Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of housing. Earlier the Minister responded to my oral question from last session and mentioned two projects here in Yellowknife that are being are supposedly work of the department in order to combat homelessness. Can the Minister tell me how much money that the GNWT contributed to those two projects, Lynn's Place and Spruce Bough that were mentioned in the return to oral questions. It's my understanding that money was from the federal government, not the GNWT and the two NGOs involved. Can the Minister please speak to the GNWT's contribution. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question as well too. I actually just had the information in front of me, but I was more calculating the units for Yellowknife. That's what I had concentrated on. We have 366 that are being delivered now by the national coinvestment fund, but then we did support these applications going forward. Housing did create a position to be the outreach to talk to NGOs, to talk to Indigenous groups, to gain their interest in addressing the housing crisis throughout the Northwest Territories with us. Working in partnership is a priority of mine as well too. Right now we have 214 of the 366 coinvestment fund applications that have been approved. They are now under construction. Right now you can see the expansion of Lynn's Place, Spruce Bough, Borealis CoOp, and Avens Senior Society also with a number of renovated units that are happening throughout the city. We also work with the City of Yellowknife as well too to address homelessness as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't think I asked about the number of units. I asked the Minister how much money, besides the one position that hasn't done anything, did the GNWT spend on Lynn's Place and Spruce Bough. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I addressed the answer to the question. I said I did not have those numbers, that I was more concentrating on the number of units that were being delivered. I did have that in front of me just recently. I will follow up with the Member as well. But like I had said, I wanted to describe our support for the coinvestment applications going forward for the Northwest Territories. We did create support and a position within Housing NWT to be the outreach to work closely with CMHC in addressing those housing needs and to support those applications going forward. We did get funding from this government to be addressing the national coinvestment fund applications as well too. Sometimes the proponent comes forward as well, and they're not looking for financial support; they're looking for support through the application as well too. Some of them actually do have the means to bring their applications forward. But I will follow up with the Member as well to justify the numbers and what we financially contributed to these 214 units being constructed now here in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to have given the Minister an opportunity for a Minister's statement there when she still did not answer my question or say that at the beginning of the first response. If she couldn't answer that, can she tell me how does she make decisions regarding the homelessness strategy and areas for funding, etcetera, when she doesn't collect any data about the people that are homeless or struggling in the Northwest Territories. Can the Minister tell me how she plans to address the fact that she has no data on who is homeless in the territory when she presents her homelessness strategy? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. I believe that's a different line of questions than what you started with. The next time we'll be a little more strict on that. Minister for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for that as well too. Right now we've recognized that the homelessness strategy is an allofgovernment approach. We are looking at the needs that are specifically identified as well too, addressing the poverty reduction, the food security, mental health, and addictions, and also looking at the affordable housing, and working more closely with our nonprofit organizations as well. This has been identified as a wholeofgovernment. And we're looking at this strategy hopefully being provided to Members by February 28th. And we did have the date that was identified as of April 1st, but I do understand the complexity of this strategy as well and the identified needs. For the data collection, this is something the government has not put together. We don't have those numbers. What I can do is work on the wait list that we do have throughout the Northwest Territories and the significant need for housing across the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank you for indulging my question. So as I sit and listen to the fact that we have not collected this data and hear the Minister explain that the housing wait list is what she's going off of, I think we're conflating two different issues here. Homelessness does not equate to the number of people that are on the housing wait list, especially whether you have NGOs like the YWCA taking and housing people in lieu of the government doing it themselves. Given that there is no data being collected and I've yet to see the Minister come to my riding or any in Yellowknife that I'm aware of, could the Minister please commit to doing a tour of Yellowknife apartment buildings in my riding and including Lanky Court. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to look at our looking at our wait list, that is a contribution to the housing strategy. I said this is a allofgovernment approach. We will have to we are working with Health and Justice as well too. And I'm looking forward to the completion of the strategy as well. And also for the Member to invite me to her riding and looking at Lanky Court, I'd also like to extend that to the MLA O’Reilly riding as well too because Lanky Court is in his riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, before we continue, we've got to tighten up the questions and answers. We did two, and it's been 15 minutes here, so we need to shorten it up here. Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
