Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
WHEREAS Housing Northwest Territories has acknowledged the rate of core housing need in the Northwest Territories is significantly higher than the national rate;
AND WHEREAS core housing need in the Northwest Territories has been persistently high and has increased over time;
AND WHEREAS the lack of homes in the Northwest Territories that are suitable, adequate, or affordable contributes to the high number of homeless people in the Northwest Territories;
AND WHEREAS homelessness is a growing challenge facing all Northwest Territories communities;
AND WHEREAS Indigenous residential school survivors and people affected by the child welfare system are grossly overrepresented in the homeless population;
AND WHEREAS Indigenous people represent nearly 92 percent of homeless people in the capital city;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, second by the Member for Range Lake, that the Government of the Northwest Territories acknowledge housing as a human right by amending the Housing Northwest Territories Act to enshrine the right to housing in legislation;
AND FURTHER, that the Government of the Northwest Territories establish the Northwest Territories Housing Forum in legislation to provide recommendations and advice to the Minister;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories leverage the Northwest Territories Housing Forum to improve access to federal funding and implement culturally appropriate housing solutions in collaboration with Indigenous governments;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories collaborate with the Northwest Territories Housing Forum to bring homes out of core need within the earliest timeframe;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government establish a territorial housing advocate in legislation to review and evaluate the outcomes of the Housing Northwest Territories Act;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Deh Cho. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member from the Deh Cho.
Mr. Speaker, this motion calls on the Government of the Northwest Territories to take action on housing as a human right. The motion asks the GNWT to elevate the role of Indigenous partners into the legislation. It also creates a position that is dedicated to evaluating the outcomes of Housing NWT in legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I recognize that Housing NWT undertook a review of policies and programs in June of 2023, and this review led to a number of actions, including increasing collaboration and initiatives with Indigenous governments, improved client services and service delivery through local housing associations. It also states the department will create a comprehensive list of amendments to Housing NWT Act to be introduced in the 20th Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories states that NWT Housing Forum is part of the commitment to strengthen relationships with Indigenous governments. This motion proposes to elevate the NWT Housing Forum into legislation. It also provides the NWT Housing Forum the authority to provide recommendations and advice to the Minister. This is similar to the role of the National Housing Council under the National Housing Strategy Act. The motion also creates a territorial housing advocate in legislation. This is, again, modelled after the federal legislation. The purpose of a housing advocate is to review and evaluate the policies and programs of Housing NWT.
Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT has reviewed and updated their policies and programs. Now we need to evaluate whether these programs and policies are doing what they're intended to do. A territorial housing advocate provides an oversight role to ask the hard questions like:
Are the policies designed to reduce homelessness actually reducing homelessness?
Are the programs designed to increase housing affordability actually making housing more affordable?
These are the questions we want to be asking ourselves, which is why a housing advocate should be established in legislation.
This motion asks the government to recognize housing as a human right and to take action in legislation to improve the dignity and wellbeing of our residents. It speaks to our shared priorities as the 20th Assembly. And I will call on my colleagues to support it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. To the motion. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to support this motion as well. I think the motion we just spoke to is a more general one about this Assembly, about the committees of this Assembly, about us working as one to realize housing is a rightsbased approach to housing while this one is specifically aligned to government policies and programs and makes some very meaningful recommendations for reform to our housing legislation and operations that I think will bear good fruit in ensuring that housing is, in fact, a human right in the Northwest Territories. I look forward to the government's response. I think we'll get clarity on how far they're willing to move on this. But I think these are practical solutions that build on what's already been established that give statutory authority to ad hoc bodies that are currently operating and will give much needed clarity to this fundamental issue of housing in the Northwest Territories. I'm very pleased to support it, and I thank the Member for bringing this forward. Thank you.
Thank you to the Member from Range Lake. To the motion. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I echo and support the comments from my colleagues. I won't reiterate other than to say thank you. Nationally, it's a priority. Territorially, it's a priority. In my own region, certainly I've heard it loud and clear. In my riding and in my region, it's a priority, and it has been for a long time, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let's work with our Indigenous governments. Let's go shoulder to shoulder. Let's get the funding, and let's find a solution to this problem once and for all. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Boot Lake. To the motion. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to add on to the previous gentleman there from Inuvik Boot Lake here to share a solution. So in the community of Tulita, the applicant to the Rapid Fund Program was the hamlet, so they got X amount of dollars. They built the main access road. They put up the power poles. The site area was surveyed to allow for 31 properties. Of the 31 properties, the subdivision was built. The pads, the driveways, cable, power, and as you know I think the drop where the power pole is in the neighbourhood of $8,000. So all said and done, you've got eight units there, and you've got a surveyed piece of property to allow for another 31 less eight is 23. So you got 23 lots sitting there. The main road is done. The only thing that you have to do now or the developer, whether it's our government or the department, is to build a driveway and the pad. So essential to the need for housing, here you got part of the solution with the development of the subdivision that's already been done. So to me, that's progress. So let's not stop there. How can this government encourage another application for the Rapid Housing Program and build another eight more units? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Members, to the motion. