Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Members know, and as I have mentioned in the House here, under our National Housing Strategy, we have about just over 1,300 units that we need to address, as a minimum, and as a government, we have looked at about 2,400 units that we address. I think that one of the big things here that we can be proud of is the bilateral agreement that we just did sign. O and M is a concern in terms of trying to add new stock, and I am going to leave questions around that in terms of our budget for O and M.

Going forward, we do have a lot of programs in place to address this. I think that. with the community housing plans that we have discussed, so that we can meet with leadership and talk with community members and NGOs on what their priorities are, we can start addressing this. You heard earlier today during question period that I did mention that we also have the Community Support Initiative that is going to help communities. Communities can apply for that program so that they can address it. There are a few things that we have in place, but really, it is going to take partnerships and working with communities so that we can help them in their needs in their communities. There are a lot of programs, but maybe for a little bit further detail, I will ask the president and CEO to speak to that through you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Williams.

Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I refer to divesting public housing, I am essentially asking the Minister if he has developed a strategy to either sell the public housing at a market rate in the communities where there is a market or a quasi-market or give the houses away to the public housing tenants themselves in communities where there is no market.

Right now, as it stands, the public housing units are for sale, but it is not feasible in the small communities for individuals to go to the bank to buy public housing units. They are appraised higher than they are worth. We have units that are written off and sold on a private bid for $4,000 or $5,000, but the exact same unit standing next door could be worth $75,000. My question is: would the Housing Corporation develop a plan to divest themselves of public housing? That would cut the cost down, and it would also start to create a bit of a market.

The Housing Corporation has gotten into the market just a bit. They have introduced some market housing in all of the communities, essentially to house, let's say, nurses and teachers. Now, there is a beginning of a market, but they haven't rounded it off by trying to sell or divest themselves of public housing units. Sell where you can and sign the rest over for nothing to people who have been in public housing for years and years, or even new tenants; it really doesn't matter. The bottom line is that it is going to save a lot of money for the government if they were no longer running public housing units that they don't have to be running. Plus, it will create a bit of a market, and a bit of a market is important. Once we create a bit of a market, whether we refer to it as a quasi-market, or not, what will happen is individuals will then be able to sell and buy houses and be more mobile from community to community. So that was my question, if the Minister is planning to divest themselves, the Housing Corporation, of public housing units. Thank you.

Thank you. The Member has about two minutes left on the clock. I am just noting that. Minister.

Okay, I will try to be really quick. I know he answered quite a bit, but obviously one of the couple of things that we are doing is the lease-to-own program. We want to make sure that people who are in public housing can have that opportunity to lease to own, and then that would help us create more public housing inventory. We are also looking at the new home ownership program. Every year, we are doing 50 disposable units so that, when we demolish units, we are able to create more. The Member makes a good point. We want to create a market, but at the same time we don't want to disrupt some of the private industry and the work that they are doing, but it is something that we are looking into and we are working with private investors.

In your case, Mr. Chair, we are looking at something in Hay River, where there is a big need. Then, like I said, the biggest thing is O and M for any new units, but we do have a plan. We are working with it and we just have to stay on top of it. We will keep committee and Members apprised as we move forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, I am not really clearly finding this section here, and that is the needs survey. Maybe just a simple question to ask the Minister: when will we see the results of the next needs survey? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That needs survey will be available this summer and, going obviously into the transition and the new government, it is something that we will definitely take a look at. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the Minister, based on the community housing development plans or community housing plans referred to the by the Housing Corporation, if there is any consideration to start working with the Indigenous governments to sign contribution agreements to have them take over some parts of the delivery of home ownership programs, not public housing. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister, the time has expired, but you may respond.

Yes. Thank you. At this moment, we don't, just to let the Member know, but that would be an interesting discussion when we have the Northern Housing Summit. It is going to be an opportunity for all leadership community members sitting in one room talking about the considerations and challenges that they are seeing, but we definitely will be looking into something like that. We have a great partnership with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, and I think one thing that is coming out of this Northern Housing Summit is we are going to have one voice of hopefully the whole territory to send to Ottawa, because on top of that, we are still trying to get Indigenous housing funding for some of our self-governments and our Indigenous governments and we will continue to seek that, too.

Thank you, Minister. Next, we have Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just need a clarification here in these main estimates there. It says that we have approximately 2,800 rental units in 33 communities, but now I am hearing you say it is 24, so which is correct? In the document here that we are looking at, it says 2,800: "It operates approximately 2,800 rental housing units in 33 communities." Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. The Member is referring to the first sentence on page 372. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When I did answer questions on the 2,400 public housing units, the 2,800 rental housing units also include market and HELP units. Some communities, we will obviously provide market units and HELP units, but, specific to the former Member's questions, the reference to 2,400 was our public housing units. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you. I appreciate the clarification. Can the Minister advise us how many market units and HELP units are presently part of your inventory? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Martin.

Thank you. Mr. Thompson.