Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in February, the Finance Minister announced changes in the limits for granting sole-source contracts. To recap, sole-source contract limits were increased from $5,000 to $25,000, $50,000, and $100,000 for different categories of purchases. That means GNWT purchasers can spend up to these amounts without having to go to tender or a negotiated contract.

I spoke on these changes in the June session, and the Minister may remember I questioned him on what controls are in place to ensure there is diligent oversight of the awarding of these sole-source contracts. I didn't get the reassurance I was looking for from the Minister at that time. I also asked for the release of the 2015-16 Report on Contracts over $5,000 and have yet to receive the promised report from the Minister, even though we're now six months on from the end of that fiscal year.

Judging from the upswing in sole-source spending between 2014 and 2015 year-end reports, there's good reason to be vigilant. In the 2015 end fiscal year, that is before greatly increasing the spending limits came into place, sole-source spending soared to $90 million to 25 per cent of all contracts let, more than double the previous year.

Even more unsettling, the report reveals how some well-placed suppliers get major sole-source contracts again and again. For example, one former deputy minister received 22 sole-source contracts, totalling $567,000. Another former DM got 10 contracts, worth $242,000. Media has reported, and I can confirm, a former Premier received 15 sole-source contracts, totalling almost $600,000 over the last eight years. A consultant in BC has received 22 sole-source contracts since 2011-12, totalling $1 million. This is significant spending, Mr. Speaker, all awarded without the test of tender or negotiation to periodically determine whether the public is getting the best value for its tax money spent, and that was under the much more modest limits on sole-source spending. So, to go back to my question about oversight -- I think I'm going to have to ask you, Mr. Speaker, for unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.

--- Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I realize that this would not be sustainable, but it might supply a short-term additional boost in housing. I mean, people do move out of public housing. So those in temporary units could be moved on to more permanent units. It just seems to me that using those surpluses to create housing would be the best use of that money. So can the Minister commit to looking again at using the surplus for creating additional short-term housing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the Minister looking at how to bridge that gap in declining O and M funding with the CMHC; it's obviously a critical piece of work. My last question, or potentially my last question, concerns the local housing authorities. Many of them have significant operational surpluses in excess of $500,000, including the Yellowknife Housing Authority. Could the Yellowknife Housing Authority rent additional units using their surplus to provide at least short-term relief for families on the waiting list? Thank you.

I thank the Minister for her answer and for her efforts to address this issue. I appreciate that it is an enormous one. Affordability is a key problem in Yellowknife. I appreciate that the government will provide help to people on income assistance and through the Transitional Rent Supplement Program, but still affordability for low- income people is an issue. I want to just ask about the CMHC, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, funding. I know that that organization funds operations and maintenance of public housing stock and that that number has been in decline since 2003. Is the fact that this operations and maintenance money is going down one of the reasons the government can't build more units?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following on from my Member's statement, I'd like to talk a little bit more about housing availability, public housing availability, with some questions for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. The length of the waiting list for public housing, both within Yellowknife and across the Territory as a whole, has been constant for years, and I'm wondering if the Minister could tell us what she can do to make more public housing units available, especially to the single parents on the waiting list? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I forgot to introduce my mom. My mom is not actually my constituent. She's Cory's constituent. But I'd ask you to help me in thanking her for being here and welcoming her, Ms. Anne Little. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my pleasure to welcome Brenda Sayers to our Chamber today. She is the Hupacasath First Nation member who led the fight against the Canada/China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act. She served on the council of her Hupacasath First Nation and a director of the tribal council as well. She's here in Yellowknife this week to speak and teach about the trans-pacific trade partnership. I would like you to join me in welcoming her to our Chamber. Further, Mr. Speaker, in the gallery today are several hard-working EDs of non-profits including Kim Doyle, the executive director of Yellowknife Seniors, Steven Jackson, the CEO of Avens, and Lydia Bardak, the executive director of the John Howard Society. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all Members will have experience advocating for constituents in need of public housing. In my riding, issues around public housing are especially acute. I have a higher than Yellowknife average number of low-income earners along with people who are unemployed or hard to employ, especially when compared to the city's prosperous suburban ridings. Of all the many requests I get from constituents for help of all kinds, I estimate that housing issues make up 80 per cent of the total.

The issue for this group is not usually affordability because public housing rent scales apply. Adequacy of housing is the big issue, too many people in too small a unit. But, above all, it's availability. There simply isn't enough housing. A report from 2015 year-end indicated there were 180 single parents across the territory on the waiting list for public housing. While they wait, these families may be living in crowded conditions with extended family, divided into small groups and couch-surfing, or tolerating violent relationships in exchange for having a place to live. Colleagues, you've heard me say before that having a home is the starting point for success, whether you are working, attending school, or making other productive choices. I want to share the story of one of my constituents to illustrate the point that housing availability is at a crisis point for single-parent families. My constituent has been living in a tent since the beginning of the summer. He is the father of two children, aged 12 and 17, who are trying to stay in school by couch-surfing with anyone who will have them.

As a homeless single parent with school-age kids, he scores high on the rating system to be next in line for a unit, but so do many others. Since the summer, he has been bumped in and out of first place by people who are in even more desperate need than himself, if you can imagine. The Minister's office has worked hard on this file, and my office has put a lot of work into offering a solution, but, in the end, there was nothing to do but to wait and hope that his place on the list will coincide with a unit becoming available, and, in fact, that happened this week.

We know all this stuff. I'm not saying anything new. That's why it's part of the 18th Assembly's mandate. That's why it's one of the three priorities of the social development committee, and that's why we passed a motion calling for an annual two per cent reduction in the core need of housing over the next four years. Mr. Speaker, this problem is not going away. I speak unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

--- Unanimous consent granted

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this problem is not going away and it won't until this government invests in making more public housing available in Yellowknife and across this territory. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on June 29, 2016, it shall be adjourned until Thursday October 13, 2016;

AND FURTHER, that at any time prior to October 13, 2016, if the Speaker is satisfied after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice, and thereupon, the House should meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business as has been duly adjourned to that time. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.