Lucy Kuptana

Thank you, Madam Chair. I totally agree, GNWT should get out of the housing business. We should give it to NGOs and Indigenous governments and communities and have them operate the houses and the public housing units. That would be wonderful if we can get to that point. But until then, we have to operate in this manner because we have to be accountable to this House and constituents. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The difficulty with Housing NWT and with housing in general is we need to come up with comprehensive solutions across the board for housing. And it's not a one size fits all. And we've seen that. We've seen that in encampments. We've seen that with homelessness. We see that with elders that are unable to pay their rent. Housing NWT, we have to move beyond what we're currently doing, and I've said this before, we can't just be market and public housing or market and social housing. We have to look at transitional housing, we have to look at supportive living, we have to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And yes, Behchoko alone has over 130, 140 families on the waitlist. But that's a number across the Northwest Territories. There are over 900 families across the Northwest Territories, over 300 in Yellowknife alone, almost 100 in Inuvik. You know, the stat across the Northwest Territories is pretty bleak. There's a lot of families on the waitlist. And the concern from the Member is how do we make these decisions? Well, we have 32 communities to supply housing to, public and social housing to. And what we did at the time was look at our capital plan and plan to deliver in...

Mr. Speaker, again, a number, a really important question, considering the number of encampments in and around the city over the last few years. As Housing NWT, we commit to developing a standard operating procedure on how we will, within government, work together and with other partners for spring of 2026. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There's a lot of good things happening, and the Fort Good Hope construction centre is one of those great things that are happening. And we're working together in partnership with the K’asho Got’ine Housing Society and the development corporation to support them and have them be successful because building in a small community like Fort Good Hope modular housing units that could be transported throughout the Sahtu, and perhaps the Beaufort Delta, is a good opportunity considering the low water levels in the Northwest Territories and the challenges for transportation and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again rent is based on income, so this is gross income of the household so it's not only the elder or senior in the house, it's the entire household, the working income or the income of the household. So there's sometimes difficulty with seniors because they take the burden on, again, of the entire household and don't get the support from other working members of the household. So again, another difficult situation. But Housing NWT right now is reviewing the rental scale, and we hope to have more comments from Members of this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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.