Nunavut’s sixth assembly is entering its final sitting before the territorial election, and house leader David Joanasie said he expects their budget and housing to be key issues for discussion.
Members will sit from Sept. 8 to 18 in a fall sitting much earlier than its usual late-October sitting.
The assembly will be dissolved on Sept. 21 ahead of Nunavut’s seventh election, which is set to happen no later than Oct. 27.
Joanasie said the assembly still has several bills to discuss, and he expects there will be questions about public housing coming out of Thursday and Friday’s hearings where members discussed an Auditor General’s report from May.
That report said the Nunavut Housing Corporation has not provided Nunavut residents with equitable access to suitable public housing and that the corporation didn’t know whether units were being allocated to those who needed them most.
“Housing was a big topic and continues to be,” Joanasie said.
The fall sitting is typically when the assembly introduces its capital budget. Since it’s an election year, the capital plan won’t introduce anything new — it will only map interim spending to fund projects that have already been started.
“It’s also with the mind of setting up the next assembly and the next government up for success,” Joanasie said.
And as always, Joanasie said, members will bring forward concerns from their constituents.
