Debates of June 11th, 2024

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This is from the 20th Assembly, 1st Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was housing.

Topics

Oral Questions

Members Present

Prayer

Funding Opportunities for Mental Wellness and Addictions Recovery Programs

Inuvik Petroleum Show

Change of Name Act

Sahtu Graduation Season

Changes to Student Financial Assistance Offerings for Indigenous STudents

Emgergency Shelters

Folk on the Rocks

Solutions for Education for Indigenous Students

Mental health

Supports for Autism

Frank Gruben Pride Festival

Laura Gareau Retirement

Recognition Of Visitors In The Gallery

Report 7-20(1): Standing Committee on Public Accounts Report on the Review of the 2022-2023 Public Accounts, Deemed Read

Report 7-20(1): Standing Committee on Public Accounts Report on the Review of the 2022-2023 Public Accounts, Received and Adopted by the Assembly

Report 7-20(1): Standing Committee on Public Accounts Report on the Review of the 2022-2023 Public Accounts, Response by Government within 120 Days

Report 8-20(1): Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on Committee's Initiation of a Project to Conduct a Review of the Land and Water Permitting Regulatory Framework

Report 8-20(1): Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on Committee's Initiation of a Project to Conduct a Review of the Land and Water Permitting Regulatory Framework, Received and Adopted by the Assembly

Acknowledgements

Autism Supports

Applying for a Name Change

Meeting Shelter Needs in Yellowknife

Chief Jimmy Bruneau School and Residential School System

Solutions for Education for Indigenous Students

Mental Health Training

Strategic Educational Planning for Sahtu

Incident Command System for Emergencies

Tabled Document 119-20(1): Letter dated December 6, 2023 from Alternatives North to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change regarding Public Participation in a Regional Study under part 5.2 of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act Tabled Document 120-20(1): Letter from the Assistant Deputy Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to Alternatives North regarding Public Participation in a Regional Study under part 5.2 of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act Tabled Document 121-20(1): Letter dated January 30, 2024 from the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to Alternatives North regarding Public Participation in a Regional Study under part 5.2 of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act

Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Tabled Document 118-20(1)

Mackenzie Valley Highway Business Case Renewal

Consideration for the Hamlet of Enterprise to Receive Top-Up Funding

Extended Adjournment of the House to October 17, 2024

Bill 7: Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act 2024

Bill 8: An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Tabled Document 93-20(1): 2024-2025 Main Estimates - Industry, Tourism and Investment - Deferral of Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment

Tabled Document 93-20(1): 2024-2025 Main Estimates - Housing Northwest Territories - Deferral of Housing Northwest Territories

Report Of Committee Of The Whole

Orders Of The Day

Committee Motion 31-20(1): Tabled Document 93-20(1): 2024-2025 Main Estimates - Industry, Tourism and Investment - Deferral of Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

June 11th

Lucy Kuptana Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the things that Housing NWT is finding with much of our capital projects and our MMI projects is either cost. We put it out for tender, and it just -- the costs come back and they're way too high. Maybe because it's government, they think they can bid a higher rate. Sometimes we're having resupply issues. We're having capacity issues. There's many issues that we're having with Housing NWT with our capital and MMI projects that have deterred us from completing those over the last couple years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

June 11th

Shauna Morgan Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do hope we have much more in-depth conversations, you know, from here on in going forward as to how we can address some of these challenges and problems because I think this gets at the crux of we are all so desperate to try and improve our housing stock and increase stock, and if we're having these bottlenecks or problems, like, we really need some detailed plans and sort of getting everyone on board to figure out how we can work together to address them. So I look forward to those continued conversations.

One more question about apprentices. So are we able to use all of the money that we're setting out there for apprentices? So it looks like LHOs are hiring apprentices to -- so we can increase the supply of qualified tradespersons, which is exactly what we need. How is that program going; is it fully subscribed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

June 11th

Lucy Kuptana Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The information from staff is the program is fully subscribed. It does change from year to year depending if an apprentice would graduate from the program. But in partnership with ECE, this program is fully subscribed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

June 11th

Shauna Morgan Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, that's good news, and that's perhaps something we could identify going forward as if it's fully subscribed now and we, you know, increase our efforts, maybe we could even expand it and get more and more apprentices in there. That could be a positive step and a good news story. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. I'll take that as a comment. Is there any further questions from Members? I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

June 11th

Denny Rodgers Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I was going to save my comments when we went back to the overall, but I want to follow up on my colleague's questions from Yellowknife North.

