Thank you, Mr. Speaker. MLA Bromley has said it well, that this is just another way to skin a cat here, so telling the Minister and the government there’s another option to look at. Mr. Speaker, I say that because in front of me here I have three motions speaking about the rental and the issue of housing in the Northwest Territories that were debated and passed in the House.
There’s another motion for the Minister to look and to help our people.
Mr. Speaker, in 2006 the United Nations called the issue of housing and homelessness in Canada a national emergency. I think that’s something that we’re looking at right here in the Northwest Territories in Canada, that this government here and all governments, our responsibility lies with us. It’s estimated that four million Canadians are in need of affordable housing, Mr. Speaker, and growing.
Mr. Speaker, as I heard from my colleagues, these issues here that we deal with, especially with what Mr. Jacobson has raised, is very, very good because we want to help our young people to get into the economy when there’s work in our communities. The regions that I talk about, the economy is very short and then we have to, sort of, wait until we get an oil and gas exploration or we go trapping or, like it says, that they walk down to the income support office. People do want to make a difference in their lives. They do see the value of a house, Mr. Speaker, because you know the housing insecurity is sometimes a symptom and sometimes a cause of poverty in our communities, and that causes other issues that we have to deal with.
Mr. Speaker, I do want to say that with the housing in our communities, and this initiative is a good step to bring other issues such as evictions. Mr. Speaker, I’ve been notified that in the Sahtu there were 33 rental orders -- 16 for Tulita and 17 for Deline -- to leave the premises, leave the house. Now this is going to cause 33 other issues with families, people asked to leave the units, because as we stand right here, they cannot afford the public housing units. We have to do something different. We have to do a made-in-the-north solution to keep people in their houses.
Housing has done a lot of work not to kick out, as the Minister said. His job is not about evicting people from their units. However, the policies that we operate under now lead us to that. As much as we try to do repayments, give them a chance, we need to look at something, as Mr. Menicoche said, look at a zone where a young man who has finished high school or college can come back into one of our communities, get a job for two or three months, learn how to operate his house, and pay a certain rent and not be worried that it’s going to cost $1,800, $1,400, that he can afford it, and that he should not be penalized for working for a short period of time. Then we could look at situations like that.
I think that’s what this motion is saying. It’s about keeping people in their homes and making them feel good about them. They are dependent on us. Government has caused that dependence over the years and now we need to make sure that they can
handle these units in an affordable amount. Some of them can’t even pay for their food or any other things that they want to buy for themselves and I think, again, as Mr. Bromley has said, this is just another way to skin a cat and I hope the Minister will look at this motion, as with other motions, look at how this issue here can be resolved in a manner that knows that people can live in a house and they do have a chance in life, especially in our small communities where it’s very hard to find a job let alone live there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.