Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried. Consideration of Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditure, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, total department, is deferred.

---Carried

Thank you, Minister, and thank you for the witnesses for appearing before us. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses from the chambers.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, Housing Northwest Territories.

Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 93-20(1), 2024-2025 Main Estimates. We will now consider Housing Northwest Territories.

Committee, Housing Northwest Territories is included in the main estimates as information and the totals are not voteable. We will continue to review these estimates as we have for the previous considered departments; however, we will not vote on the totals. If Members have comments or questions, they can be raised at the appropriate time.

Minister, please proceed with your opening remarks.

Thank you. I am pleased to be here today to present the 2024-2025 Main Estimates for Housing NWT.

Overall, the corporation's estimates propose an operating budget of over $120 million, representing a decrease of $12.76 million from the 2023-2024 Main Estimates.

This decline in annual funding is primarily related to the sunset of short-term funding from the federal government and funding for short-term initiatives from the GNWT to assist Housing NWT in developing partnerships with others delivering on housing projects in the Northwest Territories by cost sharing on approved housing projects under Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's Co-Investment and Rapid Housing Programs. A smaller portion of this decline relates to adjustments that were made to support our government's fiscal sustainability initiative.

Housing NWT's 2024-2025 Main Estimates also includes the following incremental funding allocations from the GNWT:

• A $1 million initiatives contribution from the Government of the Northwest Territories to assist Housing NWT in cost sharing the continued delivery of the Canada Housing Benefit, supporting access to affordable private rental options; and,
• A $567,000 allocation received under a new gender-based violence funding agreement with the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs to enhance the Northern Pathways to Housing Program.

In addition to this $120 million operating budget for 2024-2025, it is also important to note that, with financial support from both the federal government and Government of the Northwest Territories, Housing NWT is currently constructing 150 housing units and advancing over 390 renovation projects throughout the territory, valued at over $107 million.

This delivery, comprised of current projects and carryover projects from the prior years of $93 million, includes much needed new public housing units, the replacement of aged public housing stock, transitional housing projects, and numerous modernization and improvement repair projects across the territory and various biomass alternative energy investments.

In addition to supporting responsible spending, these estimates align with the priorities of the 20th Legislative Assembly by:

• Directly investing in areas that support the suitability, accessibility, and affordability of housing in our territory;
• Improving housing outcomes by contributing to a strong economic foundation for the Northwest Territories;
• Supporting healing from trauma and positive outcomes through a planned transitional housing partnership with the Department of Health and Social Services; and,
• Investing in initiatives to mitigate and adapt to the increasing risks of climate change, to name a few.

Recognizing that no single government or organization can improve housing outcomes and address the core need alone, I look forward to continued conversations with Canada, Indigenous governments, community governments, non-governmental organizations, industry, and other housing delivery agents towards developing housing solutions appropriate for the Northwest Territories. Important to these conversations will be completing the housing needs assessment to get a clearer picture of the total amount and types of housing required along the housing continuum. That information will anchor future funding conversations with our partners in the federal government, as well as working with Indigenous governments about long-term sustainable financial solutions for housing.

In closing, the 2024-2025 Main Estimates allow Housing Northwest Territories to continue to implement its capital plan and invest available resources in our current stock. We will then in turn focus significant efforts towards this strategic approach to addressing core housing needs in the Northwest Territories with all of our partners.

This concludes my opening remarks. Quyananni.

Thank you. Does the Minister responsible for Housing Northwest Territories wish to bring witnesses into the House?

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses into the chambers.

Would the Minister introduce her witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm pleased to introduce Eleanor Young, who is the president and CEO of Housing Northwest Territories. And to my right is Mr. Jim Martin, who is the vice-president of finance with Housing NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Does committee agree to forego general comments on Housing Northwest Territories?

Thank you. Seeing no more general comments, does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled documents?

Thank you. Committee, we will defer the total and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with community housing services starting on page 382, with information items on page 383 and 384. Are there any questions? Going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, are we going to come back to page 379 at the end, is that the idea? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, so knowing that, I'll save that question for later.

But I just wanted to turn to the business plan. So there's a couple commitments in there. I think that they probably fall under the community housing services area. The first one is the completion of housing needs assessment. I've spoken to that a few times and, you know, I am supportive of housing doing that. I note that it's noted for March 31st, 2026. Is there a possibility that they could get that needs assessment done sooner than that date?

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In speaking to Housing NWT, I have encouraged that we get the housing needs assessment done sooner rather than later, and we're hoping to have something done for winter 2024. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Okay, thank you very much to the Minister for that. I really appreciate the additional emphasis on timeline for that. I think that document is going to be crucial for us kind of determining the need, quantifying the problem.

Continuing on with that along that thread, there's the needs assessment for new stock and then there's what we already have. So I was pleased to see in the business plan, page 255, develop an updated infrastructure deficit assessment for Housing NWT's owned residential assets to identify current and long-term capital investment needs. So the target is that we're going to have a current housing infrastructure deficit assessment. There is no timeline associated with that one as there is for the needs assessment. So I'm just wondering if the Minister can give us an update on perhaps a timeline that could be included on that item in the business plan.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to note that it is the same timeline as the housing needs assessment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And thank you very much to the Minister. I really appreciate you pushing the department on this. I'm very excited to have both of those highly informative documents -- well, I hope they're highly informative, because I -- and I just want to emphasize the importance of those in making decisions going forward. I've been speaking in the House a fair bit about our infrastructure deficit that we have in the Northwest Territories, both private and public, but we got to focus on what we're in control of here at GNWT. But until we kind of quantify this problem and come up with a long-term plan to address it, it is going to continue to hang over our heads. The Assembly has said that housing is our number 1 priority. I want us to put our money where our mouth is. So I would like to see us come up with a costed plan for addressing the deficit once we quantified it. So very much appreciate the Minister accelerating fthe timeline for those two documents because I think that they will be crucial to us making future decisions. I think that's all I need to say on this aspect of the business plan for now. I have some questions about what Housing NWT is doing over the next year, but that's going to be captured on page 379, so I'll leave my comments at that for now. Thank you very much.