Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Within the last letter that we wrote specific for the Northwest Territories, we did identify that we would need around $100 million to be comparable to the money that was received by the Government of Nunavut. I will take the request back to Cabinet and after Cabinet's decision I will make a decision on whether we can provide the letters and the territorial working relationship with standing committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the case of the Yellowknife Housing Authority, they came to us with a proposal. We actually agreed to partner with them in that proposal, and so the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation will be putting in financial contribution towards building the units for singles within this community of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have a partnership with all three territories, so we have provided to the federal Minister a tri-territorial proposal. We have been successful in actually advocating for the needs of the Northwest Territories and the other two territories, which is shown by the commitment for $300 million over 10 years that is already designated for the territories.

There have been other pots that are going to be designated just for the Northwest Territories, so we have secured quite a bit, and we've also written a letter. The National Housing Strategy, we've met with the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct; they cannot build additional units unless they are on our radar to be done. In every community we have a number of housing units that actually are unfit to put more money into, and so therefore within most every community we have needs for additional builds, but they would not be increasing the stock number, they would be replacing units that are on the books that need to be replaced. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All new builds are now with northern manufacturers or northern builders. No new builds are being done from the south. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, they can use their surpluses to replace public housing units or to do major M and I to units that are in their communities. Or if they have a new project, then they would have to work in partnership with us to get the okay to do that.

For example, they couldn't say that we're going to build a complex that is going to address the highest income earners within the Northwest Territories; they would have to fit within the mandate of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation does try to support northern businesses taking care of northern housing, and so we are working with the contractor still, to this date, to push those units forward. We actually were supposed to meet with him today, but I believe that will now be tomorrow because of staffing. It was to build 45 units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have been working diligently with the local housing organizations to address the surpluses. In my personal opinion, I don't think it's appropriate that Housing has surpluses when we have such dire need for housing within the Northwest Territories.

To date, the only one that we actually came to a firm agreement on was with the Yellowknife Housing Association, who had a surplus of $600,000, and they will be working in partnership with us to develop single units within the community, and we are still working with the other ones. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We manage each community within a certain allocated inventory, so the units that were actually demolished would have been replaced, probably prior to the demolition or at the same time. Therefore, the actual housing units within that community would remain stable. There would be the exact same amount as previous. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, I do.