Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister for Housing Corporation. Can the Minister tell me whether or not they have a way to triage their housing waiting list, knowing that, in my community, there are 80 single people on that list? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hear the Member's concern about the waiting list, and it is an ongoing problem throughout the Northwest Territories. Going forward, I will be working with my staff and trying to establish a way of how are we going to work with the people on the list and look at the differences between if the people are on Income Support or if they are on the public housing list. It's very complicated, and I need to pay a lot closer attention to understand why our waiting lists are so high. I will be working with the Member going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you for that response. The commitment that I'm looking for is to take a look at that list in my community, where there are people who have been on there, like I said, six-plus years that I've actually dealt with. I know, after speaking to the Minister of ECE, that policies have changed, and maybe they've been sitting on that list all this time, not knowing that policies have changed in Income Support. Will the Minister commit to reviewing that list, going through that list, and possibly working with the Minister of ECE to ensure that clients who are on that list who could be supported by Income Support get some help?
Thank you to the Member for her question. Like I said, the housing list is a huge concern for me as the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Going forward, I want to look at an assessment of the list that is currently throughout the Northwest Territories. I want to assess that list and I want to work with my colleague, the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment, and try to look at solutions going forward and look at our policies and see where we need to amend our policies in order to be more effective in the Northwest Territories.
If you could provide the checklist or triage list, because I always hear they get points, and the more points they have, then the faster they will get a unit. If you could provide that kind of a document that the LHOs are using to score clients, that would be great. It would help us to be able to work with clients who are coming to us.
Yes, I will look at that list, and I will provide that to the Member. I want to do an assessment to look at this issue that we do have with the Housing Corporation. It is, honestly, very concerning. I do see that we have some people who have been on the waiting list for years, and I need to change that. I need to start working with the Northwest Territories and with my employees at the LHO level and start to find and identify solutions on how we are going to deliver a strong program and strongly work with our clients in the smaller communities.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason I bring this up, as well, is that we do have the homeless shelter, and the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation is the Minister who is responsible for homelessness. The people who have been living in our homeless shelter have been there for years, you know, and there is no movement in there where people transition into private accommodations, or anything, so maybe that's another area where she has staff in that department who can look at the people who are living there transitioning into, if they can transition into, support by Income Support, to make room for more people in there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes. As the Housing Corporation, we need to find stronger solutions. We need to find stronger initiatives to work with the people who are in our communities who are experiencing the homelessness, and we need to find stronger ideas on how we are going to be working with them going forward and exercising the programs and services the Government of the Northwest Territories currently has. Going forward, I will be working very closely with the Member and looking at solutions that will honestly probably affect the rest of the Northwest Territories and finding solutions on how we're going to work throughout the territory, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
