The NWT’s housing minister says the territory will join “all the other jurisdictions in Canada” by banning smoking in the social housing units it owns.
Speaking in the legislature on Thursday, Lucy Kuptana said Housing NWT is beginning work with local housing organizations this week to make the change.
“Eliminating smoking in our owned units will have positive health outcomes for our residents and reduce asset damage,” Kuptana said.
The ban will apply across all public housing and market rentals owned by Housing NWT.
“It is time for us to join all the other jurisdictions in Canada by eliminating smoking in our owned social housing units,” Kuptana concluded.
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The latest available data, from 2023, suggests 28 percent of NWT residents aged 15 or over currently smoke. By comparison, a nationwide survey from 2022 found that 12 percent of all Canadians aged 15 or over smoke cigarettes.
Smoking is most popular among NWT residents aged 15 to 34, where 32 percent of people say they are smokers. That drops to 22 percent for people aged 60 or over.
Almost 48 percent of the territory’s Indigenous population smokes, the 2023 NWT Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Survey found. That figure falls to 10 percent for the non-Indigenous population.
Housing NWT operates more than 2,400 public housing units. How a ban would be enforced in those units was not immediately made clear.
In Nunavut, a similar ban took effect in 2023. At the time, the CBC reported, the Nunavut Housing Corporation said enforcement of that ban could include evictions.
