Honourable Lucy Kuptana, Minister Responsible for Housing NWT and Status of Women, joined Member for Sahtu Danny McNeely on a four-day constituency tour of the Sahtu region. Held from September 10-13, 2025, the tour included visits to Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope and Tulita to hear community housing needs directly from residents.

During the tour, the Minister and MLA attended public meetings in each community and completed home visits of public housing units to assess the conditions and better understand community need. Meeting conversations aimed to create open communication and understanding between communities and the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), with topics such as new builds, repairs and modernizations of units, tenant supports, contractor support, and community safety.

A highlight of the visit included a tour of the K’asho Got’ı̨nę Trades Centre in Fort Good Hope, a nearly complete project led by Ne’Rahten Developments Ltd. in partnership with the K’asho Got’ı̨nę Housing Society and Taylor Architecture Group. This community-owned facility will help build modular homes while creating permanent local jobs. This project was showcased to the Minister of Housing and MLA McNeely as a best practice, that has the potential to serve as a model for future community-driven housing initiatives across this region and the NWT.

Minister Kuptana and Housing NWT officials also met with the Chief and Council of Fort Good Hope, and jointly committed to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding to further address housing needs in the community.

Quotes:

"Decisions are better when they are rooted in what we see and hear directly from communities. We saw promising local capacity, and heard clear priorities directly from residents in Norman Wells, Tulita and Fort Good Hope. These communities face unique challenges, and as our government commits a dedicated budget to public housing, we need to ensure those investments are reaching the people who need them most. Touring the K’asho Got’ı̨nę Trades Centre showed what’s possible when communities lead the way, creating housing and employment opportunities that respond to local realities."

- Lucy Kuptana, MLA for Nunakput and Minister responsible for Housing NWT and Status of Women 

"I would like to express my gratitude to Housing NWT Minister Lucy Kuptana and President Erin Kelly for the insightful Sahtu tour. The demand for housing in our region, and the challenges are compounded by the need to address aging social housing in the north. A noteworthy innovation is the construction centre in Ft. Good Hope, which represents a creative approach to meeting housing demands while also providing essential skills training for capacity building in the Sahtu."

- Daniel McNeely, MLA for Sahtu

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