This is page numbers 4449 - 4496 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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 know.

Topics

Recorded Vote
Motions

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Clerk Of The House Mr. Tim Mercer

The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.

Recorded Vote
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Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

In favour.

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Clerk Of The House Mr. Tim Mercer

The Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Recorded Vote
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Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

In favour.

Recorded Vote
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Clerk Of The House Mr. Tim Mercer

The Member for Hay River North.

Recorded Vote
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R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

In favour.

Recorded Vote
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Clerk Of The House Mr. Tim Mercer

The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Recorded Vote
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Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

For.

Recorded Vote
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Clerk Of The House Mr. Tim Mercer

The Member for Deh Cho.

Recorded Vote
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Recorded Vote
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Clerk Of The House Mr. Tim Mercer

The Member for Thebacha.

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Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

For.

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The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

The results of the recorded vote: 15 in favour, zero opposed, zero abstentions. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Motions. Member for Monfwi.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce the motion to support the transfer of housing units to long-term residents.

Mr. Speaker, in NWT, we are in a housing crisis. As you know, Housing NWT are the majority of -- provides the majority of housing. They are the only landlords in most communities. Mr. Speaker --

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Member for Monfwi, sorry, you have to read your motion first. Okay, please read your motion.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Okay, next time I'll (audio) to ten. Sorry about that. Okay, well, I'm still going to say -- thank you. Okay, now we're okay, we're good to go? Okay, well, got to be serious now. Okay.

Housing NWT transfer to long-term tenants.

Mr. Speaker,

WHEREAS, the Priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly directs Cabinet to increase the number of affordable homes and reduce core housing needs;.

AND WHEREAS, the 2019 mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories further directs Housing NWT to transition 100 individuals and/or families to homeownership;

AND WHEREAS, Housing NWT provides housing throughout the territory and is the primary provider of housing in the small communities;

AND WHEREAS, pathways to homeownership remains difficult due to barriers and challenges, including income thresholds, for many residents in the smaller communities;

AND WHEREAS, many residents have been long-term tenants in Housing NWT units, have raised their families in these units, and developed strong connections to these units as their family homes;

AND WHEREAS, Housing NWT has many unused and vacant housing units, some of which are in need of repair, throughout the territory;

AND WHEREAS, declining Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation funding will continue to pressure the Government of the Northwest Territories in terms of being able to maintain and repair the current stock of housing units;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that this Legislative Assembly calls upon Housing NWT to increase efforts to transfer ownership of Housing NWT units to long-term tenants, who have lived in their existing units for 20 years or more, and are willing to assume ownership of their family home for a nominal fee;.

AND FURTHER, that Housing NWT will work with municipal and Indigenous governments to ensure land leases or fee simple title for their units remains affordable when transferred from Housing NWT to the current tenants;

AND FURTHERMORE, that Housing NWT increase efforts to transfer unused and vacant units to interested residents in the communities throughout the territory;

AND FURTHERMORE, that efforts supporting the transfer of unused and vacant units as well as units of long-term tenants commence immediately by Housing NWT;

AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. The motion is in order. To the motion? Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Jane has to go first.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Sorry, we're supposed to go to the mover. Member for Monfwi.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce a motion to support the transfer of housing units to long-term residents. And you are aware, and we are all aware, that in NWT, we are in housing crisis. This will definitely help improve the lives of many of our small community members.

Mr. Speaker, you know that in small community, Housing NWT provides the majority of housing available to people living in small and remote communities. And like I said, like we said in the motion, that many of these people have been living in these units, in the same public units, for more than 20 years. And a lot of them, they raised their children in these units. And many of these family wanted to be homeowners but due to the ever variety of barriers that is in place, they are unable to maintain those units, or they are not qualified for the programs to be homeowners. And many of these families, they have strong attachment to their homes and location where the house is at. And they are willing to assume -- they are ready and willing to assume the responsibility, all the responsibility of a homeownership, including the repairs and maintenance.

I note that many of these people living in -- who have lived in those units for many, many, many years love their house, and I know that they will take pride in owning a home. And this will help a lot of people, Mr. Speaker.

This will help with the housing programs. We know that there is no housing -- housing market in small communities, and this will definitely help many of the small community members.

Mr. Speaker, a couple times I heard the Minister responsible for Housing NWT say, "I do not want to set up people to fail."

Mr. Speaker, I want to say Indigenous people have been here since time in memorial. We survived, and we are still here. I am not sure how she is going to set up the people to fail, especially people in small communities. I can tell you that Indigenous people are resilient.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, at this moment, I know that -- what I'm going to say is that the NWT Housing, or Housing NWT, failed the people in many of the small communities when they first introduced a mortgage program, independent housing program. Some of them are over 20 years old.

When they introduced these programs in the community, they were aware there was lack of employment in small communities, in many of the small communities, and people did not understand the agreement that they were signing without an appropriate interpreters.