And it's kind of alarming that we do have a $93 million surplus. And I know the Member from Yellowknife North asked if there was a capacity issue getting this work completed. And I know, you know, living in Inuvik, I know there is often -- it's difficult in getting contractors to do work. I know a lot of the work that has to be done is work that's beyond the scope that our typical housing maintainers would do. But the fact remains there's still 16 units in Inuvik that are still waiting for repairs to be done and, as the Minister knows, we have an extensive waitlist in Inuvik for those units had they been repaired so people can get in them. And I guess my comment is, I mean, the fact is we know it's getting more expensive to build in the North. It's got more expensive in the past five years. We know during COVID, it was very expensive, and we know that even post-COVID it's still -- it's come down but still certainly significance. So, I guess, my comment would be, I mean, is the department confident in the due diligence they're doing in budgeting and getting this -- you know, ensuring that, you know, when they're putting out tenders or RFPs to get these units either repaired or some of this major work done, that they're confident that they're keeping up with where costs are, particularly in the regions further North? Obviously trucking with the carbon tax, with the cost of fuel, we know things are getting more expensive, so I just want to make sure that -- you know, that the department is confident that they're doing whatever they can. Because $93 million is an alarming number. I'm sure they appreciate the $2 to $3 million worth of interest they get on having that cash in the bank, but it certainly doesn't help the residents that are waiting on a waitlist to get into these units. So just maybe a comment on that, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

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

June 11th

Lucy Kuptana Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member's comment, I understand that the work that Housing NWT has to do over the next year, especially in carrying out much of this capital and MMI projects, it's going to be a lot of hard work over the next year, especially with the timelines and the deliverables. But I'll ask President Eleanor Young to comment as well and just to give some more information if you don't mind, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Absolutely. I'll go to the president.

June 11th

Eleanor Young

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I just want to clarify the $93 million, because there's more information in that than just the MMI conversation that we were starting with when we were talking about some of the challenges. That $93 million also includes projects that are in progress. Because many of our new construction projects do take two years to complete by the time we ship, stage, you know, and get the project installed. So it's quite normal for us to have a carryover related to projects that are in progress.

The other big part that impacts the surplus this year is some of the federal funding that we received for two Yellowknife projects, the 50-unit build and the 36-unit renovation, both of those projects, the money came in partway through the year and so those projects -- again, we received the money upfront, but the projects are actually scheduled for completion by March of 2025, I believe it is, so that money does sit to be able to finish those projects but we did receive the full allocation upfront from the federal government for those projects. So the $93 million surplus looks quite large but in reality, it is cash flowing projects that we have underway throughout our capital plan. It isn't all because of delays in contracting and things of that nature. And also just we do track cost of construction through a number of sources, and we test some of that with some of the local tendering just to make sure that our prices are falling in line with what the market is doing and look for opportunities to reduce those costs wherever possible as well. So our staff are quite good at trying to make sure that our budgeting is realistic to what work we have to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. Does the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake have any further questions?

June 11th

Denny Rodgers Inuvik Boot Lake

Yes. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that. And, again, obviously as I know, the Minister knows, this does vary throughout the region certainly. As you get further North, the costs certainly go up and have continued to go up.

You mentioned that obviously a significant portion of the $93 million is major projects or projects in progress. Can the Minister tell me what portion of that $93 million is work that is currently in progress and over a two-year or three-year time span? Thank you.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

June 11th

Lucy Kuptana Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jim Martin here is going to provide some insight to that question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. I'll go to the vice-president.

June 11th

Jim Martin

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, currently within our capital delivery plan this year, we have a total of 150 units that are under construction at various stages of delivery.

In terms of the multi-year, we have 65 of those units within the 150 that relate to the 100 public housing expansion initiative that was a multi-year program that we set out during the 19th Legislative Assembly. And we're entering the final year here of delivery, so we expect all 65 of those units in the current plan to be completed this fiscal year. In fact, 14 of them are already completed, so we have another 51 left to finalize this year. So that relates to the multi-year delivery.

The public housing replacements within the plan, we have 25 units, and 4 of those were previously initiated in the previous year, but the 21 are currently new for delivery. And we also have -- as Ms. Young outlined, within that 150 we also have 50 units associated with the 50 plexes being constructed here in Yellowknife, and that is a multi-year project. It will be completed in the fall of 2025. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

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

June 11th

Denny Rodgers Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you for that. Can you provide a dollar value on that $93 million? I think that's what I asked, how much the $93 million that equates to in cash. Thank you.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

June 11th

Lucy Kuptana Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll ask Jim to help me with the answer. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

June 11th

The Chair Richard Edjericon

Thank you. I'll go to the vice-president.

June 11th

Jim Martin

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So first off, the 65-units that was mentioned part of the 100-unit delivery, there's $12 million left of that delivery. So they're nearing the final stages. In terms of the 50-unit build, which will be a multi-year, that number there, it's currently out for tender, and I can't provide that number at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of June 11th, 2024

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