefully in conjunction with the Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories that jointly established it.
Mr. Speaker, as this motion contains recommendations to the government, Cabinet will be abstaining to carefully consider the recommendations called for in this motion. We look forward to reviewing the recommendations and providing a full response within 120 days. Quyananni, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Nunakput. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Does the mover wish to close the debate.
Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.
