Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have the percentage in front of me but the last number that I was given was 56. 56 percent in the territory were entered into the homeownership programming. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Madam Chair, is 56 percent of the 2900 units?

Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Correction. 56 applications. Sorry, thank you.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Of the 2900 units, there's only 56 applicants, and most of them will be subject to a means test and all these other things and so that's not a very good rate of success. But, you know, I looked at that whole renewal initiative. It sounds great. But there's one important part that is missing from that renewal program, and that's the Seniors Aging with Dignity program. You know, we talk about this in the House. We talk about our seniors all the time. And that hasn't been addressed in the renewal initiative. And I'm going to be doing a statement on that tomorrow. But I just want to make sure that, you know, we have to do what we preach, and I don't see that happening here.

I also want to -- there was a comment made by the Minister just a couple minutes ago that the RCMP revenue for the new homes that we're getting is one million a year, around one million; is that correct?

Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is correct approximately a little over one million, and the agreement is for 50 years. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Ok that's a really bad deal. We are -- we're -- you know, that is not a business -- Madam Chair, that's not a business transaction because it sounds like if it's 50 years and one million, that's $50 million, and most of those houses are costing from 1.3 in the South Slave to whatever in the -- further up. So, really, it's not a really good solid business revenue decision. Who made that decision? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister Chinna.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The funding was provided by Department of Justice and by the federal government for us to build, and we are to operate and maintain and we will be accumulating the $50 million over the 50 years approximately. We did not build those units on our own. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Well, that's not my understanding, Madam Chair. I think that the housing corp has a kind of a lease back pay -- payment to the Government of the Northwest Territories for building these homes. And the cost of building each unit, whether it be a duplex or whatever, is much more than that. For $1 million revenue a year for the amount that has gone out, that is not a good business deal, Madam Chair. True or false?

Thank you, Member. Minister Chinna.

Thank you, Madam Chair. At that time, the opportunity was for us to build on behalf of the federal government. And at that time, I never made the decision but, you know, I can see how housing has to be very strategic in trying to generate revenue with our limited budget that we do see and as we go forward. I cannot predict what this is going to look like but for the time being right now, we are going to be in a lease arrangement, and we will be generating that amount of funding from the RCMP units. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.

Madam Chair, when you do a business deal like this, you always look for profit. And we are no different, okay. The Government of the Northwest Territories settles for something that is less business oriented and goes with what the federal government -- and those specs for those houses were over the top. It's almost like building a -- you know, something that's going to happen within a war zone or something. That's how bad the specs were. There was no collaboration with the Government of the Northwest Territories on the specs, and the prices went up. I'm not blaming anybody that had to build them, but the revenues are not there. To me, it's a bad business deal. True or false? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. I'll pass it on to the Minister but just so Members are all aware, we are on community housing. This is for LHOs within the department. So Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the Member and the background in business that she does have as well too. But with this agreement that we do have, we are going to be -- we do have the open relationship with the federal government to reviewing this lease every five years as well too. And looking at the way that the units were built and designed, that was provided by the federal government. And I'll just leave it at that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

While we're on this subject, you know, I would -- Madam Chair, I would really appreciate if the housing corp would adopt a policy where they're more client-based rather than administrative-based. You know, we're serving people that -- most of the people are either underprivileged, or have many problems with addictions, many things that happened with residential school, and we seem to be more administrative-based. And, you know, this should be a client-based department. I just want to ask if that's true or false. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister Chinna.