Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The total at the end of the fiscal year was $5,762,221 with the local housing organizations. I agree, it is not appropriate. We have asked all of the local housing organizations to provide us a game plan on what they are going to do with their surpluses because that money should be going into people's homes.

Also, in our budget, you will see there is a decrease of $212,000 that we have put into the local housing organizations. The reason we are doing that is, if they have over a $5 million surplus, we need to reuse that money for different areas, but it will be case-by-case because not all LHOs are equally at the same surplus. Ones with huge surpluses will be getting less funding until they can address their surpluses. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the answer. Could the Minister tell us what guidelines she is giving the LHOs to come up with their plan? What kind of guidelines has she asked them to meet in coming up with the plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The direction that we have given to the local housing organizations is that they need to use their surpluses, provide us with a plan on how they are going to use those surpluses to reinvest in housing stock and/or to do renovations to existing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, could the Minister clarify that, if an LHO had enough money to buy a unit or more than one unit, that they would be able to do that? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are open to any of the recommendations that the local housing organizations do provide. However, recognizing that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation will have ownership of those, it does need to fit within our own capital plans. If they have something that works with our capital plans, we are more than willing to work with them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not really sure what it means to fit within the capital plan. Could the Minister clarify, please?

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few months back, in the fall I believe it was, all of the departments provided their business plans to the Legislative Assembly. Within that business planning process was broken down a list of capital projects, and so each community has, within those approved business plans that we have already done, a list of the capital projects for each community. That is what I am referring to. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will leave that issue and go on to another one. That is utilities. During the business plan review, the corporation presented a plan for increasing the cost of utilities to tenants. I am wondering if we could have an update on when that plan is going to be implemented and whether it is the reason that utility costs are shown as going down on page 353. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The increase will be implemented April 1st. The goal of that is to try to actually get more people to conserve energy. When people don't pay for their own utilities, we tend to find a lot of open windows in communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what kinds of energy efficiency and furnace maintenance and so on is being offered to ensure that the houses themselves are in the best possible condition, in addition asking people to lower their utility consumption? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of the initiatives we are doing is preventative maintenance, where we will go in and actually check their furnaces, et cetera, so that we are on top of the game instead of behind the game. The other thing that we are doing is all new buildings and all retrofits are now using higher standard of insulation, triple-pane windows, LED lights, and boiler systems, to name a few of the energy efficiency things that we are implementing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister remind us please how much the utility costs are going up this year? I believe it is a multi-year plan, so what the utility costs will go up by each year rolling out? Thank you.