Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for recognizing me again. This time my questions are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. In an exchange last week with my colleague from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, I was left somewhat confused about whether the every-five-year community housing survey would be completed in 2019. So my question is: will that community housing survey take place in 2019? Thank you.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the work that the NWT Housing Corporation has done over the last few years, as the Minister responsible, I feel that it is important to try to get that work done and completed and put all our resources and efforts into the programs I had mentioned since session has started, to get it done. We can go ahead with the survey, but I feel that, with the questions that I have been answering in the House here, priorities also should be put on getting some of these people into housing rather than getting a survey completed; but we'll work with the Members and work with the department to come up with a plan moving forward.
We are also going through a strategic renewal within the NWT Housing Corporation, and want to keep Members updated on that. I feel where we are right now, and the work that we're doing and building of our partnerships with different stakeholders across the Northwest Territories, we are on the right track. The previous survey did give us a lot of information that has set us in the right direction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I just want to make sure that we're doing an apples-to-apples comparison. So on the Stats NWT website, there is a list of NWT community surveys that have taken place back to 2000, and what happens is the NWT Bureau of Statistics staff collects the information about housing conditions and produces this report every five years. Is this report going to be completed in 2019?
I will ensure that our NWT Housing Corporation President-CEO does get in touch with the Bureau of Statistics to determine whether that survey is going to be completed this year or not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I will get back to the Member on that question.
This isn't an esoteric point. If we don't measure core housing need and determine which communities need which segments of core housing addressed, then we're going to jeopardize our federal funding. This is the baseline measure used across the country for determining core housing need, and so I appreciate the Minister's commitment to get back to me. I want to underline how important it is to have this proper statistical survey done next year. That was a comment.
I will take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
