Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate the Member's comments. It's clearly recognized that housing is a barrier for many residents in the Northwest Territories and is reflected in the need to holistically address the social determinants of health as well as the historic cultural and systemic contributions to these issues in our territory. Collaboration and strong partnerships where all social envelope departments as well as external partners are at the table will be required to successfully take on this challenge. It is important to recognize that each situation is unique and that self-determination of the individuals receiving services is of utmost importance and should be central to any actions that we are taking or will be undertaking in this area. The root causes of homelessness and the complexities in maintaining different forms of housing must be taken into consideration in the planning and implementation of any actions.
Under this recommendation, we are prepared to do that work. One of the things we know we need to do is actually try to get a sense of the magnitude, the number of individuals that this situation may face. We did hear that many of them are coming home to environments that, you know, may feel are safe, but there were clearly some who said they had nowhere to go. We need to be able to work with those individuals. We don't know exactly what that looks like yet, but we are committed to doing that work and we will be working with committee.
As this is a recommendation to the government, Cabinet will be abstaining. Thank you, Mr. Chair.