Lucy Kuptana

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The tone and understanding in the situation with encampments in the city of Yellowknife is urgent. I understand that, and I understand the urgency and the tone from the Member. Housing NWT is working within its policy shop and looking at delivering an all of government approach in terms of policy. We work in partnership with the Yellowknife Partnerships Committee, work in collaboration with other departments, including EIA's integrated service delivery. We have to have this reviewed by many other departments. We have to be careful in our policy. We can't rush a policy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Understanding housing has 99 employees across the Northwest Territories and we take care of 2900 units across the Northwest Territories, working with 23 different LHOs, and we have two people -- two employees in the policy shop. I mean, we have to look at things carefully. Understanding the concern, the urgency around encampments, and this has been ongoing for the last number of years. We have committed to deliver something in spring of 2026 but I'll ask the president of Housing NWT if anything can be done sooner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Our current projection for this fiscal year is -- the infrastructure deficit is $307 million, which is basically $299 million is for replacement need. That's our current need for replacement of units. And retrofits is $8,226,000. Over the next 20 years, housing has done an appendix which projects the deficit replacement need is $1.2 billion over the next 20 years. And for retrofits, $339 million over the next 20 years. So we're looking at things in a 20-year time span so we can do proper planning and technical work. But can I ask President Erin Kelly just to provide...

Mr. Speaker, this summer I had the honour of co-hosting the 43rd annual meeting of the federal-provincial-territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women here in Yellowknife. Ministers from across the country gathered in this lovely city to discuss shared priorities.

The event kicked off with an opening reception, held in the Great Hall of the Legislative Assembly, which set a warm tone for the meetings. Guests included partners from the NWT Status of Women Council, Native Women's Association of the NWT, YWCA-NWT, Northern Mosaic Network, Yellowknife Women's Society, NWT Members of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, something else that's really an important and critical discussion is our discussions with the federal government but also our discussions with Indigenous governments and NGOs and communities that are receiving funding from the federal government through Indigenous Services of Canada or CIRNAC. In my recent FPT meeting in Vancouver, this was something that was talked about, the affordable housing fund, the URNI funding, the urban, rural, north, and Indigenous funding, and also the new Build Canada Homes. And this is something, again, that was highlighted at the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it's really important to understand that we operate almost 2,900 units across the Northwest Territories. And back in 1997, we signed the social housing agreement with the Government of Canada with CMHC to operate and maintain these units, but that funding has been declining over the last number of years. We were able to sign a bilateral agreement with Canada again in 2019, and this provided us supplemental funding for a 10-year period and, again, this number will drop 2028-2029.

With Housing NWT and the $150 million capital plan over the next three years, $5...

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I hear the Member, and I understand the concerns. The Tlicho region is really in need of new housing and modernization and improvement of many of their older housing units.

I just want to emphasize to everyone, though, that across the Northwest Territories, housing has rental arrears of $13 million, and this is across the Northwest Territories. So we could use this money to put more houses on the ground in the communities and encouraging everybody to work together to pay your rent, understanding that this money is back and reinvested into communities for new housing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn't get the question, but fairness and equity, yeah, that's really important how we apply this across the board. Again, really important as a government that we apply this, but with the encampments over the summer, we've asked them and we've worked with them and we've counseled them and we've provided them weekly visits and we're working with the integration service delivery team and Housing NWT and the Yellowknife Partnerships Committee. The one big thing with all of this encampment discussion, understanding not many people want to live in shelters, but there is...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, it's really important that we work with the different departments, and both Minister Cleveland and Minister Macdonald know and understand how important it is that we deliver on housing. It's according to our mandate. It's our number one priority of this government. And we're all working in collaboration so we could move forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.