Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister responsible for Housing, but I see that she is not here, so I am going to redirect towards the Premier, if I can, please. What I would like to ask today, Mr. Speaker, is: how has this government engaged with Indigenous governments in partnerships to create housing in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Honourable Premier.
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I was unclear if it was Indigenous partnerships or just partnerships, so I would have to ask clarification on the question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, honourable Premier. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Specifically, with Indigenous governments.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation takes working in partnership very seriously. There are many Indigenous governments, actually, that are moving into doing housing projects. I will give an example of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation who, in the last Assembly, actually did a partnership with the Housing Corporation. The Inuvialuit Corporation received funding from the federal government. They worked closely with the NWT Housing Corporation to define the housing needs of people in their region. Then both the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and NWT Housing Corporation worked together in making sure the project was on the ground.
This government is committed to doing more and more partnerships like that. The previous government had always felt, in fairness, that the money should come through the GNWT to allocate to Indigenous governments to have control over the housing, make sure the needs were being met, et cetera. This government is taking a different stance. We have already talked to the federal government in that we are actually totally fine in actually advocating if the federal government gives the housing money to the Indigenous governments, that we will work with them either on their own or if they want our support.
It is not about competition. This is about getting houses in the North. We need to stop any kind of competition that that means and keep the priority that every person deserves a home.
Does the government have a timeline of when they would like to put together housing plans with each Indigenous government, and is there a desire to do one specifically and independently with each Indigenous government?
Absolutely. The commitment to actually do community housing plans in each community was a commitment actually from the last Assembly. I remember the Housing Minister bringing that forward. During this Assembly, I know that they have just finished one with the community of Whati. As they move forward, the goal is to have community housing plans in every community, because it is inappropriate for a government or any individual to believe that one size fits all. Every community has distinct strengths and distinct challenges. If we are doing services under best practices, we work with communities, not telling communities what to do.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT currently has 2,800 housing units. How does the territorial government plan to ensure that housing is available for every NWT resident as a human right? Thank you.
Unfortunately, all needs of any social issues, education, housing, legal support, all of them, our needs are greater than our resources. We are not denying that. However, you need to take care of the basic needs. That is Maslow's hierarchy that says food, clothing, and lodging. Take care of those first, and then you look at the higher needs.
This government is committed. We have been going down to Ottawa. I went down when I first was elected. Our Housing Minister just returned from Ottawa talking about housing. We need to keep advocating. I can't guarantee that we will have a house for every person by the end of this Assembly. I would love to make that commitment, but I have a feeling I couldn't fulfill that.
What we need to do is work closer with our federal government, making them understand the needs of the territories are different and more intense than the needs of the south where they have other options, their cost of living is cheaper, their resources are more plentiful.
We need to work with Indigenous governments. That is what we have done in the last Assembly and carrying forward so that we work in partnership, where there is a community housing program that the GNWT puts in either labour or materials and the community government, either Indigenous or community, can put in a portion, as well, either labour or things. Those are ideas we need to keep forward.
We need to work in partnership. We don't have the answers ourselves, but together, all working together with Indigenous governments, community governments, the federal government, and the territorial government, perhaps we can make it a more humane world that we live in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. As the second question was a clarification, I will give the Member for Kam Lake another question, her final supplementary.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I absolutely agree with Madam Premier's comment about how we need to leverage our partnerships, especially with people here in the Northwest Territories, and go to the federal government. How has our government worked with Indigenous governments to make sure that the NWT is getting its fair share of the federal government's very ambitious national housing strategy, which is offering $40 billion to Canadians for housing? Thank you.
Again, in the last Assembly, it was more of a little bit of competition, feed the money through us. That didn't work very well for us. I try to learn. We are politicians. I think one of the Members had said we are not God. Absolutely, we are not God. The best thing a politician can be is humble enough to admit when they need help. The worst politician, in my opinion, is somebody who thinks they have all the answers.
What we are committed to doing: we have already been talking with our Indigenous governments. We are talking about having a strategy, not only around housing but all of the issues that impact Indigenous people. We are working on that now. We are working on the strategy. We just put the feelers out.
I have had one meeting with our intergovernmental counsel. I have had three meetings with Indigenous governments since I have been here in the last few months. Even though some people think I am not doing a lot, I am doing a lot. We brought forward the idea of going to Canada together with a united front. I have talked to them seriously about divide-and-conquer. When we all go individually, it does not work best for us. We have agreed that we will be doing that. Not all the governments have been approached, yet. The ones that have are in agreement that we need to have a strategy and go forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
