Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was first elected on February 10th, 2022, in a byelection, and I came to the 19th Assembly midway through the fouryear term. Prior to coming to the Assembly and the 19th Assembly, the priorities were already set. The mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories was set. The mandate letters were all publicized and so, anyways, so I came in and thinking that I am able to try to help my constituents in the Tu NedheWiilideh riding. And I looked at the issues and concerns, I met with local leaders, and listened to what they had to say.
So back in the day, I brought these issues up to the Premier of the day, Caroline Cochrane, and I told her. I told her that our riding is not mentioned anywhere in the 19 priorities or 22 priorities and the mandate. And she told me that well, the train left the station, it's going fast, and I'll try my best to throw your luggage onto the train. And so it was tough because, you know, we have a lot of problems in our community. And so at the end of the 19th Assembly, none of my luggage got thrown on the train and whether it be on housing or education or winter road or ice road or anything like that. So there were 22 priorities that were set in the 19th Assembly, and I would say most of them that were worked on were achieved and I had a hand in some of them. But going forward to today, Mr. Speaker, I got to remember when we first got elected back in November, in 2023 as the newly elected MLAs, we brought forward issues from our riding but we all got together with the MLAs with the Circle of Aboriginal Leaders here in the Northwest Territories. And we were able to listen to everybody's concerns and issues and from there, in February of 2024, we met again as MLAs here at the ski club here in Yellowknife and to talk about setting the priorities of this government, for the 20th Assembly. And so we did that, and we came up with four priorities; four from the or 22 from the previous Assembly. And I thought that we did a good job in trying to identify, you know, what the needs were from listening to everybody throughout the Northwest Territories and also the leaders. And sustainability, accessibility, and affordability of housing is number 1. A strong economic foundation was number 2. Access to health care and addressing the effects of trauma. And safe residents and communities. Those are the four that came out of our discussions when we got together as MLAs going in to the 20th Assembly.
Now that the mandate letters, I am assuming it's going to be coming pretty soon, it is going to be publicized and now that we are six months into our term. And I look forward to seeing those letters. But, anyway, I just want to briefly talk about that.
But what's going on now, Mr. Speaker, is that I wrote letters to the finance Minister outlining concerns and priorities from my riding during the March 15th, 2024, and I also further put together another letter addressing what I think needs to happen with housing in my riding.
As you know, the Minister for Housing NWT, they have a policy in place when dealing with communities and homeownership and repairs, etcetera. And I heard it from my community members that those policies really don't work for our people in small communities. Either you owe money, or you have land taxes, or you make too much money, or you don't make enough, you name it. And so that was the problem. So I was able to put together a letter to the finance Minister and hoping that I would be able to try to get some of the priorities from my riding into the 20th Assembly budget. And so anyways I went through the budget carefully. It's a big budget. It's $2.29 billion. We're $1.6 billion in the deficit. We are about $1.6 billion that's coming from grants and contributions from the Government of Canada. My riding, we have 2 percent of the overall population that is for just in my riding alone but yet at the same time, the budget overall, we are getting point 4 percent overall that comes to my riding, and that's a little bit concerning. So, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to point that out because it's to me, when I look at this budget and now that we go through the, what they call the business plans for all of the departments, they go in front of AOC, accountability and oversight. And we had a chance to review all the budgets and almost line by line, and what I see here is that this budget is coming from all the departments in government and coming from the deputy ministers defending the budgets of their department. And so when I go through this whole thing in terms of what is needed for my riding, I don't see nothing in this business plan because the deputy minister knows best what's for my community. So, going back to the 19th Assembly, we get 23 priorities. The 20th Assembly, we got four priorities. And I sent letters asking that we get probably trying to get into the budget but I don't see it.
So the other issue that I have concerns with too, Mr. Speaker, is that this government also announced that there's going to be a reduction, about $150 million a year for the next four years. And already I think it is just over $8 million dollars in housing they are looking a reducing. And it's going to be very hard for me to trying to understand that because yet, you know, we got priority is number 1 for housing but yet we're reducing our budget but then they until I see the mandate letters coming from this government, it's going to be very tough for me to understand how are we going to deal with the housing crisis here in the Northwest Territories? We got about 10,000 homes short, and we are nowhere near trying to fix this problem that we have.
And so I have been raising this in the 19th Assembly and also in the 20th Assembly. So I do have questions for the Premier on the plan as to how we are going to deal with this issue, but I am hoping to talk to the Minister about this again.