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too wish to lend my voice to say thank you and express my appreciation and sincere admiration to the mover and the seconder on this motion. The fact is we need to show courage on this issue. It is an unsurmountable one in its own way, but we should not be afraid to stare it down and say we're going to tackle it. Mr. Speaker, I hope the Cabinet will do the honourable thing and recognize these rights; and furthermore, I hope the Cabinet realizes that ultimately our Indigenous partners may be certainly the gateway or onramp for opportunity here. Seeing them around the territory that they can access funding that for some reason either we can't, or we make too complicated but yet they can be way more nimble and have the accessibility to types of funding that can help. In my particular riding of downtown Yellowknife, that's Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Speaker, we all know it well, of course I'm sure we're happy to travel through it every day, but one of the challenges we see from the community from, you know, the business, from the neighbourhood, and even visitors, they see the challenges of people who are homeless and they're coming here because they don't have housing solutions in their region. And when you talk to some of those folks, I mean they'll identify most of them see somewhere outside of Yellowknife is their home, and they wish they could be there given the opportunities, and those are the opportunities they're lacking. So whether we have a housing once we recognize this as the journey we're willing to take by right, then we'll start asking ourselves how do we put housing, you know, whether it's in Lutselk'e, whether it's in Deline, it doesn't really matter. We have to start and build momentum and support. And I think the real opportunity to this challenge is get quickly into partnership with our Indigenous governments and use their strength, their ability, their wisdoms, and certainly their skills to get this done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member from Yellowknife Centre. To the motion. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will be supporting this motion. I've made a couple of statements on housing, how bad that it's needed in each of the communities, especially my riding. We have houses in Fort McPherson, Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic that are some 50 years old and still being used. There's some houses that are boarded up that the energy the energy efficient can utilize those homes and use some of our companies within our region, make energy efficient homes. In Aklavik alone, we have some 100 homes. We can't build 100 homes for the community of Aklavik so we have to be more realistic and use other alternatives like energy efficiency and just get onboard with the local Indigenous governments, try I'm sure they have some answers. They want to fix the problem that the government imposed on them, and I'm sure they have solutions. We just have to involve them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. To the motion. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do support this motion as well. Wherever we go in the Northwest Territories, housing is a priority for everyone in the small communities. And every you know, when we think about it, every government that comes along, they try to make housing a priority but fails to make any real meaningful changes. And we need to start thinking about the housing differently, you know, because small communities are different from larger regional centre. And to make to improve the housing situation, there is always a policy review. Like, why are we coming up with these reviews all the time when we're not going to make any changes? You know, the government fail the people in many ways by not producing good results. So I know that we cannot do this alone, and we do need to partner with the Indigenous government and other stakeholders in small communities to make meaningful changes, especially with housing, changing the policy to accommodate the people in the small communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. To the motion. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be brief on this one. I just wanted to thank the Member for Deh Cho for bringing this forward. I really appreciate her work, and the Member for Range Lake for seconding the motion.
Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to support this. This is absolutely an important issue to me, and I definitely know it's an important issue to the people of Frame Lake.
I made a statement about this earlier in session about the need for a prioritization or sorry, our need to prioritize this, our need to put money behind it to ensure that the priority is reflected in our actions, and so the motion runs exactly along the lines of how I felt about this issue so it'll be very easy for me to support this. I won't repeat what I already said in the House but, again, I just wanted to thank the Members for bringing it forward. Very happy to support it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Members, to the motion. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too will be supporting this motion. In the last two years I've been advocating housing is a big issue in our riding and throughout the Northwest Territories, and to this day I still got a family member in Lutselk'e that are taking out 16 buckets of raw sewage from the bathtub. The only reason why is because they the homeowner is falling through the cracks of the policies of the Government of the Northwest Territories. So the other thing is that I also am going to be proposing to the housing corporation or Housing NWT is that, through partnerships with Indigenous governments in my riding, is to put together a proposal to CIRNAC in partnership with housing, like I said, but we need SEED money to help with the inspections and put the proposal together. So I got to start thinking outside the box to deal with housing in my riding so this is one avenue I'm going to do it. But overall, I'll be supporting this motion to help address the housing crisis here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Tu NedheWiilideh. To the motion. Member from Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again I wish to thank the Member for Deh Cho and the Member for Range Lake for bringing this motion. Like the previous motion, it raises important considerations.
First, I note that the motion calls for amendments to the Housing Northwest Territories Act as an action item related to the strategic renewal of Housing NWT. During the 19th Assembly, Housing NWT committed to pursuing a substantive review of the Housing Northwest Territories Act. I am happy to confirm that remains the intention of this government.
Mr. Speaker, I also appreciate and agree with the emphasis that this motion places on the importance of the NWT Housing Forum, which is another product of the strategic renewal of Housing NWT.
The NWT Housing Forum was established in early 2023 as a multilateral forum for cooperation and collaboration between Housing NWT and Indigenous governments on housing. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Forum has already played a key role in the policy and program review that was conducted jointly with Housing NWT between 2021 and 2023 during the 19th Assembly. The NWT Housing Forum continues to meet to promote cooperation and collaboration between Housing NWT and Indigenous governments on housing. In fact, it met again just yesterday. It is already doing some of the things that this motion calls for. However, it is important to note that the NWT Housing Forum is not the GNWT's to direct. It is coled by Housing NWT and the Indigenous government and its mandate involves more than providing Housing NWT with feedback. Participation in the NWT Housing Forum is voluntary and flexible, and I note it may not lend itself to a legislated approach. Of course, any changes to the structure or foundation of the NWT Housing Forum would need to be considered carefully in conjunction with the Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories that jointly established it.
Mr. Speaker, as this motion contains recommendations to the government, Cabinet will be abstaining to carefully consider the recommendations called for in this motion. We look forward to reviewing the recommendations and providing a full response within 120 days. Quyananni, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Nunakput. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Does the mover wish to close the debate.
Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.
