Lucy Kuptana

Mr. Speaker, absolutely. The process is getting long, and we are going to be heading into winter soon, so that's very concerning. We're hoping to have the facility opened by December. We have continuous discussions with Infrastructure, with Transport Canada, with NAV Canada. We have a builder awarded for the transitional housing facility, and the RFP did just recently close for the operations of the facility. So we're ready to go. We're just waiting on approvals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time, the need for 24 spaces is tied back to the need in 2024 of 30 individuals that would be without shelter and which was further informed by the utilization of the on the land camp which was 20 at its peak. We have been able to add shelter beds during this time to help meet the need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, engaging with our encampment folks over the last couple of years has been important both through EIA's integrated service delivery and with Housing NWT. One thing that we found with Housing NWT is that we worked with encampment folks and people that are camping broadly, meeting with them weekly, having those visits, having those discussions, see how we could work with them, and either talk about discussions in terms of transitional housing, supportive living, but also reintegrating them into the overall housing system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The gender equity division has begun work on coordinating with other departments through a family violence interdepartmental working group which was reactivated in August of 2025. This interdepartmental working group consists of members from health and social services, justice, Housing NWT, education, culture and employment, and executive and Indigenous affairs through their integrated service delivery agency.

The working group will also be working closely with a family violence coordinator to provide overall direction on the development of a corresponding family...

Mr. Speaker, I am committed to building more homes for Northerners. We are turning this commitment into action through multi-year planning with funding from the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and Housing NWT.

Each year for the rest of this Legislative Assembly, Housing NWT will invest $50 million annually, including $41.6 million per year from the Government of the Northwest Territories, to build new homes and repair existing ones.

This is a result of strong collaboration among Members of this House and reflects a key strength of this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is something that Housing NWT and the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs have been working on over the last year. With the facility itself, it looks like it's a bit delayed. We are still waiting for approvals from NAV CANADA and Transport Canada due to the facility being close to the airport. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Considering the urgent need for transitional housing in Yellowknife, we needed to move quickly and move forward with the design. And in terms of the occupancy, we're working with Yellowknife partnerships committee, the Salvation Army, the YWCA, the Yellowknife Women's Society, the city of Yellowknife, the RCMP, the fire department, along with Housing NWT and EIA, to work in collaboration so this facility will be a proper facility out at the Folk on the Rocks site. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand as both Minister responsible for the Status of Women, and also Minister responsible for Housing NWT, that the added need for transitional and supportive housing is critical to the healthy growth of families and communities. We cannot continue to work in a silo as departments but need to work together to make better informed decisions. We also need to be responsible as leaders to speak out against family violence and violence in general. We need to raise our children and grandchildren to uphold traditional values and teach them that women and children are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that the GNWT did engage with stakeholders to gather input for the development of Family Violence Strategic Framework, and this involved reaching out to community partners like the NWT family violence shelters, frontline service providers, and government departments. This work also involved researching and tracking developments in other jurisdictions. In 2023, a What We Heard report called Insights Guiding the Development of a Family Violence Strategic Framework was prepared and available on the GNWT website. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A huge question, because this is the type of question that I asked Council of Leaders in Ottawa when the Minister, the federal Minister, Gregor Robertson was attending the Council of Leaders.

Considering the waitlist, considering we have over 900 families on the waitlist, considering we have probably 140 of them in Behchoko alone, how do we address housing needs across the Northwest Territories? One thing we need to do is we need to work in collaboration, and this is what I spoke to with Indigenous leaders at the table, is we need to work in collaboration, we need to...