Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we became MLAs, we took oath of office to uphold section 35 of the Canadian Constitution on treaty rights. So I'm bringing this issue up on education as a treaty right. My question would be to the Premier.
Mr. Speaker, I'm directing these questions to the Premier because addressing the teacher housing shortage requires a whole of government approach. Currently CPI funding provided by MACA cannot be used for staff housing. Would this be changed so that communities have more tools to secure housing for teachers in small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So based on feedback from community governments, MACA is adjusting the community public infrastructure policy to better address staffing housing challenges, particularly those affecting recruitment. MACA policy restrictions on using the CPI funding for staff housing had been suspended, and communities that have submitted staff housing in their financial reports have not been denied. So that's a yes, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Premier work with ECE to ensure district education authorities have the funding they need to provide housing subsidies and other solutions to attract teachers and offer them affordable and comfortable housing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I am very familiar with this issue. I was the Minister of education for four years, and I heard about the issues around teachers' housing quite often. In fact, I put in the mandate letters for the Ministers of housing, Finance, and ECE to work to ensure market housing is available for teachers in small communities where a lack of housing has been identified as a barrier to teacher retention. So this is not a new subject, but it is one that is -- it takes some effort to get at the heart of.
Work that's been done to date includes putting together a list of all of the market housing available in all communities, supplying those to DECs as well as Indigenous governments, so that they are aware of what is available. Of course, the GNWT isn't really in the business of providing housing to employees anymore outside of the market housing that is available for anyone to rent, and that's in part because there's so many teachers, right, there's so many nurses, there are such great needs that if we -- we can't meet all of those needs, and so there are economic opportunities for development corps or Indigenous governments to create housing in communities where there's a shortage every year of housing. And so we haven't gone into the business of building housing for teachers at this point, but work is going on to that end. For example, like I said, putting together that list of available housing units and the departments of ECE and housing have been having discussions on potential solutions moving forward. So it's not a cheap fix for this issue, but work is going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Premier provide my communities with a timeline for when Housing NWT will begin investing in staff housing for teachers in small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Probably a better conversation to have directly with the Minister of housing, but I know that there's about, I think, 900 individuals and families on waiting lists for housing across the territory. And so housing is really focusing on addressing those issues, working on ensuring that houses that need to be replaced that are past the end of their useful life are replaced, and so that's where a lot of the focus is right now. Nonetheless, this is still a live issue, and we'll continue to make progress where we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
