Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to discuss the housing and homelessness in my community. Since elected, I have many discussions with residents in regard to the Inuvik Housing Authority wait lists and policies, concerns of lack of beds at the homeless shelter, people who are having to stay in the wet shelter who don't have any addiction issues because of nowhere else to go, and people who are just going from couch to couch. I have been asked why there are vacant units not being filled. I have seen these units in my community. The most recent update I received is that we are currently sitting with 97 people, families, on this wait list. Some of my constituents have been waiting for years.
I would like to highlight one of our priorities for this 19th Assembly, which talks about increasing the number of affordable homes and reduce core housing needs. Then, I'd like to highlight some of our 19th Assembly priorities in the area of increased student education outcomes to the same level as the rest of Canada, improve early childhood development indicators for all children initiatives, and create a polytechnic university.
Housing is just one basic need to survive, next to food and clothing. If we look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, housing is at the bottom, and we need to meet those needs at the bottom to move up. At the top of the pyramid, it is self-actualization, which is a desire to become the most that one can be. It is no wonder that we have the issues we have with our education graduation rates, child and family services, addictions, mental health, and crisis in youth and adults. If a person cannot even access a basic need to survive, how do we expect them to succeed in any of these priorities?
Anything we as a government can do to get people into homes, we need to do. We need to take risks, as our Finance Minister stated yesterday. We need to take risks on adding homes to our public housing allotment. With this thinking, we will begin to meet their basic needs so they will be successful and transition out of public housing before the date that our Premier continuously reminds us of 2038, when we will no longer have CMHC funding for operation cost funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.