Q&A | N.W.T. housing minister not sure gov’t should be ones to provide public housing

The Northwest Territories’ housing minister said her department is discussing the possibility of non-government organizations (NGOs) or Indigenous governments taking over public housing in communities in the N.W.T.

A report from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada released Tuesday said the territory had poorly managed the condition of public housing in the territory. It found that Housing N.W.T. was inconsistent in applying its own policies, including in how it assigns homes and whether local housing organizations in communities were applying its point system — a system for allocating public housing based on factors like affordability, how long applicants have been waiting, and suitability.  

The audit also found the agency did not effectively manage the condition of public housing units. Housing Minister Lucy Kuptana said there are 45,000 outstanding work orders for repairs in public housing units across the territory. 

Many of the issues raised in this week’s report have been highlighted in previous auditor general reports in 2008 and 2012. 

Housing N.W.T. has accepted all of the Office of the Auditor General’s recommendations for improvement. Kuptana spoke with Shannon Scott, host of CBC's Trailbreaker, about her reaction to the report and her department’s next steps.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How surprised were you by the findings in this audit?

I wasn’t surprised at all.

If you knew that these were issues, why weren’t they being dealt with already?

I know the work is already being dealt with. This is a past performance review.

Coming in as minister, getting the many briefings and the updates, understanding the situation with housing. I think the most important thing that I did is actually going into people’s homes and looking at the conditions to understand where they’re coming from. Seeing is believing so that’s why I say I wasn't surprised. 

So you knew that these issues existed, what was being done before this audit to change it?

Housing is limited in funding. I pushed very hard to get additional funding for housing in the Northwest Territories. So that happened in the main estimates for early 2025.

I feel like money isn’t really the main point of this audit. Housing N.W.T., it was found, was not making sure units were allocated based on need. Even though there was a criteria that units were allocated that way no one checking their own criteria applied. Why wasn’t that being done?