Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, MLAs and the public received the territorial housing needs assessment. I want to compliment the Minister and department on getting this done. We know this document is what we needed to take our next steps on addressing housing needs in the territory. As the assessment states itself, this gives us data-driven requests to bring to the federal government and ensure that we have long-term investment into our housing continuum in the areas where the most need has been identified. The assessment speaks for itself. The need is massive, and I don't think that comes as a surprise to anyone, certainly not in this building. I want to draw a few items from the highlights in the document, which I think are particularly notable, for this Assembly.
There is limited housing availability across all areas of the housing spectrum. The availability of non-market and affordable rental housing in particular is limited, especially housing designed for singles and small families. With more than 800 households on the waiting list for public housing across the NWT, there remains significant demand for lower-income, non-market housing. To put that in plain language, we need to increase our public housing stock to reduce this waitlist.
There is a significant need for transitional housing across the territory, and particularly in the regional centres, to offer pathways from homelessness to other forms of housing. Mr. Speaker, we've made some good strides on that, and I am very excited about the recent announcement making transitional housing permanent at Rock Hill.
Perhaps the one I find the most frustrating is that the report highlights that land availability continues to be a limiting factor to housing development due to lack of developed residential land and often complex processes for acquiring land to develop. While some of the areas I've highlighted require significant investment and help from the federal government to fully address, the land barrier is something which is entirely within our control, so I want to ensure that the commitments in this budget to more staffing and addressing timelines in the process more directly, as we discussed in Committee of the Whole, will mean we get out of our own way.
Overall, Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear today that while we need federal investment, I am committed to ensuring that we continue to put territorial investment on the table as well, as this Assembly has done and the next Assembly will need to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.