Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, if we have more housing in small communities, there would not be any homeless issue. And if housing policy -- it's a housing policy that created a lot of homelessness too as well. You know, there's, like -- if you go to our warming shelter in Behchoko, all -- many of those people are there because of the housing policy. So it's the housing policy -- if housing policy was fixed, you know, we wouldn't have this issue. But if we -- all we need is more housing. And another one too is that for young people, okay. There's no support for young people who are between the age 18 and 19. Like, once they turn 18, the federal government child tax cuts off. They're legally adult. And so they're not eligible for income assistance. So what do we do with those young people? And so only when they turn 19 they are eligible. And we have young people who age out of youth in care. I know quite a few of those young people. They're good young people. You know, they are trying their best. They want to get out of the system. They don't want to be part of that child welfare system. They're working really hard. But sometimes because there's no safe place for them to live, they have no choice. You know, like some of them, they get stuck in an unwanted relationship. And so it shouldn't be like that. And it just seems like we don't have no program and services in place for these young people. We need more housing for these young people.

Like, I have -- I have quite a few in my constituents that are couch surfing. And they apply for income support because they don't have a room. They were denied. The family that are looking after them were denied income assistance. Everything costs money. And here we're talking about carbon tax yesterday. You know, and the fuel costs money to heat the home, so. And groceries, the cost of living. But some of these people, they love those kids so they're helping them in kind. But they do need the assistance. And this is where we are failing some of our young people. It is really sad. You know, like, I mean because some of these young people, they are working really hard. They don't want to be part of the system. They want to beat the system so they are working hard to be in school every day so that they can move on with their life. So they can do something better, you know, later on. They want to graduate from high school. But we're holding them back because we don't have all these system in place for them. Some of them are stuck. And they're making choices that, you know, that they don't want to make. And a lot of them are in a relationship that they shouldn't be in, and they're putting themselves at risk, and that's why a lot of these -- so me of those people that are helping them, they are trying their best to help them. And I know the family that are doing that. They are helping these young girls and young boys, so they don't have to get stuck in the system so that, you know, get them to move on.

They like -- we all want best for our youth. So if we have more program and services, just like, you know -- if we have more program and services for them, some of these issues, you know, will be dealt with, and more houses, they have a safe place to live, to sleep at night. They don't have to worry about where they're going to be going for tonight. And it's not just in my region; it's in other regions, as well and especially in Yellowknife too, you know. So we hear all kind of horror stories about -- from young people of what is going on out there. So I think this is -- the recommendation that we are making it's -- it's good. And I will continue advocating for our young people and for many of your vulnerable in my community and in the NWT. Thank you.