Lucy Kuptana

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on August 30, 2025, the community of Tuktoyaktuk, an area along the Arctic coast, was hit with a post-cyclonic surge of water never experienced before in recorded history. The area endured record break in surge levels of 2.6 metres, almost 10 feet inland. Subdivisions within the community were cut off from essential services like fire, medical, RCMP, and utility services as their roads were underwater and blocked by massive piles of driftwood. Six major roads were quickly overwhelmed and damaged by high water levels. The community had been proactive over...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think Housing NWT over the last year has been discussing how do we work in collaboration with the different departments to be successful knowing that our technical and infrastructure team's in place to deliver housing across the Northwest Territories. But the concern from the Member is a concern for many of us, is the overall capacity of the Northwest Territories to take on many of these large infrastructure projects. President Erin Kelly can provide you more insight to some of the collaboration and partnerships we're working together on. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister of Housing NWT. I haven't graduated yet to finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it's really important that, again, we highlight the infrastructure deficit of Housing NWT. And we've done some work with that, including the operations and maintenance deficit. And President Erin Kelly could provide us more detail of the $50 million deficit that the Member is speaking about. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right is president Erin Kelly, Dr. Erin Kelly, president of Housing NWT. And to my left is Mr. Jim Martin. Mr. Martin is vice-president, finance and infrastructure, excuse me.

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.