This is page numbers 4831 - 4856 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was housing. View the webstream of the day's session.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer, and I look forward to going with her to see what this OverDrive looks like, because I was thinking it was a vehicle, but I guess it is now a library term online.

Mr. Speaker, parents and community members still have concerns about re-establishing a central library in the Liidlii Kue Secondary School. Who would they bring their concerns to? Is it the local DEA, the principal, or the DEC superintendent? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

There are regular reporting or conflict procedures to deal with in schools. Ideally, like any good communication, it is speak to the individual, so speak to the teacher. In this case, though, when we are looking at books, it would be speak to your principal and then, if you are not happy with the principal's answer, go to your superintendent for the District Education Council.

If you are not happy with the superintendent, then you can put out a written letter into the board, the District Education Council, but I really want to stress that most of these issues can be dealt with at the local level. It is very appropriate to deal with these issues with your principals to follow the correct procedures. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation based on his Minister's statement today. I would like to ask the Minister why they are not developing housing plans for all 33 communities at once. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Minister's statement, the overall plan is to get a community housing plan in all of our 33 communities. Right now, we have six. We have three that we have actually signed agreements to participate in, and I mentioned those. They were Whati, Fort Liard, and Paulatuk. We are working with another three communities; Deline, Jean Marie, and K'atlodeeche First Nations.

As we have been getting these programs, we only have so much staff to get out and work on facilitating these community plans. They have been doing a great job getting into the communities. If the plans aren't put in place, we are giving information and updates and working with leadership.

In the meetings that I have had with leadership, there is a great interest in getting these plans up and running. If we can try to move them faster, we will try our best, but really, it's our resources and the work that we have been doing, as you have heard in other Minister's statements that I have had, with the co-investment fund and some of these National Housing Fund programs. We are trying to get those out the door, as well as working on just maintaining our housing stock throughout the Northwest Territories.

It's a new initiative, it's a great initiative, and we are going to try to get it out to as many communities as soon as we can, but really I think it comes down to resources and also making sure that leadership and community stakeholders are available to have these very detailed meetings moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 550-18(3): Community Housing Plans
Oral Questions

February 12th, 2019

Page 4837

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

These community development plans or community housing plans are something that could be done from a desktop. We have needs surveys. We know the lay of the communities. We have been dealing with these communities ever since the Housing Corporation was formed in 1974. We know what is there. Why are we sending people into the communities? We have 19 or 20 communities that have LHOs. We could use them.

We need to get this thing started. If it is going to take six years or five years to get all 33 communities done, by the time that we are done the last ones, the first ones would be obsolete. We need to be able to do all of them quickly. These things can be done in hours, not months. They can be done in hours. I would like to know: with the process that this Minister is taking to go through community development, how long is it going to take to do all 33 communities?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I don't currently have a timeline for all 33 communities right now. As I mentioned in my Minister's statement, we do have to do a needs assessment. As I mentioned as well, one of the lessons learned through the Voices on Housing survey was the importance of local voices and local input in creating these housing plans. As I mentioned, it is going to require five steps; the pre-planning phase, the needs assessment, which is very important, as well as the housing plan, implementation, and monitoring. We want to have very good agreements in place with the communities as we move forward, the agreements to participate in this, and that is going to require local input and local leadership as well as stakeholders in the communities to tell us what is best for them moving forward.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

The NWT Housing Corporation probably has the best perspective of what is on the ground in all of the communities, comparing one community to another in order to allocate resources. Why are we waiting to have somebody agree, signing agreements, in order to do community housing plans? Planning is our responsibility. We need to do the planning. In order to do it, we don't have to just plan. We need to implement the work on the ground.

We have been talking about this for a long time. I started talking about community development plans in 2007. I asked questions in 2007 and asked this government to develop community development housing plans. Today we are now pre-planning to plan community housing plans. I would like to ask the Minister if he could look at the mandates that will be affected by improving housing situations, and I would like to ask the Minister if the mandate priorities played into the community development plans.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

As I mentioned, we are going to be getting information from our local leadership and our local membership on what their priorities are in their community. That way, it can help us better identify where we are going to put our investments as a government, and the investments that we got from the federal government, how we are going to be spending those dollars to meet the needs of each of the communities as we roll out these community housing plans. That is going to take input from our local leadership, our local membership, our stakeholders, and working with our partners to address the housing needs across the Northwest Territories. With anything that we do, as I mentioned, with the needs assessment and the preplanning phase as we implement these housing plans, of course, we are going to look at addressing how it is going to impact our mandate on our core needs as well as our most vulnerable people in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can tell the Minster what we need in the communities I represent. I can tell the Minster that we need to address the home ownership of the seniors so that the seniors can remain in their homes so the seniors can age in place. That is the number one priority. That is the priority where people come to me almost every day. There are seniors coming to me almost every day saying, "I need my house repaired. I need my furnace done. I need this. I need that." That is where that comes from.

