Lucy Kuptana

Thank you, Madam Chair. An enormous task, considering Behchoko has 135 people on the waitlist -- 135 families on the waitlist. That's why this territorial housing needs assessment is so important, because we look at everything that we have but we also look at the quality of housing that we have. That's why unit condition ratings are so important is we make decisions, planning decisions, based on unit condition ratings and ages of the housing unit. We have over 356 housing units that are 50 years plus in the Northwest Territories. Some in Behchoko, but many in other communities as well. So...

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I want to be clear, there's no money for additional housing units to be built. Nothing has been approved. But housing still has a responsibility to plan and to plan in place if there's federal funding and if it's approved. The budget today is the budget that you're reviewing and asking questions on. You've had this for how many weeks. We've presented this to committee. We've gone through it. So there was an opportunity then as well. And perhaps President Kelly can provide you more information on what's being done over the next year. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I'm willing to commit to meet with the Member to discuss this further. We do have funding available. It's called the community housing initiative funding. We could work with Indigenous governments or local government or bands to look at some of these opportunities and perhaps advance them in his riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. His concern is my concern because living in small community, you drive around, you walk around, you see many units within the community that are boarded up or that have no windows or busted up windows. So this is something that we are working towards as Housing NWT is working within our community, working with Indigenous governments, to either remediate or demolish or modernize these homes.

So in terms of the question from the Member, we have 293 units in the Mackenzie Delta riding. 265 are occupied. We have one that is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I completely agree that we need to remove many of these boarded up or derelict buildings. The situation is it's hard to get money for housing. It's even more difficult to remediate or demolish older housing units. Our budget for Housing NWT is $500,000 a year. We have 2900 units across the North. It costs up to $50,000 to remediate or demolish a unit considering the contaminants or the age of the unit, the space within the solid waste site, and sometimes we have to ship that material south. So it could be difficult but we are willing to look at partnerships. We are...

Mr. Speaker, it's not often I get a constituent from Nunakput here in the gallery, so I'd like to recognize Sandra, Sandra Elias, from the Aimayunga Women's Shelter in Tuktoyaktuk, so welcome Sandra and the entire shelter network. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I don't have that number for the Member today. I can provide that information and also look it up on the rental officer site as well. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is no policy to not have evictions in the winter months. The Minister or Housing NWT could consider compassionate grounds, but it depends on the circumstance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That would depend year to year. Over this last year, I believe we've had ten eviction orders issued over the winter months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No movement yet. I did ask Housing NWT for some information, and we don't have any updated information at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.