Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I think about issues my constituents come to me for help with, housing tops the list by a wide margin. A person with disabilities and on the waiting list for years, sleeping in stairwells or couch surfing, young mothers with two-year-old children homeless and on the waiting list since their child was born, waiting, wondering where they are going to sleep that night.

Currently, the waiting list for socially assisted housing in Yellowknife has more than 200 families on it and it is not getting any shorter. At a constituency meeting in Detah this week, I was informed that there are five new Housing Corporation units sitting empty, heated and unoccupied during the winter. How galling for those families in desperate need of housing to see these houses sitting empty. And for what reason? No one on the waiting list qualifies for them.

What qualifications do desperate people need for access to public housing units that remain empty for years? While we spend millions on infrastructure to benefit industries that enrich shareholders and hire workers from afar, we continue to ignore the people of the North, the very people we are elected by and sworn to serve. Our priorities are skewed. Healthy, housed families with early childhood security and support are the best economic generators known.

The City of Yellowknife is trying to come to terms with the needs of the homeless through their Housing First program, recognizing that housing is the foundation of a productive, healthy life and must be considered first and foremost. As it’s actually their mandate, GNWT needs to follow this lead and get going on work to fully integrate the Housing First program with Yellowknife and other communities. Building infrastructure is one thing, but making it a successful and functional part of our community is something else again, as we’ve seen.

Communication with clients remains an issue. Before they write off clients or shunt them down the waiting list, housing workers need to envision walking a mile in the client’s shoes to learn the context for the difficulties of reporting highly variable income, being at an unfixed address, having transportation challenges for repeated visits to the office and making sporadic payments on housing arrears.

Affordability issues for housing in Yellowknife increased by a whopping 65 percent over the last five years.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted