Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. Let's start with the plan for spending the new National Housing Strategy money. When will that plan be available to the public? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As committee is well aware, we have had discussions in committee on where we are with this funding. We are developing a three-year action plan, and we did say and committed that we would share that action plan with the committee. We can work on providing where we are with that action plan and the partnerships that we have with CMHC. As committee is aware, we did have some committee members come to Inuvik for the Housing Summit, and we did also hear other innovative ideas and other ways that we can address the housing issue in the Northwest Territories.
We will look at working with committee and give an update once this three-year action plan has been approved by the federal government, and we will share the final action plan with committee. I think that it is something that is going to be very important, transitioning into the next government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I didn't hear any timing around that, but I heard some process responses. As we come to the end of this Assembly, my question for the Minister is whether any of the public housing waiting lists are shorter now than they were three years ago and whether, over these last four years, there has been any increase in the uptake in home ownership?
As the Member knows, and we did have a chat a little bit earlier, there has been an increase in terms of public housing. It could be due to the economy; we don't know. I know that people who go into market rental units do have to get on the waiting list for housing. We can get that information and share it with the Member, share it with committee, so that we can look at how we can address the issues.
One positive thing, Mr. Speaker, is that we are doing these community housing plans and that should look at the priorities for each community across the Northwest Territories. As the Member noted in her statement, she did also talk about the Community Housing Support initiative, the flexibility that we have around that program, and I do encourage all leadership, all groups who want to work on addressing housing issues in their community, to reach out to us at the NWT Housing Corporation and come up with a plan.
A previous plan called Toward Level Ground set targets for the Housing Corporation to assist people with housing issues. The goal was to help 1,077 households and spend $67 million. This plan is now in year three of three. Can the Minister tell us whether this plan is going to meet those goals?
The action plan in the document Toward Level Ground lists a number of housing programs and initiatives that I have brought up and that previous Housing Ministers have brought up during the life of this government to address the housing issues. We continue to work on that. We want to create partnerships with other leadership across the territories and our stakeholders and NGOs, and the GNWT has made a commitment to assist 250 core need households every year during this period. We have been meeting those targets, and we have been giving that information to committee. We will continue to do that work, and we will continue to keep committee and Members of this government apprised of how we are addressing the housing issues across the Northwest Territories.
I will repeat it again, Mr. Speaker: those community housing plans, and putting some of the onus and the accountability on our leadership and our community members to address that and work together, is something that we can look forward to, and obviously, the funding that we have been able to get from the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his response. I look forward to some more detailed information about how the targets set in the Toward Level Ground report or plan have been met, because the Minister's math and the numbers set out in the plan don't match. I am hoping that, now that this program is in year three of three, he will be able to do some detailed reporting on the first two years. When can we expect that report? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know that we have been making some good changes within the NWT Housing Corporation. We will get that data for the Member, and we will actually share it with standing committee. I think it is something that we need to share right across the board. The Housing Summit that we just held in late April is something that was also brought up, and we really need to share and develop partnerships with our leadership in the communities and see how we can address the issues. We will get that information, that data, and share it with all Members and leadership. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
