Housing, housing, housing, Mr. Speaker. It's all we seem to talk about in this House. And, Mr. Speaker, credit is due that this Assembly has delivered more housing money than we have seen in decades, largely thanks to a lot of federal programs that have rolled out to both the GNWT and Indigenous governments. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we have absolutely no sense whether we have made any progress on ending homelessness in this territory, which ultimately is the goal, Mr. Speaker. And I suspect we have not made any progress at all, Mr. Speaker. I suspect, at best, we are trying as hard as we can against current tides of increasing rent, increasing house prices, increasing construction costs, and a high cost of living, just to prevent more people from become homeless, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we don't even know how long our housing waitlist is. The best evidence we have is from the Minister anecdotally saying in one of her communities it was somewhere between three and seven years, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, we have asked countless questions of the housing minister, but it's important to remember that this is not just a housing initiative. In fact, income assistance and the housing allowance it provides is one of the single biggest things this government does to prevent homelessness. In addition, many of the key NGO and shelter funding flows through health and social services. And, Mr. Speaker, it seems that despite all of this spending and all of this talk, we are just yelling and going in all sorts of different directions without any sort of coherent plan. And, Mr. Speaker, we were promised a plan. That was the homelessness prevention strategy. We were promised that plan in 2020, 2021, 2022, and here we stand in 2023, after having spent millions of dollars, and we still do not have that plan, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Premier who is responsible for coordinating the Homelessness Prevention Strategy on when we can finally see the plan, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Hay River South.