But, anyway, Mr. Speaker, when I go through the budget, the future for my riding doesn't look good for this fiscal year. I am hoping that maybe over the next two or three well, the second and third and fourth year, I am hoping that the Government of the Northwest Territories and Cabinet could really take a look at look at the letters I put forward and based on the feedback I got from the leadership in my riding and see what we can do to try to get that onto the next year's budget because, Mr. Speaker, small communities do matter. And to me, when I read this budget, it's geared for, you know, the status quo, nothing's gonna change but, you know, I want to see this change for all the communities in the Northwest Territories, for small communities, because we have issues on alcohol, drugs, housing, homelessness, you name it. We have to figure a way around this.
So, Mr. Speaker, I just want to touch base on housing just a little bit more. Right now as it is, between the housing budget of what we have right now with the Housing NWT and of $121 million plus the shared financial directed contribution to Housing NWT of $76 million, that's $197 million for this fiscal year. That's just to maintain the status quo that we have. But at the same time, Mr. Speaker, you know, for the life of this government, for housing corporation, by 2036 or 2038, that's 14 years from now, at that rate it went to $197 million times let's say for 14 years, that's $2.7 billion. And when I look at that, for the next 14 years, that's just to maintain the housing corporation as is, as we know it today. It's not addressing the housing needs of the Northwest Territories.
So, I don't know how we are going to address this problem, but I am hoping that we could continue to work with Cabinet and Indigenous governments to figure this one out, because we're in big trouble.
And what I don’t want to see anymore, as well, there was an article in 2022 where the GNWT Housing NWT got $60 million from CIRNAC and that was to deal with the housing crisis here in the Northwest Territories. Instead, they turned that around and fixed up public housing units. And I fwas concerned because when I go back to Fort Resolution, the leaders, the Metis leaders, the chief will come to me and say Rick, what's going on there? They say well, they're competing with us because we're trying to apply for money too to fix up our housing units. And so I say I don't know. I don't know why, or. But anyway that's a big concern. So I am hoping that, you know, we got to put that aside and I think that we need to start working together. That's the only way that we could do it. But overall in this business plan that was put forward by the Housing NWT is that they want to put $50 million for the next four years into fixing up public housing. And just on the operation and maintenance.
So, this budget that was put forward, it was based on the deputy ministers from all of the departments, and this one here stood out to me. And I don't know, like I don't know if I have no explanation as to when CMHC is going to be cutting off their funding to Housing NWT for operation and maintenance but at the same time while that is happening, we brought ten homes from CIRNAC into Lutselk'e but we can't even get money for lot development. And then I go to MACA and they tell me oh, you got to take it out of CPI dollars. But Dettah, N'dilo, Lutselk'e, are not tax-based communities. Fort Resolution is a tax-based community but yet we can't even afford to develop lots in our community. But fortunately Housing NWT has been really pushing housing in our communities the best they can. But, also, they are doing lot development. And I don't know if it's in your budget to do that. So, you know, and I compliment the Minister on doing everything they can to try to deal with this issue, but it's a problem. And something that we cannot overlook.
So the big question is that, you know, going forward, how's Housing NWT going to deal with their units over in the next 14 years, what is your plan? How are you going to work with Indigenous governments? And it's important because we need to know. And the people are asking.
And so, overall, Mr. Speaker, I want to try to keep it short, but we have big issues. Like for example this year, we have MTS, the water is so low that we might not even get the ten units back into Lutselk'e this year. And the high cost of living in my riding is high. And I talk about the solutions by saying let's do a feasibility study on the winter road. Let's do a feasibility study on the probably extending the airstrip, etcetera. But right now, the high cost of living in Lutselk'e is high. And all we're asking for is to be recognized and be included in your plan so that small communities do matter.
So, anyway, I want to just mention that because it's frustrating for me because I am bringing these issues here. I do letters. I put everything on the table, send it in, and then when I get the budgets back to me, none of my stuff is addressed. Or even looked at. So going forward, I am hoping maybe next year or the year after, this government will look at the priorities of small communities.
So Mr. Speaker, I will be bringing this budget back to my chiefs and the Metis leaders in my riding, and I want to get some feedback on that. And I just want to let the government know that it's a big budget, $2.29 billion, and the last Assembly I brought this issue up too, as well, and we had six MLAs stood up and supported me on this motion. Where I stood up and didn't support the motion because small communities weren't included in that budget. And there were a couple MLAs from Yellowknife and all communities. So I am not asking them to stand up and continue to do that. I am just saying that, you know, there is a time and place that in this government we have to start recognizing small communities. And it's important because we feel the impacts in the communities. And you could see it just here in Yellowknife now, in small communities we are dealing with drug issues that is confronting everybody in our small communities.
So I do have a motion that I will be talking about later today. But overall, Mr. Speaker, I will just continue to I just want to bring this up from my riding and continue I want to work with this government. I want to work with the Minister and the Premier and see what we can do to address some of these issues.
So I will leave it that there, Mr. Speaker, and I will say mahsi.
