Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I have with me here today Ms. Eleanor Young, president of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, and Jim Martin, vice-president of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Thank you.

Welcome. Committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document? Yes, we will defer the Housing Corporation summary on page 373 and review the estimates by activity summary, beginning with community housing services starting on page 377, with information item on page 378. And I'll entertain questions from the committee. Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Previously, I know a number of local housing organizations have expressed their interest to be able to go and get money from the federal government. I know the Yellowknife Housing Authority would love to be able to submit to these various federal funding pools, but they are not permitted to. Can we just explain why we won't let these organizations get money? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The local housing authorities run under a service agreement that is binding with the Housing Corporation. They are not government employees, and they are not a nonprofit organization. I will have Ms. Eleanor Young elaborate on the response. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Deputy minister.

Mahsi. Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I guess -- so there's kind of this weird thing going on where there's local housing organizations and then there's authorities and some, in fact, are nonprofits registered under the Society's Act, and I'll note that those ones actually can't be investigated by the ombud, which is a weird kind of mistake that was made in that schedule.

But is there any actual reason for this difference between some of them being nonprofits and some being, you know, essentially creatures of statute under the act? Is this something we're going to correct, or is there actually a reason for it? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the action of the renewal coming forward, we will be working very closely with the local housing authorities but should they want to submit, they can submit through the Housing Corporation with our support. I will have Mr. Jim Martin, vice-president, to elaborate on a response. Mahsi.

Vice-president Martin.

Mahsi, Mr. Martin. Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I guess I -- you know, this happened long before I think any of us, even Mr. Martin. I'm just trying to understand if there's any reason why there is creatures of statutes that are authorities and then just nonprofit societies associations with different powers doing different things with different reporting structures and if there's any benefit to having these two different systems run on maintenance. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. Minister.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So with our renewal, we are going to be looking at all policies and agreements throughout the corporation, and this is one of them as well, too, that we're working very closely with and also reviewing our contract agreements with them as well too. So I can follow up with the Member. And just to be very clear, you know, we are working towards changes going forward with the corporation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, another kind of anomaly is they all somewhat have different appointment mechanisms. Yellowknife specifically, the mayor and a group of Yellowknife MLAs get together and we decide who is on the Yellowknife Housing Authority. Others are directly appointed by the Minister. Some have a bit more community input. This is according to some ministerial directive out of the 90s, I believe. But I really don't think it's my role to decide who's on the Yellowknife Housing Authority, and in fact, I would like them to be at arm's length nonprofit that perhaps some sort of membership has input on who sits on that board. Are we going to look at how we appoint people to these authorities and associations as part of the review? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And that's exactly what are going -- we are working with right now. The other thing that I have noticed is you're correct, that we do have some Indigenous groups that do have representation on these boards. We do have forms of leadership as well too. But we're looking at pursuing those changes.

One of the things that I have -- I have mentioned too when re-electing these board of directors I guess is that I don't want them to serve more than two consecutive terms. So I've made that very clear throughout the Northwest Territories. But going forward, we will see a more streamlined clear approach when we're dealing with the LHOs. And if we're looking at those changes and there's no relevancy to having those representation in selecting the boards, then we will be working closely with the LHOs throughout the territory. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Mr. Johnson.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I, you know, what I envisioned happening here is probably not a one-size-fits-all model. I think some Indigenous governments probably want to take over the LHOs and run that maintenance function. I personally, in Yellowknife, don't believe we need one at all. I would be happy to tender maintenance, either privately or to the municipality, to a dev corp, anyone, or in fact just bring them into the housing corp. And I know there's a lot of cost in having these LHOs. They each have an office. They each have staff. They each have admin. They each have a board. And, you know, I think a review of -- I guess I'll just speak on behalf of Yellowknife. I'm not sure that we're getting the benefit there, considering they're not actually allowed to make any decisions about applying for funding or buying units or even who we lease from.

So in reviewing this, are different options on the table? Can we perhaps, you know, look at some cost savings or just, you know, a variety of models of how we provide, you know, essentially the maintenance and property management and the collection of rents in communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. Minister.