Lucy Kuptana

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again I wish to thank the Member for Deh Cho and the Member for Range Lake for bringing this motion. Like the previous motion, it raises important considerations.

First, I note that the motion calls for amendments to the Housing Northwest Territories Act as an action item related to the strategic renewal of Housing NWT. During the 19th Assembly, Housing NWT committed to pursuing a substantive review of the Housing Northwest Territories Act. I am happy to confirm that remains the intention of this government.

Mr. Speaker, I also appreciate and agree with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's something I can look at. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A very general question and openended as well. What are we doing as Housing NWT realizing that one of the priority number one for this 20th Assembly is the affordability, suitability, and accessibility of housing. I think it's the 20th's responsibility to make sure that housing continues to be a priority of this government. And what we're going to do as Housing NWT to respond to this priority is some work that is being done and being done on the mandate and delivering that mandate to the House. So, again, we have to look at things. We have to analyze things. We have...

Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT routinely assesses the conditions of its housing assets through a comprehensive unit condition rating. And these unit condition ratings are done every couple of years for each housing unit across the territory, and we have 2,900 units across the territory so a lot of unit condition ratings. Through this work, Housing NWT prioritizes the health and safety of housing units. Housing NWT's preventative maintenance program, which is administered by the local housing associations, also targets the safety of housing units. Tenants in the housing units are encouraged to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Housing NWT is actively engaging with Indigenous governments and they're actively engaging through the NWT Housing forum. So they meet and then meet like annually discussing housing initiatives across the North. So Housing NWT's new mandate is to place a focus on collaboration with partners, including those Indigenous governments. Collaboration can take the form of intergovernmental agreements that outline priorities for both parties, but this collaboration can also be more informal.

We are pleased to see Indigenous governments take on an increasing role in housing...

Mr. Speaker, one of the great things of the 19th Assembly is it came up with the strategic renewal plan, and there's 42 initiatives with that strategic renewal, and the NWT Housing forum and the partnerships with Indigenous governments was introduced at the time and it continues to this day. So through the work of the NWT Housing forum and the Council of Leaders, NWT Housing or Housing NWT staff have these conversations on a daily basis with Indigenous governments. So I think the work continues. The discussions continue. We all want to see success for Housing NWT throughout the North, and we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was two questions to that question. So the first question was on assets that the Northwest Territories or the Housing NWT holds and what the plans are for those homes, if I'm not mistaken.

From what I understand, we have over 300 homes that are 50 years and older, so Housing NWT is doing a review on those homes. And we also have many homes that are 30 years and older, so another we need to do another review on that.

In terms of the second question, I don't have that detail right now, but I can provide the Member information offline as well. Thank you...

Thank you, again, to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Housing NWT continues to advance a multiyear capital plan which includes the construction and repair of over 500 housing units. The scale of this work ranges from modernization and improvement projects for housing assets in the communities to new construction, including duplexes for seniors and a large multiunit residential building plan for Yellowknife. These 500 units include 100 new public housing units for the territory. Of these hundred units, all are either under construction or complete. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for raising this issue. The Member is correct that the NWT social housing agreement signed in 1997 allocated $21.2 million in annual operational funding to support the delivery of the Northwest Territories Public Housing Program. The funding has declined and is scheduled to be fully exhausted by 20382038.

Since 2019, Housing NWT has been able to mitigate these annual funding declines with funding supports provided under a new bilateral agreement with CMHC. The funding under this agreement is being used to offset the decline in CMHC funding up...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the supports that Housing NWT provides is they offer tenants opportunities to enter into payment plans if their issue is related to arrears. Housing NWT also reviews the rent calculations if there's a concern, if they have income changes. Say, they lost a job or they're starting another job with a different income level. So Housing NWT may refer tenants to other social services or health resources if the client is facing complaints from neighbours or is also to seek out additional assistance to avoid losing their home. And then Housing NWT also seeks out alternative...