Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you so much to MP McLeod as well.
We see the significant barriers in the Northwest Territories in trying to access the funding that is available from the federal government and looking at the criteria that is expected, as well as the lengthy process for that.
I really want to bring this to the grassroots. We have indigenous organizations and representatives that are trying to access this funding. They don't have the capacity to be submitting these proposals going forward with the amount of information that is required for these bills and for the type of housing they need. They don't have the capacity to try to address these strong concerns leading right to mental health, to overcrowding and to addiction.
Looking at those barriers, and working with the indigenous groups, I want to look at understanding those barriers for the smaller communities and isolated communities.
We're looking at one of the concerns that was brought up, which was pursuing and looking for consultants throughout the territory to submit these applications going forward. That is not just time-consuming, but to understand [Technical difficulty—Editor]. The housing corporation has done that. We've hired an employee to work directly with CMHC here in the Northwest Territories to further explain what those criteria are like for the indigenous groups to access the funding.
The other thing is the operation and maintenance. The timing of the CMHC funding has put the Northwest Territories in a panic. We are looking at the year of 2038 and what that looks like for the Northwest Territories, and we're looking at our operation and maintenance funding for that as well.
There's also direct funding that can be available to the territories, so that we can work directly with our indigenous groups and the 33 communities, and start replenishing the 2,600 units that we've been operating and maintaining for the past 50 years.