Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My first question will be to the Minister of Health and Social Services today and, of course, I hope I have time for other Ministers to enjoy a great and fun question period. Mr. Speaker, my question is the challenge about housing. Now, believe it or not, this is a health issue.
So I was visiting constituents at a public housing place last week, and the smoke in this multi-unit was so difficult to breathe, I thought I was actually chewing it. It was that thick and disgusting. And my understanding is housing won't declare these public housing units non-smoking or they insist new leases can only be done. However, we could approach this particular problem by change, the Minister of Health and Social Services leading by making some adjustments and declaring them smoke-free. Would the Minister of Health and Social Services be willing to look into this situation so all public housing in the Northwest Territories, which wouldn't be unique to other places in Canada, are smoke-free? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my colleague and I, Minister of Housing NWT, have had ongoing conversations on the best way to move forward, and I believe on April 1st, there will be a blanket policy for no smoking in all housing units in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear the Minister isn't defending smoking in public housing units. I said I'm glad you aren't defending. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I guess two parts to it is why are we waiting, and is there exemptions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as throughout the Northwest Territories, some of these homes, people have been living in them for almost -- like, I can honestly say in my community, there are some families that have been living in the same home for 30 plus years. So they're just giving them the time to, you know, offer up, you know, the information first, give them the information, give them time, you know, those information on quitting smoking because we know in the Northwest Territories that we do provide smoking cessation for all Northwest Territories residents and all those types of things. So we're setting a start date as to when this will take effect. And all new leases, my understanding, are going to -- that are currently happening are for non-smoking. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, in a multi-function building or multi-unit building, you can't have one smoker and one non-smoker right next to each other through airness.
Mr. Speaker, what will the department of health do in order to step this up to support these people? I believe the carrot to stick approach, no smoking is the new rule. Can she be very clear on how the full weight of the department of health is going to come in there and support individuals who have smoked for years, if not generations, Mr. Speaker, because we can't leave them hanging, but the workers in there need this protection as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as most landlords, and we did the -- like, I think throughout the Northwest Territories already have it in their leases that there is no smoking in their units. Housing is changing their policy to create that now. What we'll do as health is we'll continue to, you know, monitor what is going on in those units that are multi-units. We'll work with housing. I think that is the biggest thing that we will be able to do is to see moving forward in the future if there's more work that will need to be done through legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
