Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, providing safe, secure, affordable housing for Northerners, especially in isolated communities, is among the biggest challenges facing the NWT.

We recognize this as a top-level priority in the mandate to which we committed ourselves at the outset of the 18th Assembly.

Solutions are not easy and nothing comes cheap. That is why the NWT Housing Corporation has a budget of over $50 million for community housing services.

There was a story last fall that I found inspiring, Mr. Speaker, and I would like to talk about it for a moment.

In Deline there was a 53-year-old man who for 10 years had lived in a shack. His shack was made of crates and plywood, and it had no insulation. He had lived there for 10 years and he had not complained, but his shack was becoming infested and it was becoming too much for him. Unable to sleep, he asked a friend if he could borrow a camper trailer to live in.

Community members thought that they could do better than the trailer. They determined that, with some donated construction materials and volunteer labour, they could build the man a small home of his own. So over three weekends, local carpenters, electricians, and other volunteers built an insulated, wired, 16-by-16 tiny house for the man. They say, compared to what he had, this was 100 per cent improvement.

Mr. Speaker, I relay this story not because I think the NWT's housing issues can be solved by donations and volunteers. Clearly, that is not the case.

This story is an example of what can be accomplished with resources you can find in any NWT community -- ingenuity, dedication, and commitment. New ideas, innovations, and partnerships can be brought together to achieve things that previously seemed impossible.

Here in Yellowknife -- and right across North America -- we have seen start-ups of new innovation of tiny houses, new ideas in storage, insulation, recycling all contribute to the viability of this new idea. They are inexpensive, have a much smaller footprint, and can be portable, meaning an inventory of tiny houses can be moved to different communities as and when needed.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT's housing challenges are not going away, but the Deline example shows just what can be accomplished when people come together. Innovation, new ideas, collaboration, and partnerships with communities can help us take on this major challenge. Tiny homes can be a significant part of the solution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.