Yellowknife candidates talk housing, cost-of-living at non-profit election forum

Yellowknife MLA candidates courted Northwest Territories non-profits at a candidate forum held at the Avens Seniors Centre on Thursday night.

As they answered questions about the cost of living, childcare, and food security, candidates praised non-profits for their work. 

"[Non-profits] are really the people that keep communities running," said Yellowknife Centre candidate Ambe Chenemu, a sentiment that was echoed by most of the candidates in attendance. 

The event was jointly hosted by six N.W.T. non-profits: Status of Women's Council of the NWT, YWCA NWT, Northern Mosaic Network, Yellowknife Women's Society, Native Women's Association of the NWT, and the NWT Seniors' Society.

All Yellowknife candidates were invited to the event. Sixteen candidates attended, including acclaimed candidates Caroline Wawzonek and Caitlin Cleveland. The only absences were John Stanley, who's running in Frame Lake, and candidates for Range Lake, who were attending their own riding forum. 

Around 40 people of all ages attended the forum, with older adults particularly well-represented.

One common theme was a lack of housing, especially for vulnerable populations. The YWCA asked about what could be done to improve housing for women, and the NWT Seniors' Society asked about seniors housing. 

Wawzonek and Great Slave candidate Stacie Arden Smith both said they believe more supportive housing for women is needed. 

Arden Smith added she would like governments to take a more active role in helping service providers find funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Matthew Spence said that he would like to see more housing built using a financial model like that of Northern United Place, where revenues from commercial rents are used to subsidize the costs of maintaining afforable rental units.

Great Slave candidate James Lawrance said he would like to see Housing NWT get back into the business of constructing housing.

The most tense moment of the night came when the Northern Mosaic Network asked candidates what they knew about the challenges faced by transgender, non-binary, and two-spirit people in the territory, and how they planned to address those challenges.

Yellowknife North candidate Jon Howe responded, saying  "gender's not an issue…If you're not getting invited to your neighbours birthday parties, I can't help you" and said that only women's and men's washrooms were mandates in building codes. 

After he spoke, some audience members booed, and Wawzonek brought up the comment later in the night, saying she was proud that her children attended a school with a non-gendered washroom.

But most of the night was spent on the nitty-gritty of how the territory worked with non-profits.

Many candidates — including Caitlin Cleveland, Shauna Morgan, and Robert Hawkins — emphasized the need to streamline the funding process for non-profits.

Others focused on the need to make more multi-year funding available. 

And several candidates — including Great Slave candidate Katrina Nokleby and Frame Lake candidate Julian Morse — spoke about the recommendations in a committee report on the non-profit sector presented to the 19th assembly.