Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT Housing Corporation did put all of these proposals for housing out to tender. Northern companies applied on them and were awarded, so it is northern companies that are actually bringing in these modular homes, and there was a significant savings compared to the stick-built proposals that were received. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Absolutely. As soon as we confirm any steps within the process, then we will let the committee and the Regular Members know. As soon as the information that I have is confirmed, then you will know as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The simple answer is yes, but I will expand a little bit on that. The territorial government is actually working in collaboration with the other territories, the Yukon and Nunavut. We have developed a tri-territorial business case to assist with our federal engagement. A conference call between the three territories is scheduled for tomorrow to confirm that, and to talk about any more decisions that we want to make. I'm also going to be meeting with Minister Duclos in Ottawa next week to bring forward our case and to emphasize on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, many communities face challenges in providing programs and services to their people because of a lack of affordable housing. The lack of housing makes it hard to recruit and retain staff. Lowering the cost of living is one of the priorities of this Assembly and increasing the availability of safe, affordable housing is one of the key actions to advance that priority.

The private market is not adequately meeting the need for more affordable rental housing, particularly in rural and remote communities. This is because the development and ongoing management of...

Actually, I just got a package from upstairs and so there actually are 11 that are destined for Hay River, so I saved myself a trip for later. At this point, that's not under consideration. The NWT Housing Corporation will be procuring these units through a public process where local businesses will have the opportunity to submit a proposal. We have to keep in mind, though, with the serious financial situation that the NWT is in, the loss of the CMHC funding in 2032, that there may not be money for the operation and maintenance for public housing. So not only was the RCMP housing to support...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm always willing to meet with the MLAs to discuss their concerns and bring it forward. As stated again, we are working with northern manufacturing firms to try to get them more competitive within the process before the spring request for proposals is released. The units actually that come up, I can't say, but I do know that there will be work to maintain them and to put them in.

The proponents that won were people the proponents come from the South Slave, the Beaufort-Delta, and the Sahtu. So they were awarded, the people that brought up the mobile homes. There will be jobs, as stated, to put them in and also to maintain them, and again, as I stated, we have 800 people on a wait list that are sleeping on couches and that are homeless, so we need to utilize the savings that we can to address the public housing needs that we have within the communities as well.

The reason that we took in the modular homes is because there was a 30 per cent savings by doing this, and that was looked at by doing the averaging of the proposals that came to us. We have 800 people on our wait list for public housing that are actually homeless and sleeping on people's couches. If we can save 30 per cent that's huge, to be able to transfer that over. The statement that it takes away jobs; there are still jobs. It's northern firms that bring the mobile units up. It's northern people that are used to put the units in. It's northern labour that's used to maintain these units.

The NWT Housing Corporation currently uses the BIP program to consider, which gives points. I'm sorry, I've lost the question. Sorry, Mr. Speaker.

To give you a timeline is, at this moment, I can't give you that, because it depends upon the budget with the federal government and the negotiations that we do with them. How I will disburse the information will be probably through the Standing Committee on Social Development, and then committee can decide how to disburse that to the Members.