Thank you. Mr. Martin.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Nothing further, thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are there any further questions under programs and district operations? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at the page 390 lease commitments, $14 million. Can I just get clarification whether the Housing Corporation in order to enter into leases has to go to FMB for approval and whether this $14 million commitment applies to our debt line? 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 Jim Martin.

Thank you. Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess before I leave, I just want to get a bit into this problem of, you know, we go out, we design a house for homeownership; it comes in far above the budget and a problem that is likely not getting better. I was hoping I could have the department speak to whether that design process was modular or stick-built and perhaps just generally whether we are heading in the direction of doing all modular building. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The design was stick-built. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Member.

Yeah, and I know the Housing Corp traditionally, and I understand, had a preference for stick-built. We're seeing a lot more modular units because, you know, with stick-built, you can kind of train apprentices and train more people. But can we get some updated figures on, you know, what it costs to deliver modular housing versus stick-built housing? Thank you.

Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the things that I was able to discover with the -- between the stick-built and the modular was the maintenance and the efficiency of it. We've delivered modular units to Nunakput and ended up with significant damages because of the houses being delivered by barge on the ocean. We've seen where we've had them up in the High Arctic communities where there's -- the weather conditions are -- are stronger, I guess, and we end up with a lot more operation and maintenance for those units.

And the Member is right as well too, that if we're looking at stick-built there is an opportunity there for education and training as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I appreciate the Minister's comments there. But I know at times there have been different public numbers kind of reported. I was hoping to just get some updated figures. I know with the 90 housing unit delivery, the vast majority are modulars is my understanding; in fact I think that was a requirement of the federal rapid rehousing program. So I'm just wondering if we could get -- you know, if we build something modular, how much does it cost versus stick-built, a figure. Thank you.

Member. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a significant difference in building the stick-built, but it's also the operation and maintenance and the climate that we're actually building those units in and if we're placing those modulars in those specific areas. So it depends on where the delivery will be taking place, north or south of the territory. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I'll try another time to get a numerical value there.

I guess my other question is I expressed earlier some concern about what LHOs do verse -- well, the Housing Corporation, and I think I would express those same concerns with what district -- sorry, what -- I don't know what to call it -- offices do verse LHOs. I get at some point, we want to have people in the community who are making decisions about housing and we want to have jobs in communities. But, you know, in Yellowknife, for example, we have a North Slave office, and we have a headquarters office, and then we have the Yellowknife Housing Authority office. And I really don't think we need all three. In fact, I think we probably just need one where you could go and talk about housing instead of three spots. And they all come with duplicative costs. I see there's multiple line items for their leases for their offices here. And I've had people go to the housing authority and say hey, can I have access to this program and they say, no, no. You go to -- you go to the North Slave office. And then they go to the North Slave office and they say no, no, you go to headquarters for that. So I -- I guess as part of this review, the Housing Corporation, my understanding does not need to organize itself like a department at all. It doesn't need to follow north and south and Slave and all of the ways that departments organize, and it doesn't need LHOs if it doesn't want to have them. Can look into whether there's some efficiencies on having both, you know, a district office and an LHO doing relatively similar things; is that something on the agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair.