Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was glad to hear both of the Minister's statements today on housing and my colleagues' statements on housing. I am confident this is a shared priority for all Members of this House. However, it's going to take significant community or political will to accomplish this, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to hear we are making community housing plans for all 33 communities. However, I want to note that Yellowknife already has a 10-year plan to end homelessness. It was federally funded. It was fully researched, and it's costed. We need $140 million to end homelessness. We can make more plans, and we can talk more, but at the end of the day, this is going to take money.
Mr. Speaker, there are plenty of federal pools out there. However, we need to assist organizations, we need to assist community governments, and we need the NWT Housing Corporation to take the lead on getting that federal money. With the political will, we can end homelessness in this territory. I believe that federal funding is there.
However, Mr. Speaker, I am concerned that far too often the NWT Housing Corporation is not a body committed to ending homelessness but is a landlord managing a portfolio. Mr. Speaker, this is one of the systemic problems we see. We need clear political leadership that goes to Ottawa with a plan that is costed and gets that money so we can truly move the dial on housing. Absent us doing it, it will not happen.
This territory saw two decades of economic prosperity as diamond mines opened, as thousands of jobs were created. Our economic forecast shows we are going to see 15,000 new jobs created as people start to retire.
Mr. Speaker, there are lots of jobs, so much so that we are asking immigrants to fill them. However, our people cannot take those jobs unless they are housed, and it requires government action to end homelessness. We can grow and create more jobs, but in that time period, we actually saw much of our housing fall into core need. We saw the Housing Corporation's portfolio age and not be maintained. During that time, homelessness actually increased because there was not significant government action to make this a priority. Mr. Speaker, this is a priority for this House. It requires a plan. It requires costing, and it requires us spending those dollars. I will have questions for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.