Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we all recognize that my tenure in the GNWT is a bit of a Gordian Knot and given the competing Indigenous land rights, it is a -- one of the most difficult areas for our government to navigate. But the Housing Corp has requested all of its leases from the Department of Lands in fee simple. We've had problems where we have brought units into communities, and we can't actually find any land to put them to on. So the units just kind of sit there. And I know multiple people in communities who have wanted to build houses and finding land to build a house on can be extremely difficult. And I guess there's a lot of different ways that this can work, but I think specifically one of the barriers that people found was with having leases, it wasn't as easy to get mortgages; it wasn't as easy to get insurance. And I think the Department of Lands in having lots of leases to administer within community boundaries has really stepped into an area of best dealt with at the community level, land use regulations that, you know, administer things like bylaws or setbacks on properties are best dealt with by communities, and this is really an area I would like to see the GNWT get out of and give to communities.
Now, that's not always easy - it's easier said than done because different communities have different views of how they want land title to look. And, you know, I know a number of Indigenous communities have looked to things such as 99-year leases or different creative ways to get their communities access to land. But I guess to me, this motion is really speaking to that the current method is not working and we need to increase access to land to put houses on because our people cannot find land to live right now, Mr. Chair.
So I'm happy to see this motion. I know -- I think every single municipal election in Enterprise, they ask for their land. I know the City of Yellowknife, every single election asks for its land within municipal boundaries. There's a lot of people asking for access to land to put houses on in this territory, and if we can make some progress on that in the life of this Assembly, we can make some progress on housing. Thank you.