Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from the Sahtu.
Okay. No, thank you, and thanks to the Minister for that response. I think quality control is very critical to the completion of these schedules, and it may minimize the carryovers and the delays. I know this is a department that's facing a lot of challenges, like many other employers out in the communities, with the workforce difficulties. But there's always room for improvements, and I see this as one. And if the department's doing that, that's good. It shows that you're looking at the construction costs per square foot. That's good. And if it went on time and in different areas you're building a home in several different challenging regions, so I make that suggestion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you. My question to the Minister is the 150 units, how many of those units are those new builds, public housing units, or market housing? And how many of them are going into the Dehcho riding, if they haven't already done so? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Martin will provide the information related to the Dehcho riding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the vicepresident.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Of the units noted, we have a total of four. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from the Dehcho.
Four units, are those single dwellings or duplexes or fourplexes; what are they? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those are single units, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for the Dehcho.
Are those the ones that are currently in Fort Providence, or are they somewhere else? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those units are located in Fort Providence, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Dehcho.
What I saw in Fort Providence was two fourbedroom four single units in one building. I saw two of them. So is that correct? Like you said, there's four four of those, or is there just two? Because I only saw two, I believe. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, the good news is there's six units in Fort Providence, and those are the units that you did see. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for the Dehcho.
Yeah, thank you. I had four, now I have six. I'm very happy, thank you. And how many do we have how many more do we have coming for the Dehcho riding? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to confirm the numbers, we have two duplexes to the Hay River Reserve. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for that. I have no more questions. I'm very happy. Thank you.
Thank you. Seeing no more questions, I'm going to continue on. Seeing no further questions, we will now sorry, we will not be voting on this activity total.
Moving on to the homeownership assistance program, starting on page 388. Are there any questions? I'm going to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, just a quick one. I note on the budget that between 2023, 2024 and 2025, Habitat for Humanity's contribution ended. I can probably answer that question for myself that it's that the CMHC National CoInvestment Fund concluded, but I guess the question that I do want to bring to the department is is there planned funding in the future for Habitat for Humanity; what's the department doing in terms of working with this organization for their next set of builds?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. President Young will provide that information.
Thank you. I'll go to President Young.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The remaining Habitat units that are under their current agreement with CMHC, of which there's three more still to be constructed, housing has arranged to pay for our cost share component out of some cost share money we had in the last government. So we have got our money set aside for the remainder of the Habitat units that are committed to currently. And as the Member mentions, Habitat is currently working with Canada to look for an extension to that agreement past 2028 and we'll support them if they're able to do so at that time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's it for me on this page.
Thank you. Is there any further questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On your category here of seniors aging in place, the other day I made a Member's statement in regards to having seniors' homes inspected annually. Your seniors aging in place, it has gone down a little bit. But can this be used to inspect seniors homeowners' homes to find if there's any minor repairs before it becomes too costly for them? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. President Young will provide information on the inspections of housing units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So with this budget, there would be an inspection done on the home as part of the application to determine what repairs would be done to the home. So the inspection would be part of the application process. For folks who just need an inspection without submitting an application, we could work with the LHO to see if that could be done but it wouldn't be out of this specific program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I was looking at that and I was, you know, feeling kind of optimistic about the elders that want to stay within the community, and this would help them a great deal with inspections because I am getting calls from mainly the community of Tsiigehtchic. The resident, I contacted him, and he said it'll be good if they can have annual inspections on their home because at their age, they can't determine if there's any deficiencies within their own home except, you know, if their heating source goes out then they might get worried. But, you know, if an annual inspection can be conducted I had something here, more of a preventative measure. Like, if a senior wants an inspection on his home, how would he or she go about proceeding with an inspection? Would they go to their local housing authority and ask for an application, help with an application? Every elder requires assistance filling out applications because they're so time consuming and everything, you know, you got to make things more easier for our elders because they want to stay within their own communities where they feel comfortable. So just how would they go about getting this information so they can get their homes inspected, especially if it's this time of the year they can get some work done on it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would encourage the elders if they're interested in inspections of their homes, that they contact the local housing authority and the local housing authority could work with program staff at the district office. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My other concern is the home purchase program. I know the Indigenous governments within each region were allocated some money from the federal government to build houses within their respective regions, and I believe within my community of Fort McPherson, I believe we have eight houses constructed by the Gwich'in Tribal Council, and I think the purpose of building these houses is not to turn over to housing for public housing units but to give residents of communities the option or the opportunity to own their own homes, because right now we have a number of young people that are working, they have families, and they have no choice but to live with their parents because they're not eligible to live in public housing units because of how much money they make. So if these houses were which I believe are going to be given or not given, or letting these potential homeowners, if they can get a mortgage to own these homes, would the home purchase program be something that they could look at applying for to give them assistance? Because most of these people are single mothers, and it's going to be pretty difficult for them to start but if this program can help them, it'll be of great value. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If President Young can talk a bit more about the home purchase program to provide information to MLA Nerysoo. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think I'll start by saying the homes that the Indigenous governments are building, those are separate from Housing NWT and so I can't say for sure how they plan to deliver their homeownership program. But the home purchase program that Housing NWT offers is a down payment assistance program. It's primarily targeted to regional centres but, you know, we can look at it if this is required in other communities. But I think first we would need to have a conversation just with the Indigenous government to understand how they're planning to deliver the program and whether our programs would match up or not. We do have the collaborative agreement with the Indigenous government in your riding so we can absolutely have a conversation, just to understand how we can work together to support the homeowners. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
