Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in answering some of the core housing needs with a previous Member, we want to continue focusing and supporting those programs, supporting our LHOs, working with our stakeholders, our community governments, our Indigenous governments, to address the core housing needs across not only just here in Yellowknife, but right across the Northwest Territories. We do have high waiting lists for people trying to get into housing. We do have a lot of housing units that need to be retrofitted, upgraded; some of them are ending their years of life. We also need to focus and work with our federal government in making sure that we work on rectifying some of the shortages that we had with the Northern Housing Strategy. So there are a few priorities in there. I'm willing to work with Members, work with our Indigenous governments, our community governments, to address the core housing need. We have about a year and a half left in this government, and we have to focus on making sure that our residents have safe and affordable housing units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's said that, if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. What I'm hearing here is that the list is just unmanageable in terms of actually getting anything done, so I'm going to zero in on a couple of specific things. What is the Minister's plan to reduce invisible homelessness among families by extending the territorial government's Housing First funding to them?

As I mentioned earlier, as well, we do have the Community Housing Support Initiative, as well as the Rent Supplement Program, a lot of work that the Housing Corporation has done over this government to address those needs, and working with the NGOs, and giving them some of the rent supplements so they can help work with us to house and address some of these housing concerns that the Member has mentioned.

I'm going to repeat my question. The question is about extending the Housing First Program to homeless families in Yellowknife. Will the Minister provide that funding?

We did see some really good results out of the Housing First Program, and working with the City of Yellowknife, as well as the Yellowknife Women's Society, to address these housing needs, and we will continue to work with them. We have to make sure that we also secure funding from our federal counterparts to address housing needs right across the Northwest Territories, and looking at that model and trying to get that model out into some of our regional centres, where we also see very high housing waiting lists, as well as homelessness in some of our regional centres, taking that model that the Member has mentioned and seeing how we can adjust it to the regional centres and even perhaps some of our small communities. Yes, we will continue to work with our stakeholders on how to address that funding, and also with the federal government to increase our funding.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a family of six living in a bachelor apartment. They've been there for three years. What is the Minister going to be able to do to help them, now? Thank you.

As I mentioned, we do have the Rent Supplement Program that we help with our families that are in need. We also have programs through ECE in terms of income support. We do know that there are a lot of NGOs that do a lot of great work, working with us to address some of the core housing needs across the Northwest Territories, and the Member mentions that we do have a family of six. In some of our small communities, where we don't even have housing, those numbers go up, and that's what we need to work on addressing right across the Northwest Territories. We do have high waiting lists for housing, and we need to make sure that priority is given where it's needed, and I want to work with the Members to work on adjusting those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a few questions for the Minister of Infrastructure. Can the Minister give us a brief update on the work that was done to both the Abraham Francis and Louis Cardinal ferries this year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to make this quick and try to get some more questions in for everybody. The Louis Cardinal, this year we were doing paint and deck repairs, under way all this week. We installed four brand new engines in the Louis Cardinal this season during the winter. The department is working with Transport Canada to complete the vessel inspections on that and inspect the new engines and the hull to be conducted today with the federal government.

On the Abraham Francis, there are the ramps that are going to be replaced. One of them has been completed already, and we are hopefully going to have the other one completed this week. Paint and deck repairs are also being completed this week, and the Peel River is now clear of ice and we are working on the landing as things commence today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Will the work that is being undertaken be completed on time and not hold up the operation of the ferry services?

As I have said, this work is commencing as we speak. If Members recall, last year, one of the hold-ups we had was Transport Canada officials who do the inspections got called away off to some other needy thing that they had to look after before they came back to the Member's riding to inspect the ferries, which held things up, but as things are going forward here for this season, it sounds like all the inspections will be done and the ferry should hopefully be in the water as early as Monday; and hopefully within three days of water testing, the ferries will be in operation.

That leads me to my next question, which he answered a part of, but when can my constituents expect to have services resumed for the summer? According to his math, that's May 31^st.

As soon as we have Transport Canada approval to be in operation, the ferries will start operating. We are hoping, as I said, that probably the Fort McPherson ferry will be the first one in operation, and hopefully by May 28^th or June 1^st at the very latest would be the Tsiigehtchic ferry.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My two questions here are, in the spirit of time, to the Minister of ITI in regards to furthering my Member's statement on Destination Deline. Will the Minister commit to having the regional staff sponsor and facilitate a hospitality workshop in Deline? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can certainly look into that. I know Destination Deline and the Member have been working very hard to attract tourism, and they signed a MOU with a number of companies in China on their last trade mission there. We will certainly work with the community. I know the department has spent a lot of money and investment, up to over $500,000, on helping them get their position as Destination Deline, and we will certainly talk to our department and our regional staff and see what we can do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister for their response here. My next and final question is: as mentioned in my Member's statement, there will be a group later coming to the community of Deline, a contingent of approximately 25 agents. Will the Minister check his schedule to see if he can participate in that attendance on that gathering?

If the Member could share the date with my staff, we'll certainly have a look at it. Anything we can do to promote tourism in the Northwest Territories, especially around Aboriginal tourism and in the small communities to help bring economic opportunities to them, we will certainly participate.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.