The NWT’s housing minister, responding to a damning audit, insisted “concrete steps” are being taken to address major deficiencies in social housing programs.
The Office of the Auditor General released a report this week that found Housing NWT’s monitoring and evaluation were sorely lacking.
As a result, the auditors said, Housing NWT did not know:
- if its points-based system to determine which applicants have priority was being used appropriately at community level;
- if homes in communities were being maintained and rated properly; or
- if the right people were being accepted into its programs.
Housing minister Lucy Kuptana said the audit was a “call to action and we’re answering it – we are going to make changes and do things differently.”
Kuptana promised Housing NWT will:
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- update policies, improve tracking systems and roll out more training “to ensure fair and consistent” allocation of housing;
- review the structure of local housing organizations “to strengthen governance” and explore best practices from across Canada;
- more frequently review and evaluate programs;
- set clearer performance measures; and
- expand reviews of housing condition “to ensure consistent and timely maintenance.”
All of that takes capacity. Senior officials said Housing NWT will “redirect internal capacity” – and hope for extra territorial or federal support, while working with partners like Indigenous governments – to try to get everything done.
Federal auditors usually assess at least one aspect of the NWT government’s operations each year because the territory has no audit office of its own.
The Office of the Auditor General carried out audits of Housing NWT in both 2008 and 2012, and said this week that some of its recommendations from those reports remained outstanding.
At a separate news conference, senior assistant auditor general Paule-Anny Pierre said the steps being missed by Housing NWT were “basic.”
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“When you think of individuals who are going through hardship, every moment, instant that passes by where they don’t have access to suitable housing, it puts them at risk,” she said.
“We are disappointed at the lack of progress on some of these issues.”
Some changes coming by spring 2026
In her own news conference responding to the audit, Kuptana said she had “seen the state of housing in communities across the Northwest Territories and fully acknowledge the need for change.”
“It’s important that we’re consistent, that we’re monitoring, that we’re following up, and that we’re actually monitoring our own performance rather than having the OAG come back every couple of years saying we’re doing a bad job. We need to do it ourselves,” the minister said.
“If you don’t have a home then how can you function? And this goes to every community. We need to have good homes for people to flourish and if we don’t have that at the community level, then our territory is going to fail.”
However, addressing the audit’s many recommendations – all of which the GNWT said it had accepted – will require change from the same senior management team that was overseeing social housing for at least some of the audit period.
The audit covered the period from April 1, 2023 to April 1, 2025. Kuptana has been the housing minister since December 2023, while Erin Kelly became the president of Housing NWT in November 2024.
“We’ve hired a program review specialist and part of that is to make sure we’re being effective and efficient with our delivery,” Kelly said this week.
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She said Housing NWT will be “looking across the country at ways others are doing this work, and also working through the NWT housing forum with Indigenous governments on ideas for how we can do this work better.”
In a follow-up written statement, Housing NWT said it was working on “organizational change” including a review of its corporate structure “to ensure we’re well-positioned to deliver programs effectively across the territory.”
That review will look at “gaps and capacity challenges” that exist now or are expected in the future, the agency stated. A staff-wide survey has already taken place.
“This work will continue with internal engagement that will lead to recommendations, implementation of change and ongoing monitoring. We aim to complete this review and implement changes by spring 2026,” Housing NWT stated.
