Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I commit to providing the Member a list of the doors. We don’t have that information with us right now and I’m not even going to guess. Thank you.
Thank you. I’ll take it that will be before the end of session. That said, has the Minister been approached in the last two years by any community group in Yellowknife to extend the opportunity of housing for seniors? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, we have had discussions with the Canada Winter Games folks about the possibility of having an athletes village and helping them build an athletes village. At the end of the Games, we would turn one of those facilities into a seniors complex and the other one into public housing. Thank you.
Has Housing been approached by anyone at Avens?
I believe we had a meeting with them it might have been just over two years ago, but they talked about their desire to expand Aven Manor. Again, I think we had some preliminary discussions with them. I will have to confirm that and I will commit to getting the information back to the Member before the end of session.
Does Housing intend to be involved or support the expansion initiative over at Avens for seniors?
Yes, we’ll continue to work with the groups that are involved and see if there are some ways that we can be a part of the process. Thank you.
Does that mean that the Housing Corporation will in all likelihood provide a cash support to an initiative when it’s ready to be received if asked upon by Avens?
Mr. Chair, we’ll be a part of the group there and if there are opportunities for us to provide some input and be a part of the process, and even if there was a cash contribution then it would be part of future Housing Corporation’s capital plan.
Thank you. At present, I know it’s a moving number, the 146 mentioned earlier. Do we have any breakdown of what that actually is? Single people? Single parents with children? Dual parents without kids, with kids? How many are seniors? Especially certainly the last one by all means, but those types of statistics and breakdown to the numbers. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I believe we just signed it off today, the breakdown, and we will provide it to all the Members.
So, I’ll get a copy of that before session ends? Thank you.
The reason we signed it off, it was an oral question that I believe was asked by the Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley, and we just signed off the response today, so we will be providing it to everyone. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Committee, we’re on pages 62 to 72 and we’re on finance and infrastructure services, infrastructure investments, $22.187 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. If I could get you to return to page 67, NWT Housing Corporation, total infrastructure investments, $22.187 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Does committee agree we have concluded NWT Housing Corporation consideration?
Agreed.
Thank you. At this time I’d like to thank our witnesses here this evening. Mr. Anderson, Mr. Martin, thanks for joining us and, of course, Minister McLeod. If I can get the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses out of the Chamber, please.
Committee, at this time we will take a short recess. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Thank you, committee. We’ll call committee back to order. We’re going on to Department of Public Works and Services. I’ll ask the Minister responsible, Tom Beaulieu, do you have witnesses to bring into the House?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I do.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Mr. Beaulieu, I’ll get you to introduce your witnesses, please. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left I have deputy minister of Public Works and Services, Paul Guy; to my right, Laurie Gault, director of the Technology Service Centre.
Thank you, Minister. Committee, we’ll start at page 73, we’ll come back to that after we conclude. I’ll go to general comments on Public Works and Services.
Detail.
Does committee agree to go to detail?
Agreed.
Okay, page 73 we’ll come back to. Page 74, Public Works and Services, asset management, infrastructure investments, $14.792 million. Does committee agree? Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just some clarification on some of the project listings associated with this activity. I guess, first and foremost, it mentions here YK Centre improvements. If I can just get a brief overview of what exactly that entails. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is tenant improvements. The landlord will be paying for this. This would be an in and out expenditure.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Dolynny.
Just a number, again, not trying to disclose an actual number figure. Is this going to be a large asset to retrofit or change, or is this a small project? I’m just kind of curious on the scope of the project. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Deputy Minister Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This project is to accommodate the financial shared services unit and Human Resource staff and consolidate it in the YK Centre. So it’s essentially the unit for Yellowknife of financial shared services and I believe about one floor of the YK Centre for HR. So within our total portfolio there, the percentage I would say in that building of the GNWT space that will be tenant improved would probably be between 20 and 30 percent. Thank you.
Thank you for that. I thank the department. Just a question on commercial space or commercial real estate space right now in the Yellowknife area. For our information, what percentages of vacancy do we have in commercial real estate space? Thank you.
Thank you. Just bear with me for a moment. We do track the vacancy of the space by region and by building, and of the commercial space that normally would be considered suitable for the type of occupancy that the government uses there’s about 8,400 square metres currently available in Yellowknife. Thank you.
Okay, so what I’m hearing is that 8,400 square metres of vacancy space in Yellowknife. What is that in square feet, because I deal in different numeric here. What’s that in square feet?
Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s times 10.76. It would be about 85,000 square feet.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you for that. I appreciate being right on the ball with conversions. That’s pretty impressive. I like that.
So, it’s roughly 85,000 square feet versus how much commercial real estate that we have that’s actually occupied. What percentage do we have, as a guess, as to what vacancy do we have of commercial real estate in Yellowknife right now? Thank you.
The 85,000 square feet is actual vacancy space and about 52,000 of that would be the one building, the Bellanca Building. What we thought the Member had asked for was the vacancy. So, if the Member wishes to have the number of what percentage of leased space versus the owned space and how much of that is vacant, we can provide that number.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Dolynny, could you just clarify the question?
Thank you. What I’m trying to get at, Mr. Chair, is to get a sense of where the department sits and has an understanding of what is the actual vacancy rate for commercial real estate in Yellowknife. We are a large tenant, both leased and owned, but I’m trying to get a grasp and I know Public Works is right on the ball on this I’m sure. They know those numbers quite accurately. I need to know, as a Member, what is the vacancy rate now in Yellowknife that we have for information in terms of commercial real estate. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Deputy Minister Guy.
