Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. As I have asked before, will the Minister advise the House on the progress that has been made on the 10 units that have had land tenure? When will these homes be available for occupancy? Mahsi.
Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the properties, the 10 units that we're talking about, three of them are occupied and seven need repairs. We have actually met with Chief Fabian, January 19th, actually, when my department went down to talk to him, and there are a couple of things we're doing with it. It's really exciting. Like I stated many times in this House, each community has different needs when it comes to housing, so we're looking at my community housing plans. Part of that was working with Chief Fabian, so with the 10 public housing units that are on reserve land, there have always been some issue with land tenure. We've got that straightened out, but what we're also doing is we're moving forward. We're actually working with the chief to actually look at how we can provide employment in his community. He's going to be providing us with a proposal to do a training program so he can train residents on the reserve to do the renovations, and a proposal so that he can maintain the public housing units. That will meet not only the housing needs of the community, but also address some of the employment concerns and the economic development that they have in that community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I really have to commend the Minister for taking some extraordinary and constructive steps in ensuring that, ultimately, at some point, more housing will be made available to the residents. So I thank her for taking those steps. The Minister indicated that three houses of the 10 units will be occupied and seven need repairs. What is the current status of work to secure the remaining seven homes?
For clarification, three of the units are currently occupied. They are not looking at it, so, out of those seven units that are looking at needing renovations, we are working with Chief Fabian. Because of capital plans, we have to make sure that we spread the wealth throughout all communities, all 33 communities, so, in this fiscal year we are looking at them working in partnership with the chief, with the band, to actually develop five units. Five of the remaining seven will be renovated. Like I said, we are hoping that the chief will come forward and provide us a proposal so that we are training community members to provide services in their community.
The next question I wanted to ask is just the next steps: how will the Minister prioritize this work in the months ahead? She has indicated five of the seven units will be renovated.
Like I had stated earlier, prioritizing, we have already met with the chief. We are waiting for him to come back with a proposal to us on how he will provide the work. I should also state that there are six other homes on the reserve that have sat empty for over a decade. It is a sin, Mr. Speaker.
The reason they have sat empty is because of land tenure. It has always been an issue that the land belonged to the federal government and so we could not get it. These buildings were new, sitting empty, with people needing homes, so not only are we looking at the public housing. We are also looking at these homes, as well. Land tenure on those is still an issue, so we are looking at: can we change that into a home ownership? They are on the reserve. That land will not disappear, so can we do like we did with the Salt Lake River Reserve, and can we actually look at turning those units into home ownership units so that people again will actually have more housing.
Is it a priority? Definitely, Mr. Speaker. Every single community and their housing needs are a priority, and we will continue to work hard with every single community to address their housing needs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, once again I commend the Minister for taking those extraordinary steps in working with First Nations leaders in our small communities. She has highlighted the model that likely could be templated and used as an example across Canada. Would the Minister be willing to consider the idea of in the future to invite her federal colleagues to visit the Hay River Reserve and see for themselves just the housing issues that people have to contend with? Mahsi.
As a resident of the Northwest Territories myself, I have always felt that often people who are living in the South do not really recognize the needs of the Northwest Territories. We are often fit into models that "one size fits all." I do not believe in that model. I do not believe that one size fits all. I believe that every community, every territory, every province, has distinct needs and distinct strengths.
Within that philosophy, my own philosophy: every time I go down to meet with any federal Minister, I not only invite them, I almost beg them to come to the Northwest Territories to see our reality; to see, like I stated, our strengths and our weaknesses so that they can understand and so that we will not be put into a box that says "one size fits all," because it does not fit for us. So, yes, I will commit to continuing to advocate that all federal Ministers come up to the Northwest Territories to visit us and to see our realities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
