Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The clausebyclause review of Bill 48 was held on October 11, 2022.

Following the clausebyclause review, a motion was carried to report Bill 48, Arbitration Act, as ready for consideration in the Committee of the Whole. This concludes the Standing Committee on Social Development's review of Bill 48. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, housing has a cyclical effect in the NWT. Where housing is inadequate or unsuitable in small communities, the cost of housing is unaffordable in Yellowknife. Inaccessible housing, housing in disrepair, or simply not enough housing and lack of local resources and employment funnel NWT residents into our territory’s capital. According to the Bureau of Statistics, 17 of our 33 communities lost residents from 2020 to 2021. Housing plays a significant role in supporting community residency and in turn Arctic sovereignty.

Housing NWT maintains a suite of housing programs, including home...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So as was already noted, last year was a great year with lots of additional investments from the federal government to Housing NWT where they saw revised estimates of $104 million. And so given that at this time last year we didn't know that this was coming, is Housing NWT anticipating working towards the same type of investment in the territory, where they've kind of set that bar and know that hopefully we'll all be able to be seeing the same kind of success next year with revised estimates in the capital plan? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Just further to the questions from my colleague from Yellowknife North, further than just the tendering process, there's definitely a sense in communities of kind of not knowing what direction Housing is going in or when their units might be updated or retrofitted or what kind of the future of housing looks like in the Northwest Territories. And that's not just even in small communities; that's regional centres. That's even here in Yellowknife. And so even though there's not, I guess, a willingness to put out a public document talking about tendering dollars...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 48, Arbitration Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 30th, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

Bill 48 replaces the existing Arbitration Act with a more modern law modelled after the Uniform Arbitration Act of 2016. This update is to modernize old arbitration legislation and bring it in line with international best practices. Committee received no submissions from the public on Bill 48.

On October 5th, 2022, the standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of...

I'll ask more if you let me.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that calculation that the Minister was talking about was for rent, not for the repayment of arrears. And so currently in the Northwest Territories, we have elders, at the age of 87, paying over half of their monthly income towards their arrears and for their housing. So their combined amount that they're paying back to Housing NWT exceeds half of what they're bringing in. That means an elder living in a small community in the Northwest Territories is trying to pay for all the rest of their monthly expenses with less than $300. And by my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of NWT Housing. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if, to start, the Minister can let the House know how or what portion of arrears, rather, are held by elders? Thank you