We have a staff retention policy that applies to affected employees, and we take every opportunity to try and find other positions within the Government of Northwest Territories for these employees. The preference would be their home department, but if that is not the case, then we do work to try to find other positions for the employees.

I am familiar with the staff retention policy. In fact, I mentioned one of the retention policies in my Member's statement; giving somebody 80 per cent of their salary for one year to go to school. My question is more: would the Affirmative Action Policy apply the same way when we hire individuals? We use a priority; priority one, priority two, and people who do not have a priority. I am wondering if that policy would apply when you are contemplating layoffs.

For staffing of positions, we do apply the Affirmative Action Policy for the layoff of employees. We have the Staff Retention Policy. It is just the layoffs; so it does not matter -- that is not the right way to put it. The affirmative action would not apply to layoffs as well.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is something that does not make me happy, but it is what it is, and I will move on to my next question. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister can commit to doing a socioeconomic analysis of staff members when they are laid off. In my Member's statement, I talked about the loss of actual people to the Northwest Territories. If we lay someone off and they take their family and four of them go down south, we lose transfer payments, which could be potentially higher than the salary that we are saving by reducing that position. Again, my question is: would the Minister commit to applying socioeconomic analysis when they lay individuals off regardless of their status? Thank you.

I am not willing to commit to something until I know more about it. We have 5,000 employees within the government system. We have had a number of people the last few years who have been affected. I am not sure where the Member is going with this, if they want us to apply what effect it might have on the family or whether we may lose people or not. I do not think that it's something that we currently do, and it is not something that I am willing to commit to do until I know more about it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, in my statement, I made an attempt to try to outline the progress of the housing issue on the Hay River reserve. A term that I use to describe the sense of despair that the constituents feel, in my language what it means is that there is a sense of futility, the acceptance that nothing will be done in regards to housing. That is how some people feel on the reserve. My question is today, Northwest Territories Housing Corporation Minister: would the Minister advise the House on the progress that has been made on the 10 units on the Hay River reserve? Mahsi.

Masi. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the 10 units on the Hay River reserve were negotiated with the Hay River reserve and the federal government to get the units and the land leases that were held by the federal government. During this fiscal year, we actually will be doing renovations to the building, to some of the units. It will take some time. We currently have one person in those units who was in that unit when we took it over from the K'atlodeeche First Nation band. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the Minister for providing that update. The Minister had stated that there is one occupant one of several houses that had been focused on in terms of getting them ready for people to access them, and they are being renovated. Can the Minister advise what progress has been made on the remaining six homes? I understand there are six other homes as well.

The process to actually get the 10 units under the Housing Corporation has taken a few years, actually. It was a huge process trying to negotiate with the federal government to get the land turned over to the Housing Corporation, so we are still in the process of trying to get the other six units secured from the federal government. I cannot give a timeline. All I do know is it took quite a bit of time to get the initial 10 units, but we are working diligently with the federal government to try to get this done as soon as possible.

On the reserve, too, aside from the 10 houses that have been the focal point of this government and the federal government to try to get them to a point where they could be accessible and liveable by people from the reserve, there are other units on the reserve that are abandoned and unoccupied. At the same time, their existence is to the point where they are derelict. What is the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation's plans for those houses?

Derelict buildings throughout the Northwest Territories are an issue for the Housing Corporation. Once they reach the stage of being derelict, they are no longer transferable to people. It is not appropriate to give them to people for home ownership, and the cost to renovate them is more substantial than actually to build new units. We are working very actively to address the derelict buildings within the communities. I believe we have over 33 in this fiscal year that we have taken off. We will, every year, be looking at demolishing the derelict buildings, but it is important to note that, every year when we do the housing assessment, more derelict buildings may be identified. It will be an ongoing issue, but hopefully not to the extent that it is now.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the reserve, and like the whole of the NWT, there is a shortage of housing. How is the department working to address people who are waiting for housing? I understand, in some communities, the waiting list is pretty long. How is the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation addressing people who are seeking to get into housing off the waiting lists? Mahsi.

Earlier in today's session, the honourable MLA spoke about wanting to be able to reach a time that he would no longer have to say that housing on the Hay River Reserve was an issue. I would also like to reach a time that I can say housing within the Northwest Territories will never be an issue; however, I am not so sure that that will come during my term, but I can say that we are working diligently to address the issue of the wait list.

Housing is a major component of peoples' wellbeing. It's critical that people have a house. With the program renewal that we are currently in, there's a number of strategies that we will be implementing. I did speak earlier in this session about having a Minister's statement at the end of the last week of session, but if I keep getting the questions I might not get to do much of a statement. Some of the things that we are doing that we will be talking about is a lease-to-own program for people who are higher-income but still fall within the core needs, so that their units can actually be moved into home ownership, which will free up more space for public housing units. We have the Community Housing Support Program that we're working with Indigenous and/or municipal governments to see if we can work in partnership to address housing needs. We're looking at a brand new home design, which will accommodate larger families and also accommodate people with disabilities or seniors. In the market communities, we're looking at a different model of a rent supplement program that will be available to individuals, both through the government, the Housing Corporation, or else through non-government organizations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice. During the last Capital Estimates, Members approved funds for an enhanced perimeter fence and security upgrades for the North Slave Correctional Centre. I'd like to know whether the work on this fence has been completed. Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Justice.

Mr. Speaker, really there are two fences that we're talking about. There are the improvements that are needed as a result of the critical incident of August 2016, and a budget was approved for this work, but the bids came in a lot more than expected.

With respect to the perimeter fence, the tenders closed on August 29, 2017. I'm not sure whether the contract has been formally awarded yet, but I can find that information out and provide that to the Member opposite. Thank you

Yes, it is a result of the incident that took place last year. Clearly, enhanced security was required and, as I say, a budget was approved, but the bids came in at far higher than expected. We are now going to a revised approach that hopefully will lead to an enhanced security so that the inmates will be able to use that area again, and hopefully this can be accomplished at a reasonable cost.

I wonder if the Minister could tell us when these improvements that were part of the RFP will be completed, when the inmates will be able to use that larger yard again.