Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I came in as the MLA for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh in the 19th Assembly and re-elected in the 20th Assembly. When I came to this job, I came with good experience. What I brought to the table is -- as a tradesman in the carpentry. I built a lot of homes throughout the North, worked for PCL, Clark Builders. I did my time in the construction industry. I worked in construction management. And before even Nunavut was here, I worked all over the whole Northwest Territories. And I also sat on the national AFN housing board back in the 1990s, late 1990s. And even at that time, right across Canada we're probably about 120,000 homes short. And here in the Northwest Territories, today we're about 10,000 homes short. And back in the early days with the GNWT government, they had a really good program in place with the Government of Canada and CMHC where they built homeownership programs, they had money for emergency repair programs, money for senior citizen home repair programs, home improvement programs was a big one where they retrofitted homes. And these homes now today are aging out about 40,000 homes. The life cycle of a house is about 50 years before you need a complete retrofit. And it's a big issue here in the North in regards to housing.

I brought this up in the 19th Assembly and spoke passionately about it, and here in the 20th Assembly I'm doing the same thing again. But when I ran for MLA for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, housing was one of my top priorities. And what I heard was, you know, we got to do something about housing. We need homeownership repairs. Just imagine if we -- if the fire marshal comes into our communities and look at our HAP houses today that's been built back in the, you know, late '80s, it would be concerning. So I'm really concerned that if that ever happened, how are we as a government going to deal with that issue with the housing crisis we already are in?

So I put forward ideas because I brought forward issues on housing to the housing Minister back in the 19th Assembly and the 20th Assembly. When we got together as MLAs when we first got elected in the 20th Assembly, we listened to all the leaders up and down the Valley that came to Yellowknife, all the MLAs came forward and brought their issues forward, and we came up with four priorities, and housing is number one. And I'm deeply concerned here in the 20th Assembly that we're not putting a lot of money into the efforts of homeownership, affordable homes. And how are we going to meet the demands about 10,000 homes short we need today? So there is a big concern. And I know that when this government -- when we put in the Premier and the Cabinet Ministers, you know, a lot of housing issues were carried over from the last Assembly.

In the last Assembly, I asked the question about austerity and basically it was said that at the time that this issue will be brought forward to the 20th Assembly. Now we're at $2.29 billion as a government, $1.6 million in the deficit. We're $1.6 billion that comes from grants and contribution from the Government of Canada. And that's probably earmarked for Indian, Metis, and Inuit. And it feels like for me, any time I go to government and ask for help, it's like I become a beggar in my homeland and going to the government to ask for help for our people in our small communities. And it's really tough, especially when we have that kind of money that comes from Ottawa, from the Crown. And that's something that I'm hoping that this government and the 20th Assembly will take a look at. But right now the words been thrown around here is notional that was brought in our caucus meeting. And believe me that when we went into a caucus meeting we had, it wasn't -- it was a tough go around because we all had our own views about housing. We brought forward our issues. We had disagreements. And I do apologize to my colleagues, we -- sometimes we step on each other's toes. But at the outcome at the end is that I think what we want to bring forward what we hear from our people in the community. And, you know, the Cabinet is -- we got a good Premier here. We have a good Cabinet. We just got to figure a way as to how we all could work together. And, you know, at the end of the day, we're all on the same ship here. But somehow I don't want to lose sight of what the vision here of the North is is going to be of the 20th Assembly, is that housing is number one. We have to figure a way going forward that we could look at new ways to deliver housing, homeownership repairs, etcetera.

I put forward an initiative because I already knew that every time I went to go see the Minister, I'd knock on the door, they said they got no money or they got policies that says I can't help you. So I put forward an idea that I wanted to do homeownership inspections in my riding, and I figured what the houses -- what state they're in and figure out what it cost for bringing up that unit to code and do that for all four communities, and then work with the GNWT government because I'm tired of trying to say, okay, well, it's all on you. But no, I got to figure a way how we can work together. And I'm really happy that this Cabinet had approved the monies to put aside to do this work. But I think that it'll go a long way if we continue to build that relationship because at the end of the day is that if a lot of these houses get written off or they burn down or something happens and the fire marshal steps in, shut these units down, we're going to be in big trouble.

So I'm -- I think it's a great idea that we continue to build that relationship. And even if this motion here today is defeated, we have to figure a way that it's going to continue to be in the main estimates so that we don't lose sight in that because, you know, at the end of the day, the people in the small communities throughout the Northwest Territories, really need help, and we were elected to be here for them and trying to look for solutions. So, Mr. Speaker -- I mean, Mr. Chairman, you know, this has been a very sensitive subject for me for a very long time.

As you know, our treaties are there, our treaty rights are recognized in the Canadian Constitution. We have UNDRIP. You know, we have a lot of treaty right issues here that needs to be talked about but I'm hoping maybe through the Council of Leaders we really need to take a look as to how we're going to talk about Constitution reform because sooner or later, all our claims are going to get done, we're going to be in a better position to start looking at self-government and manage some of these affairs that we could look at. And I'm hoping that through the Jim Bourque I'll table probably next session and continue to build on that.

So, Mr. Chairman, at this time I'm in favour of voting against the budget on this one here because it doesn't go far enough. And I'm doing this on behalf of my people. We are in a housing crisis, and the top priority of this government, it's just not meeting it right now. And I'm hoping that we'll continue to work together to make sure that we resolve this issue and look for new ways to provide better homes for the residents of the Northwest Territories. With that, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.