But this is another matter too, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say that I have a beautiful message, a picture in my office with a message that says having a place to go is home. Having someone to love is a family. And having both of these is a blessing. And we have remember who are we advocating for.

When I see that message, that is a reminder for me that I am advocating for a lot of people in Northwest Territories, not just my riding but for the people in the Northwest Territories. So with this in mind, this is the reason why that I brought this motion forward. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

You're the seconder.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, I too support this motion. You know, when -- it is a priority of our Assembly. I know the Minister has stated that they will -- they're going to put a hundred homes on the ground, you know, and I think there was some -- in our mandate, there's, you know, transferring of homes to our residents within that stock. At this time I guess, you know, where we are in that, I don't know. That's something I guess that we can -- we'll get back from the Minister.

Mr. Speaker, I also know in my community, when Inuvik was built, it was built in half. You had half of the community that was built for the federal employees that had all running water. And then you had my riding, the other half, which we had 5, 12s and pump out, and no running water. My constituency is the largest -- the residents in my -- like, in my constituency are where Inuvik Housing Authority has the greatest amount of housing units.

Growing up in that community, I too, like my colleague, know of many families who have raised their children, their grandchildren, you know, and now some of them even have great grandchildren raised in those same housing units. They have paid for these houses in threefold, you know.

So, you know, when the Member decided to bring this motion forward, you know, to push -- to make sure that this is hurried up in this government, one of the things that really struck me was how many of our residents have already paid for these homes.

You know, we talk about how we can only -- in the Northwest Territories, Housing Corporation can only have so many units that we can operate. So where are we and how are we doing this, that we asking our residents do they want to own this home, do they want to take this home over, you know. I've never heard of that going on in my community. I've heard of people, you know, raising their families, then their children grow up and then like some of the other colleagues is then they're moved. Then they're moved into a smaller unit where they -- the multigenerational way of life for most aboriginal people, we can't bring our kids back home. We don't have room to bring our grandchildren into our home now.

So this is a way of when we talk about multigenerational homes, some of these bigger units in my community were built in the 60s, in the 70s, you know. And I know Housing has kept upkeep in a lot of these units.

And that's the other thing too, is when we're transferring these homes we need to make sure that they're taken care of and they're transferred in a condition that the homeowner is not having to pay for many upgrades or needs before doing this.

But as I said, I really support this motion. I know even our Premier has said when she bought her first home, the pride that she felt of owning that home. Even though it wasn't the biggest home, it was her home. So, you know, this goes a long way for people to have that sense of worth and this is -- that sense of pride that this is my home.

You know, we've always heard of many of our Aboriginal leaders talk about how in the past the federal government promised people to come off the land, and we'll give you a house. Well, we gave you housing and then we kick you out when your family gets smaller or you get too old and you move them around. Like the Member from Monfwi has stated, this is their home and then they're moved somewhere else, you know. And so that sense, you know, that loss of the home. So especially in the small communities when there's not a lot of housing to go around.

So I just want to give my support, and that's why I second this motion, so that we can hurry up with our plan to do this work and that we get it done in the life of this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The motion is in order. To the motion? Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you. You're sure it's my turn now, right? I don't think that I can speak as eloquently as my colleagues have about this considering the impacts that they see in their home communities and constituencies. However, I want to echo what my colleague for Inuvik Twin Lakes said was that one of the first most proud -- or things that I'm the most proud is when I was able to purchase my home. For me, my home is my safe place. It's my sanctuary. It's the one place where I can go and be vulnerable and feel at ease 100 percent. So for me, it was important that I stand up and support this initiative, especially as I learn more through my work on the Standing Committee for Social Development about the housing issues in the North and the restrictions around getting people into homes and homeownership. It's much more complex than I ever realized prior to taking this job. The fact of there's no housing market. There's not tax-based communities. All of that leads to complexity.

One thing that I keep getting struck by is that if we are going to move people out of homes like this, for example when they don't pay a mortgage they've had for 20 years, we are only now then responsible for finding them housing elsewhere as they become homeless. So as an engineer, I like things to be efficient. So to me, just, you know, transferring this ownership over to the people that have been living there will reduce a large administrative burden and free up resources within the housing department and the housing authorities in order to focus on other areas. So to me that is just logical that we then transfer these homes to the people that have been living in them.

And not only that, as having been a renter and a homeowner, I definitely care a lot more about what I do in my own home than I did as a renter. So once we do move people away from the idea that this is not their home and they're just being, you know, given something or they're temporarily occupying space at the GNWT's will, they will then take a greater pride in that ownership of that home. And that home will be better maintained. They will feel like they're creating a legacy that they can pass on to their children, and as well, I've been really struck by dealing with a particular woman who is homeless right now.

She cannot bring her grandchildren to her community and host them in her house. And so she feels she's seeing a disconnect now of the grandchildren from her culture because she's not able to bring them in and teach them her lessons, and it is really very much impacting her sobriety as well.

So I -- longwinded, more than I thought I would be, but I just wanted to say I very strongly support my colleague, and I thank all of them for informing me on this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.