As far as the social housing portfolio goes, Mr. Speaker, the public housing or social housing portfolio that the community -- LHOs are doing a fantastic job. People are in their homes. If there are any maintenance issues, they go in and they repair it. Where the big gap lies is repairing home ownership units that were built several years ago for the seniors, several years ago for families. I think it is that simple. I would like the Minister to just focus in on one thing. I would like to ask the Minister if he would look at the core needs as they were presented on the 2014 needs survey and follow that so that he can begin to put work on the ground, as opposed to more planning. Thank you.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I have made statements in the House on all the programs, the initiatives that we are doing through the NWT Housing Corporation, and I appreciate the Member making some good comments with our LHOs, our district offices, as well, trying to get out to the communities to address the needs and the maintenance and the operations, which is always a big issue. We are trying to address those, as well. Even, we are working with people who are in the home ownership.

The Member had mentioned senior housing. We do have a senior housing planning study that we are going to be using to look at where we need to put our investments, as well. You know, we are doing the best that we can with the resources that we have in our district offices. I encourage our leadership to have those discussions.

I have said in this House we are going to be looking at doing a northern housing summit here in the NWT. Initially, it was going to be an Indigenous housing summit, but we figured, you know, why not invite our other jurisdictions, such as the Yukon, Nunavut, and bring Yellowknife and regional centres up to Inuvik to have those discussions and look at what some of our partners are doing, such as the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. The work is under way. We have a lot of good initiatives going on, and we will continue to inform Members and the public on what those programs are. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier. The Premier is also the Minister responsible for Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier today with regard to the urgency with settling the land rights agreements. We have obviously many good reasons for wanting to do that. Can the Premier start by updating this House and the public on the status of the unsettled land rights in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. The Honourable Premier.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories is actively involved in land and resource negotiations in most areas of the Northwest Territories without modern treaties. Today, we are in final agreement negotiations with the Acho Dene Koe First Nation from Fort Liard and with the Northwest Territories Metis Nation. In addition, negotiations with the Akaitcho Dene First Nations are making good progress towards completing a draft of an agreement-in-principle. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

It seems like there might still be some hope to get some of these land rights agreements done. I won't go into detail in terms of asking about the Dehcho or the Metis at this point. I will maybe save that for a later date. I would like to ask the Premier about self-government agreements. They, too, are of value to us. The Premier has expressed confidence in this House in the past that we will get through a number of those, as well. I would like to ask the Premier: can he please advise us on the status of these negotiations, and does he still believe that, within the life of this Assembly, a number of them will get finalized?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I was very pleased to be able to go to Norman Wells in January to sign the self-government agreement-in-principle for the Sahtu Dene and Metis of Norman Wells. This is a significant milestone that all parties should be proud of. In addition, the Sahtu Dene and Metis of Tulita are reviewing a self-government agreement-in-principle for finalization, and self-government negotiations are also under way in Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake. Negotiations are also well advanced toward concluding an Inuvialuit final self-government agreement. I am also happy to report the self-government negotiations with the Gwich'in have resumed following a break in negotiations where the Gwich'in considered how they wanted to approach self-government.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

All right. There is some positive information there for the public. That is much appreciated from the Premier. As we know, the NWT is seen as a favourable place to invest in with regard to mineral development. We also know that residents are counting on progress on recreational land-use plans, and the business community wants to develop new sectors of diversified economy like agriculture, forestry, and others. I would like to ask the Minister: how can we reassure these sectors that there will be certainty in the future as it relates to getting these land rights settled, the self-governments negotiated, and getting land-use plans in place?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to place a high priority on negotiating these complex and very important agreements. The Government of the Northwest Territories recognizes that the certainty provided by modern agreements benefits everyone. The need for providing clarity and setting out the rules has also informed this government's approach to the Mineral Resources Act by laying out the need for benefit agreements.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of these agreements, as I alluded to in my Member's statement earlier today, have taken decades and some of them, you know, longer than I have been alive to complete. Has the government looked at other processes or possibly increasing the capacity of the GNWT teams to get these agreements done faster? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

There are a number of reasons why these negotiations have taken a long time. Some NWT Indigenous governments more recently are waiting to see how new federal policies are evolving before they proceed and conclude their land claim and self-government agreements. We respect this decision and will continue to support Northwest Territories Indigenous governments' decisions around timing.

With this said, during the term of this Assembly, I have pursued new approaches to negotiations. Minister Bennett and I jointly appointed special representatives to give us independent advice regarding negotiations with the Dehcho First Nations, the Akaitcho Dene First Nations, and the Northwest Territories Metis Nation. This advice informed new government offers made at these negotiations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.