The 19th Legislative Assembly is running the risk of being remembered as the collective of ministers and MLAs who pick up every policy and piece of legislation and reevaluate them.
The latest is a reassessment of the NWT Housing Corporation (NWTHC), which regular MLAs pushed through on March 10.
The NWTHC is being directed to update its policies to incorporate its role in social wellness and, before evicting tenants, provide referrals to appropriate government programs. Kam Lake MLA Caitlin Cleveland made reference to the 2019 NWT Community Survey that showed close to half of homes in the territory have at least one major problem.
There are myriad problems with houses North of 60, the biggest one being that there are too few of them.
Housing Minister Paulie Chinna, having inherited the oft-troubled portfolio, has been feeling the heat since becoming boss of the NWTHC.
She had to defend the housing corporation in February 2020 when a plan to convert the Arnica Inn into 42 units of transitional housing initially fell through due to what was clearly poor communication between the NWTHC and the federal government.
Last October, Hay River South MLA Rocky Simpson put Chinna on the spot by asking why, after two years, "not a penny of the National Housing Co-Investment Fund has been accessed by an NWT-based builder.
The minister promised to make a greater effort to tap into $60 million for affordable housing through that fund.
Simpson targeted Chinna again last week, calling on Premier Caroline Cochrane to fire the housing minister, but the Premier refused to bite.
Cochrane is exceedingly familiar with the territory's housing woes, having served as minister in 2017 when a 110-page community survey report was released. The document reflected nearly 1,500 responses from all communities, and Cochrane travelled extensively to see and hear about the issues firsthand.
Some of the common themes included a need for more public housing, overcrowding, improving the accessibility and delivery of home ownership programs, and strong support for "integrated approaches to address homelessness, identifying partnerships as key to achieving successful outcomes."
Some residents offered "very detailed ideas on potential solutions."
Ten per cent of survey respondents identified themselves as homeless, by the way.
"This survey and its results will initiate a broad evaluation and review of Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's programs to ensure that they meet the needs of residents and that programming supports the goal of decreasing core need," Cochrane wrote at the time. "The survey will inform a thorough cost analysis on different types of housing programs, including home ownership versus public housing options."
The landscape hasn't changed much over the intervening years. There's no need to reinvent the wheel.
Yellowknife MLA Rylund Johnson and Frame Lake MLA Kevin O'Reilly are singing from the same songbook on this topic.
Johnson said clear leadership is needed that would go to Ottawa with a plan and secure funding to "truly move the dial on housing. Absent us doing it, it will not happen."
O'Reilly expressed similar sentiment: "We have to have the case ready and the ask ready and make that the priority when we go to Ottawa. It's not about big infrastructure projects, it's about housing."
So, with the clouds of Covid gradually lifting, Chinna and Cochrane should be preparing to book tickets to the nation's capital with firm demands to fix the NWT's housing hardships. While there, put in a good word for the City of Yellowknife and the Yellowknives Dene's rapid housing proposals.
We can't afford to take no for an answer.