Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The successful proponent of this project is committed to make every effort to involve local and northern labour and goods and services in this project, and I am glad to update the House here today that within the project agreement $70 million has been identified for local and northern businesses.

The numbers that I have got to date, to the end of May of this year, we have seen over $24 million spent on local and northern companies, and at this time, 11 northern companies are fully engaged in major projects on the Stanton project to date, with more tenders yet to be coming out to finish up the building as it moves along. The range of work that has been done so far by local and northern businesses is drilling, blasting, water and sewer work, concrete production, waterproofing, elevator services, and such. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is good to see that the project is contributing to economic growth of our North. I have some questions on the labour side, the trades progression capitalization on experience to further the apprentice as mentioned by the honourable Minister for ECE earlier. We have 400 tradespeople that are currently working, and I imagine some of them are on this project. Can the Minister elaborate a little bit more on the training plan included in this project and how many trades we will see upon completion?

We are working with a joint venture to get these exact figures for the Members of the House of how many northern workers, but as work progresses from day to day, labour amounts change. They fluctuate up and down on who is on site, but from everything that has been presented to me, there are roughly between 60 and 130 people that are working on site, given the scope of work that is going on, but there are also a number of people who work off-site, potentially up to 70 people around administration, designers, engineers, quality assurance, those sorts of things, Mr. Speaker. As far as apprenticeships go, we understand that there are approximately 15 apprentices that are working on site right now on this present project. We are going to work along with ECE and NAPEG to get the full scope of that, so I can have those numbers readily available as well.

I am glad to hear that number, 15, and if we can encourage those individuals to complete their apprentice and capitalize on their hours needed to complete their journeyman certification, those would be good targets for the project. My next question is: where is the project time, and where is the schedule now?

In discussions with the joint venture on Stanton, the project is on schedule as projected. We expect to service commencement of the facility on November 30, 2018, and we work very closely with them on tracking this issue very closely going month to month with this project moving forward. We believe the project is about approximately 30 per cent complete right now.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Seeing that we are at the benchmark of 30 per cent completion here, I will have further questions down the road when we are at 60 per cent. Mahsi.

---Laughter

More of a comment. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the NWT Housing Corporation. In the past, the Minister has stressed the belief that home ownership is the way for people to get housed without relying on public housing and to free up units for those who need them. Yet, with only 20 Yellowknife families taking up the offer of assisted home ownership in the last 10 years, this faith seems to be a little misplaced. Will the Minister now re-examine the home ownership program and find out how to increase the uptake? Mahsi.

Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I speak broadly that home ownership, in my belief, is a way for people to take more pride in their belongings and it is a goal that most people achieve towards from when we leave our parents' house, I seriously believe that. However, I also recognize that one size does not fit all, and so we have to look at each community separately. Within the smaller communities, it may be a better possibility. Within the capital city, the majority of our public housing units are actually in multi-dwelling buildings where home ownership might not be as feasible. That is why I have committed to looking at a rent subsidy program, which might work better for people within market communities, certainly within our capital city. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister. In her general statements, the Minister has asserted that, relying on the shift to home ownership, the Housing Corporation is not adding to its housing stock. So there is still a problem of availability of housing in Yellowknife. There is not enough in any form. Will the Minister, as a result of her survey, consider taking the cap off of the housing inventory and try to get more resources to build additional homes or apartments?

We are working diligently with the federal government as well, and CMHC has made an agreement to put a hold on the declining funding just for this year, but they have still stated that in 2038, those operating and maintenance monies will be gone. With that in effect, we have to look at ways that we can actually support our residents in the Northwest Territories in meeting their housing needs.

At this point, I am not looking at increasing our public housing units, but I do believe that the Rent Supplement Program for the City of Yellowknife would address that need. For example, if I build one house in Yellowknife and it costs me $500,000; if I give people $500 a month, $6,000 a year, towards a rent supplement program, I can support hundreds of families versus one family in the same amount of money. So those are the areas that we are looking at. How do we make our resources go further versus expanding things that we have not figured out how to pay for yet.

Given that answer, then, is the Minister willing to provide a rent supplement for additional units, since those units need not be owned; they could be rented, to increase the availability of housing?

The Rent Supplement Program will be exactly that. It will not be supplementing units that we already own within the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. They will be supplementing market rental units so that we can reach more lower-income families and individuals within our market communities.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is good news from the Minister. I finally want to talk about the federal budget in March. Ottawa announced a transfer of $36 million to the NWT over 10 years to provide for more housing. That compares to $240 million over 10 years in Nunavut. Why did we end up with the short end of the stick from Ottawa on housing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am as confused as the Member in trying to understand why we got short-changed in the northern housing strategy, and so I am actually flying down to Ottawa this Sunday to meet with the Minister responsible for the CMHC, Mr. Duclos. Mr. Duclos, right after the budget was released, did give me a call the next day and promised me that he would provide me a funding formula, because we do support our other territories; however, Nunavut has double of the amount of needs for housing and got eight times the funding. We are asking for an explanation for why we got short-changed within that funding, and also to advocate that we can access more housing monies as it comes out, because a lot of the money for Indigenous people is only on reserve, and we do not qualify for that funding. We are having a face-to-face meeting Monday to discuss all of the issues with the Northwest Territories and our feeling of needing more support from the federal government.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I and my colleagues recognize that the current funding structure for the shelters has led to some challenges and some inconsistencies. Last year, I did direct the department of Health and Social Services to examine and work with the shelters to identify some of these immediate pressures. As a result of this work, we were fortunate to receive $120,000 in new funding to offset the increased operating costs of family violence shelters across the Northwest Territories.

When I met with the shelter network in 2016, I also committed to exploring the potential for a more equitable funding formula. At that time, I indicated, give us a little bit of patience, work with us. We will be in a better position to start discussions in August 2017. That has not occurred yet. We have had some initial work done. We have been working on some preliminary information with the shelter leads, but we have not begun the negotiations around a funding formula yet, and we will not be getting that until August at the earliest. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am aware that there have been some talks, you could call them, with the shelter network and the individual shelters. There have been calls from the department saying, "How much do you spend on staff?" or questions like that. The department is doing something. I am not sure what this preliminary work is, but if the department is trying to figure out what the needs are, why are the shelters not being engaged now in this preliminary work?