Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the colleague from Yellowknife North for those kind words. Just something to think about, we are a G7 nation, and we are still sitting on some of the most resource-rich areas on the planet. Something to think about for our budgets for the springtime and here in the fall-time. I just wanted to mention that.
I'm going to go back to my Member's statement here and just follow up with my comments yesterday on housing. I want to speak a little bit about housing. I did have quite a few of my constituents yesterday who reached out to me about the various housing issues that they had, and I did notice a common theme. That theme is that there is a large number of preventative maintenance issues that are popping up in my riding. A lot of these can be easily solved with planned and preventative maintenance. These are mainly units that are under the care of the NWT Housing Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, it's starting to get cold out there. The NWT Housing Corporation needs to really make a push and take proactive measures to get ahead of any heating and plumbing issues that may pop up during vulnerable times, such as Christmas. Through that, I had a constituent who had a great idea, and that idea was to reach out to the LHOs in the communities and earmark a handful of elders and get their furnaces serviced; their oil tanks checked and replaced; and make sure their plumbing is in order. I know that there are programs out there like the CARE program and the SAFE program, and they are important programs. At the same time, they do require an unnecessary amount of time and red tape to get through just to apply for them, let alone the long wait times for approvals.
Mr. Speaker, I want to share that my constituents and I do get irritated with government departments are perceived to be taking knee-jerk responsive action whenever something breaks down. My constituents have voiced that they would like to see more preventative work done to show that the NWT Housing Corporation cares for the people and their assets so they last and they house those in need for a long time. With that, I will have questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation and the appropriate time. Thank you.