Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we do the major retrofits, if it doesn't impact the client or the tenant, they can stay in the unit. If it will impact them, then we try to find a replacement unit for them while we do the major retrofit on the units themselves. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First off, I just want to let the Member know that, when we speak with our federal counterparts, we continue to put the pressure and let them know our challenges here up in the North. We have actually invited the Minister to come up North and see the challenges of building housing units or any other type of infrastructure. It has been a consistent message to get more funds flowing to the Northwest Territories.

In the bilaterals, we are looking at modernizing and making our units more energy efficient. That will lower the costs on our stock. In terms of providing the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member knows and brought this up on a few occasions, asking for investments to an LHO office in Fort Liard, we have put it into the capital budget, and we will be moving forward with that project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I will commit to that. In fact, we will probably be making an announcement. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can confirm that our staff is going to be meeting with the federal government via teleconference on Monday to discuss further details and hoping that, in the next couple of weeks, we will have something signed and can officially announce and then start working with our partners to get those dollars spent. Thank you.

As I mentioned, right now, we are not looking at adjusting that. I just want to remind Members of the House here, as well, that our shelter costs that our tenants pay are much lower than the national affordable standard of 30 percent of their income. Our tenants are still paying a lot lower than what the national standard is. Currently, we are not going to be looking at adjusting it.

We are looking at ways we can be more energy efficient. We have a lot of other programs that will offset that. We are continuing to work with our partners at ECE, Health. There are a lot of programs that we are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through you, I would ask our vice president, who has been heavily involved in the file, to get some of the details. Thank you.

I have named off a bunch of programs that we are doing. One thing that we also are doing and actually have a good partnership with the IRC is unit disposal plans. If we can get rid of some of these, whether they are derelict units or units that have reached their life cycle, then we open up land to build new housing units. We are continuing work with the IRC to address some of these housing concerns. We will continue to support them, work collaboratively with them, and continue to lobby and work with the federal government to see how we can get some of the Indigenous housing funding through...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Obviously, with the new units, it is going to make a dent in terms of core housing needs, but you are going to have to look at some of the other programs that we are doing within the NWT Housing Corporation. I did field some questions in the House during this session about core housing needs and meeting our goal of 250. I mentioned to Members that we are well beyond that with various programs. We are developing a document that we will share to Members to show how we are adjusting core housing need in many areas throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.