Thank you, Member. Minister for NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll have president Young respond. Thank you.

Thank you. President Young.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I just wanted to -- I have one last question just on page 383 at the bottom there is utilities, and I note that the actuals for 2020-2021 were at 398 and that the main estimates for 2022-2023 come back down to the standard we see every year of 232. And I'm just wondering if the Minister can confirm why the jump in utilities and why that's expected to come back down to the main estimate number. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll have vice-president Jim Martin respond.

Thank you. Vice-president Martin.

Thank you, vice-president. Are there any further questions under this section? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I just wanted to sort of reiterate a little bit of what my colleague from Kam Lake is saying around just these numbers around the homelessness initiatives.

As I'm looking further into the housing issues in my riding, one of the things that's coming -- becoming apparent to me is that the lack of support services for the homeless and vulnerable populations then impacting the housing clients that are now in those apartments that are neighboring the downtown core, and so at first I was under the impression it was other people within the building but now I'm sort of getting the picture that it's often just people wandering in from off the street that really don't have a connection in the building. So I guess I'm just a little bit disappointed to see that we're not really increasing our homelessness initiatives by that much. I mean, there is an increase but is there a plan to expand these services in the next fiscal year after this, or are we going to see sort of a status quo budget for homelessness in the next while? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, just with the -- when I had gotten the portfolio, my -- one of my goals was to establish a homelessness initiative throughout the whole of the Northwest Territories. The only two ridings that don't have any homelessness initiatives is Nunakput and the Sahtu, and we did establish one in Hay River and one in Fort Simpson and just trying to look at providing those services outside of Yellowknife but also recognizing our nonprofit organizations do exist here, our volunteers do exist here, and they don't necessarily have them set up yet in the -- in the smaller areas. But for the -- for further -- further response, I'll have Jim Martin, vice-president, respond. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice-president Martin.

Thank you, vice-president. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm just a little bit worried about a strategy that's going to take a while and then it'll take a bit more time to implement, and I'm just worried that in the meantime the people in the downtown core are falling further and further behind, as well too the impacts and social impacts on families living in the downtown core is huge when I hear 7-year-olds tell me that they're scared to come home or walk into the building with their mom, that's worrisome to me, or a mother with a four-month old that's not even living in her unit because she doesn't want to bring her child around that. So I know this is all stuff that the Minister and the department is aware of, but I just wanted to take a moment to reiterate that this is really quite concerning and I think we're spending -- like my colleague says, spending more money on bandaid solutions than we are on, I think, long-term permanent solutions for our people. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. I didn't hear a question in there so I'll just leave it as a comment. Are there any further questions for the Minister under the finance and infrastructure services? Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just looking at, on page 384 is the transitional rent supplement program. I see there was 749 -- 749,000 and nothing after that. Is that something that was affected by a subset, or is it just something that's not required anymore? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Of course I cannot find this, but I know we did have an increase in intake for this program and we do have an agreement with the federal government, which is a 50/50 cost share, but I'll have vice-president Jim Martin respond further. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice-president Martin.