Lucy Kuptana

Thank you, Madam Chair. A good question. I think that the work we're doing is important work with our Indigenous governments and in our small communities because, again, we come in as a partner. We don't come in as the only purveyor of housing in the Northwest Territories. So interested in working, especially through the NWT Housing Forum. And Mr. Saturnino can provide more information with the forum itself and the relationships, especially with Indigenous governments. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With the territorial housing needs assessment that's going to be released tomorrow, one thing it does is it provides, like, a community profile for each community in the appendices of the document. So it just gives a clear indication because every community is different in terms of needs. And then looking at Housing NWT, we do have a 20-year infrastructure plan that shows the growth of housing within community for each community across the North, and it's usually based on a waitlist, condition of the units within the community, the ages of the residents within the...

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, it could be a little confusing because there's two different streams of funding. But in terms of the funding through Housing NWT, so 2.11 was transferred from health and social services to Housing NWT for the Yellowknife day shelter and sobering centre operations. And then 3.77 was forced growth funding for the Yellowknife day shelter and sobering centre, So those two combined would be operations for the Yellowknife day shelter and sobering centre. And then 7.27 is initiatives funded for the emergency shelter program, and that's shelters that we run throughout the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it's important when we are at the FPT table just to make the case for the North. We talk about remoteness. We talk about cost of repairing units. We talk about many of the communities that are spread out throughout the Northwest Territories and how getting to them and providing that repair and maintenance is so critical to the everyday operations of housing. So at the FPT table, we have all our partners at the table, including the provinces and the territories. And especially in the North, with our partners in Nunavut and Yukon, we always add the northern remote...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I find this, again, throughout the Northwest Territories, where sometimes we have -- we issue RFPs and they're delayed, depending on the contractor or the contractor's schedule or who's available with contractors and local community to do the work. So sometimes things are delayed. One thing we are finding, especially in the Tlicho region and also in the Gwich'in settlement area, is working with our MOU with the Indigenous government. We have a conversation, say this is delayed, could your development corporation take this on to get this senior's home repair...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The fund is fully subscribed. And what we're doing is Housing NWT is actually having conversations with our other sister departments about apprenticeships and trade opportunities and labour market development within community because, truly, like, with the projects that are coming on stream, that we really need local capacity so we're encouraging apprenticeships. And also apprenticeships is part of the terms and conditions with our projects within community. Like, if we're putting out an RFP for a housing build within community, that company needs to add some...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Housing NWT will take on the operations of the Yellowknife day shelter and also the sobering centre. So we're taking that on April 1st, and that includes 30 staffing positions for the two facilities. We're also -- we've added five positions for the new homelessness programs division. So five positions, which include a manager, advisor, an advisor in Hay River, an advisor in Inuvik, and also the director of homelessness programs. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, yes, I've asked Housing NWT to consider those outside the regional centres for the down payment assistance program. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I think that's throughout the Northwest Territories, is the LHOs are faced with an aging housing stock and they're trying to keep up, especially with the preventative maintenance side of managing the housing stock within community. And many times, LHOs won't be able to find the part for either the furnace because it's so old or, you know, another part of the system within the housing unit. But in terms of the allocation itself and how we allocate those funds throughout the Northwest Territories with our 24 housing associations, President Kelly could provide more...