Lucy Kuptana

Thank you, Madam Chair. Absolutely, we can keep the Member for Yellowknife North updated. I'm excited as well to see that replacement. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, having a conversation with the district office, there is a few funding streams that are available, and working perhaps with the local housing organization, the local band, there's a community housing support initiative grant, there's also a co-investment fund that would require, like, investment from both the community and Housing NWT. So there is some possibilities, Mr. Speaker, that we could look at for a solution. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Coming in as Minister for Housing NWT, I wanted to see, like, condition of units, especially in community and the city of Yellowknife considering the need to replace many of our housing units, the older units, and Hilltop was something that I visited, and it's in an extreme circumstance. So in the planning -- and President Erin Kelly will provide some more information to that, but the planning for Yellowknife over the next couple of years is to replace Hilltop. So if I can just defer this to President Erin Kelly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I think a conversation with district staff at this point and looking at the facility itself to see if a backup power generator is warranted. 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...