Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my questions to the Minister of the Housing Corporation, it was really gratifying for myself to attend the discussions held in Deline with the Deline Got'ine Government and the NWT Housing Corporation staff as well as the invited representative of the CMHC. Discussions were held comparing programs available and the needs of the communities, concluding with action plans. My first question: with the winter road affordable travel season upon us in the Sahtu, is the NWT Housing Corporation planning similar community planning sessions in other Sahtu communities compared to sessions we had in Deline in October? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, we want to work with the Member and the leadership within the Sahtu region to identify some of these core needs. As I mentioned, I did table a document yesterday that shows that we are doing a variety of initiatives and programs throughout the Northwest Territories to address our core needs right across the Northwest Territories. We did send staff in to Deline. We are working with Deline right now on a community housing plan that will help identify the priorities that are needed for that community. We are more than willing to work with all of our Indigenous governments and communities across the Northwest Territories so that, at the end of the day, we do have community housing plans for every community in the Northwest Territories. I am committed and willing to work with the Member and the leadership from the Sahtu. I know we are looking at having some meetings in early April, and I am committed to looking to see if we can do a little tour, give a little information.
As I have said in this House, as well, we are looking at doing an Indigenous housing summit here in Yellowknife, and we will be inviting leadership as well as administration to come attend that meeting so that we can give the information out but to also hear some of the concerns from our leaders and our community members as we move forward in our housing strategy. I look forward to working with the Member to address those.
Thanks to the Minister for that reply and that commitment. That is very gratifying to hear. When I review some of the programs available in designing a home, I come to realize that there are many options of energy-efficient programs. Will the Minister commit to providing some information on, say for example, showcasing a home with the energy-efficient programs offered by the Arctic Energy Alliance, as well as the programs designed for the Housing Corporation, so that the end result would be a nice product that is low in energy cost and designing that home with the local corporations?
Definitely. That is one of our priorities and one of the things that we do want to address. With public housing units, obviously, the NWT Housing Corporation also takes care of some of the utility costs, and anything that can help us reduce the costs in terms of energy efficiency, that money will go into more programs and services within the NWT Housing Corporation.
We want to work with our leadership. A good example is with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, and this is something that we will highlight. Any programs that we do have within the NWT Housing Corporation, we will be addressing them. We will be sharing them. We will be educating our leaders and our communities during that Indigenous Housing Summit, and we will make sure that all of that information is given out to our leaders and our partners and stakeholders.
Thanks to the Minister for that reply. My next question is: the Housing Corporation has a secured 10-year strategy. As part of that discussion on taking that strategy and applying it to some of the Sahtu communities or all of the Sahtu communities, and the other communities, for that matter, will that strategy be passed on to the other communities over the territory?
As the Member knows, and it has been said in this House, it was said in the sessional speech, we do have a national housing strategy, and the funding that we did receive in that, collectively within the federal and territorial government, is going to be $140 million over the next 10 years.
On top of that, as we mentioned, we also did make an announcement of the co-investment fund where we did get a carve-out of $60 million. That is very flexible in how we run that program. That program, in particular, we have been really sharing with our leadership and our partners. We are trying to get that funding out to all of our partners across the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to share that. That is something that we will highlight during our summit as well. If we do get into the Sahtu region, if we do a tour, we will share that information.
We are working with CMHC, as well, with their SEED funding to address getting some proposals brought forward, but I am willing to work with the Member and his region, as well as the leadership, on getting this information out to all communities across the Northwest Territories.
I thank the Member for bringing up these very informative programs that we need to address. We have about eight months left in this government, and the more contribution agreements that we can get signed, the more deals that we can get signed in terms of working with the partners to address the housing need, I am definitely in strong support.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In conclusion here, I will just point out to the Minister some of the logistic arrangements in preparation for our discussion and tour coming up here. Two of the Sahtu communities are only accessible during the winter road season, and the other ones that live along the river bank are resupplied biannually. That helps with the logistics and mobilization of materials and planning. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. That was more of a statement to the government. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
