Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I guess just last comment here is I guess the mandate of the Housing Corporation, or the expectation of the Housing Corporation, would be able -- would be to maintain the units and the housing stock that it has. And the contributions and the dollars it's receiving through this budgeting process does not begin to cover the O and M required to take care of the units that they -- that they do have. And so I guess I question, then, how we are evaluating that as a government and holding them, I guess, accountable to the that they're asking, or being honest about what -- what providing -- what the cost is to provide housing in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm not in a position to speak on behalf of the Minister who is responsible, but if I could just have, perhaps, the deputy minister could speak a bit to the processes that might be involved, I'd suggest that, please.

Thank you. Deputy minister MacKay.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

No further questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any further questions under the directorate? Seeing none. Finance -- oh, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to pick off my colleagues talked about housing. I was just listening to what they were saying and when business plans go whether it's based on needs and when I take a look at the operational expenses of 121 million and 145 -- $125,145,000, and then you take a look at on the contribution agreement side it's $62 million. So far, the Housing Corporation's getting $183 million and yet our communities in Wiilideh -- in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh there's $5.4 million just to fix up the Housing Corporation assets.

You know, I'm still not too happy for the fact that here we are, we're asking money what we need for our communities for housing but yet, you know -- I want to bring forward what I think is needed for our communities for homeownership and homeownership repairs in our communities but, you know, we've been at this for 50 years and I'm not sure why the Housing Corporation doesn't have proper needs assessments for all the communities, especially in our riding and throughout the Northwest Territories, but yet here we are today we're looking at adding another $78 million here. So I don't know.

I think with AFN, like I said earlier, they had a housing shortage right across Canada of 45,000 in 2003, and here we are 20 some odd years later and, you know, back in 1999, when I first talked about this was -- and 2003 AFN, I had that much, but here in the North, we have 4,500 homes short. If anything, we should be double that now but we're now going backwards. So I don't understand how the GNWT could go forward and say okay, well, this is based on your need but yet nobody goes into our communities and talked to us. I mean, I've been the Chief. I hear it in the communities, old housing. And housing repairs, nothing. We're only going to fix up your ask is a $5.4 million. But we got a lot of houses -- we got 540 houses in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh riding and they -- a lot of these guys are -- I get messages every day. I got a -- I got a client -- a constituent in Lutselk'e that has sewage in their bathtub. And yet they apply for funding, yet they get turned down because they make too much or they don't make enough. So the barrier here is your policies that are prohibiting our people from getting help. So I -- I don't know. I'm really not too happy when I see numbers like this, and yet you're -- you know, here we are, you got the -- your operation expenses is about $121 million. So something has to give here. I'm not happy. I'm not happy where this government's going, especially in housing. We're going backwards. We're nowhere near filling the gap of the 4,500 homes. Times it by two, probably about 9,000 homes here in Northwest Territories that need help. So your need, maybe you could elaborate a little bit more so I understand how you could ask for another $78 million to address your needs. Maybe you could help me explain that. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So Madam Chair, again, I'm not the Minister of Housing. I think the Department of Housing, the president and their finance person, were here for two days to speak to how that -- how the corporation functions and how their policies function, speaking to the strategic plan that they've released, speaking to the complete review that they're doing of all their policies and the efforts that they are undertaking to try to change and try to change how that organization has worked for many years far beyond what this government has. You know, the Department of Finance, because it's corporation, is where the money sits. But it's -- yeah, it's not -- I'm not in a position to necessarily speak in any depth about the Housing Corporation's policies or, again, or the significant review that they are undertaking right now recognizing where some of the frustrations that I know the Member's expressing. So this also isn't the sum total that gets spent on all housing needs. There's, you know, homelessness funding, and health and social services for instance. So I certainly appreciate the comments. You know, there's a reason all Ministers are always here. There is so much overlap between departments, and I have no doubt that my colleagues are hearing the comments and hearing the frustration. I won't be able to provide a substantive answer, Madam Chair, other than -- other than the comments I've made thus far. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Yeah, well, thank you, Madam Chair. No, I mean it's -- I think this issue is not going to go away. It's still going be here for a long time yet. We're not -- nowhere near closing the gap in trying to address the issue of housing here in the Northwest Territories. And -- and at the rate we're going is we're going to continue to, you know, prop up the Housing Corporation and their expenses. Again, you know, nobody has come into our communities to say that, here's what you need for housing. How can we work with you? How can we write policies that will better suit your community? Nobody has come into our community to do assessments at our homes. And you know, it's okay to say that we're going to come there with a Minister and talk about and listen to those issues. But we've been doing this since 1970 -- what -- '72 when the Housing Corporation was created. That's 50 years ago. So I'm getting a little concerned here that, you know, as we move forward I'm worried that this government's going broke. The economy is just not there anymore. We got really take a look at as to how we're going to approach the whole thing and housing is front and center here in the Northwest Territories. So again, Madam Chair, that's just a comment. And thank you.

Thank you, Member. Members, please keep your comment -- your questions related to the budget. I understand, but this -- there's a section with the contribution to Housing Corporation. I mean, we have done Housing and so the Minister explained this, these dollars within this budget. Are there any further questions on the directorate?

Seeing none, Finance, directorate operations expenditure summary, 2022-2023 Main Estimates, $84,508,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Committee, we will now move to page 145, Finance, human resources, and there's information item on 146. Questions from Members? Seeing no questions from Members? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'd like to start by -- the all work that department has done to date on the Indigenous Retention and Recruitment Framework and setting targets for departments. You know, I heard the Minister say the other day they're looking at doing competitions that are only available to priority 1 candidates, and they were very cooperative with committee. So I'm going to start by saying that.

But my question is, you know, outside of this, there's a debate about whether we will change the Affirmative Action Policy, and I'm just wondering whether we expect to do that in the life of this government. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I don't think there's a debate about it. I think the Premier had -- it's technically a policy that sits under EIA, and the Premier had already made that commitment. It's certainly administered by the Department of Finance through human resources, and so we'll be leading that work. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess my other question is that we have priority 2 candidates, Indigenous non-aboriginal, I believe is what we call them; you know, people born in the North or have lived here half their life, which unlike Indigenous people, is -- doesn't have a target attached to it. And I guess -- and we don't currently have a way to know how many people that is. There's not a statistic we measure, how many people have lived here half their life. I'm just wondering whether the department has any sense of how many P2s are in the GNWT versus, you know, how many are in the population, or whether that's a statistic we're trying to at all get? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know that we do have that statistic. But I suspect it's probably unlikely that we do. That is -- it would depend on people want -- because I mean, when someone's applying to a job, they have to choose to disclose their status, P1 or P2. And it's -- and it's only when they have been hired that they would be required to do so. So as far as going out and surveying the population, again, as I say, I don't think that's been done. Thanks, Madam Chair.