Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I raise earlier this sitting that many elders are having difficult time with significant debts to the Housing Corporation for many, many years ago. In many cases, the elders are not aware of why the debt is owed. The Housing Corporation is in many cases garnishing their income which means the Housing Corporation takes a significant chunk of every modest paycheque they make. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to direct her officials to immediately enter a stay of execution of existing garnishee orders registered against elders by the Housing Corporation so they can keep more of what little they already make until such time as her officials can develop a program to allow people to apply for forgiveness of their housing debts? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm thank you to the Member for the question as well. And I'm assuming that these are debts that are for homeownership and that we had established these units these were access units and 15year agreements that were established over 20 years ago. That was an agreement that we did have with CMHC at that time. I'd have to follow up with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's also arrears for housing public unit. So can the Minister commit to working with integrated service delivery to ensure that low income families at risk of evictions are fast tracked to the support and services they need, which includes access to legal aid programs, financial plan, and childcare, career and employment support, healthy living and healthy choices. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question as well. And I just wanted to speak about the community housing support worker that we did have in the Member's riding as it was a pilot project a couple of years ago. And we are still interested in reestablishing that program because it was quite successful. But that is followed up with the Tlicho housing working group where Housing is participating. I will request a further update on where this position is because it's exactly what the Member is requesting is something like integrated case management wraparound services. And this is exactly the responsibility of this position. It would greatly support her riding or her community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this is regarding the bilateral agreement. So Mr. Speaker, many of our Indigenous governments have a keen interest in increasing the housing stock of their regions and communities. In its new mandate, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation commits to pursuing government to government relations with Indigenous government as she mentioned. This is a welcomed change towards developing bilateral relationships. Most of our Indigenous government are very interested in taking responsibility and taking over housing assets from the GNWT. I want to ask the Minister, what is the framework currently being used to transfer housing stock from the GNWT to Indigenous governments? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. Indigenous partnership is a priority that I do have within the portfolio, and we have made great success in developing those relationships. And this year we had signed an MOU, a memorandum of understanding with the Tlicho government in regards to housing for us to better support and come up with stronger solutions and also lobby the federal government for addressing the housing crisis in the Member's region as well. And I'm just looking forward to providing the Member with a further update on the meeting that was just recently had in September. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final short supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, with that in mind that she just mentioned, you know, to have a relationship with the Indigenous government, then what I would like to see this government do, then, is transfer the 14 units that the Tlicho government are asking for, I would like to see that happen. You know, if they're going to continue have a good working relationship with the Indigenous government. So the federal government seems interested in supporting housing stocks being transferred to Indigenous governments. Is the GNWT receiving assistance in facilitating these transfers? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our recent bilateral that we did have with the Tlicho, there was mention of the 13 units, but it was not on the agenda. The Tlicho government did receive distinctionbased funding as well, and they were looking at housing delivery coming into the community but also looking of housing repair. We do have the working table with the Tlicho government, and I don't have a further update on what their priorities are at that table. But Housing is working with them very closely to address the housing needs in the Tlicho region. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral question. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
