Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will follow up with the Member in regard to the seniors' available units in her riding. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I was told this was the place where I could ask about the community housing plans. The Minister said that there are 33 to be developed. How are the community housing plans going to be done in, say, the regional centres, including Yellowknife? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Drafting and putting these community plans together, we have 13 participants so far and we've completed one. My push is that I want the majority of these community plans to be completed and done by August of this year. I'm going to have Mr. Martin elaborate on the community plans going forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, as the Minister alluded to, the community housing plans are a priority for the corporation. We recognize the importance of what they're going to provide in terms of informing future investment and partnerships. As the Minister mentioned, this will continue to be a top priority for the corporation, and our aim is to make significant progress between now and August, as the Minister alluded to, and certainly we'll continue to work with the communities and also take into consideration their needs in terms of timing, et cetera, as these plans unfold. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll have Mr. Carpenter elaborate on the community plans, as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Carpenter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just in terms of the question related to our approach to working with major centres like Yellowknife, we would have to work with all the stakeholders involved, particularly the city, and we have to find out what our role is that they want us to play in the development of that plan. It might be a small one, it might be a major one, but we haven't yet determined that with the city. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Carpenter. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank the last speaker, who actually answered my question, which is about how there is going to be a different approach with I'll call them the tax-based communities. Have there been any preliminary discussions with any of the tax-based communities about how they're going to approach developing the an approach with we will call them the tax-based communities. Have there been any preliminary discussions with any of the tax-based communities about how they are going to approach to helping the community housing plans? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to have Mr. Carpenter elaborate on the answer. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Carpenter.
In terms of us reaching out or being contacted by the major centres, not yet. Right now, it is a new initiative for us. The ones that we have been dealing with have been actively coming forward to us. What we are doing now is to strengthen up our activity towards reaching out to all communities to see how interested they are to get this process going. We haven't reached out to the major centres yet. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Carpenter. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess I am going to make a suggestion here to the Minister and her staff that a scheduled work plan for getting all of these 33 done would be really helpful. I agree. I think approaching the tax-based municipalities is going to be a different kind of process and involve different partners and so on. The City of Yellowknife has a homelessness strategy. They survey the number of homeless people in the community. There is quite a bit of work that the city's done. There are a lot of NGOs here in town that are doing work on this issue, as well. My suggestion to the Minister is to develop a timeline for this work to make sure it actually gets done and set out in there different kinds of approaches they need to take for the tax-based communities.
I want to turn now to some of the numbers that are on page 366. Policy and planning, there is what looks like a large increase of $400,000 between 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. When I look down into the expenditure categories, it seems to be made up of an increase in compensation in benefits and travel. Those seem to be some of the major areas, contract services, as well. Can someone tell me what is going on with this part of the Housing Corporation? This is a relatively large increase in expenditures, and I would like to know what this is related to. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to have the question reverted to Mr. Carpenter. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Carpenter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of the major increase there, most of it is related to what we might have mentioned earlier, that we set aside money there of over $236,000 for the community planned activity. That was to support these community engagement costs. Part of that development of the community plan, too, is that we hire. Whenever we get into a community, we make sure we hire somebody local to participate in that process. It is a really community-driven process. The other funding that makes up that increase is, we will see it in a lot of our costs here, forced-growth increases related to the UNW collective bargaining process. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Carpenter. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. That is a helpful explanation. I certainly support the development of the community housing plans. This is the section of the Housing Corporation budget that seems to deal with federal, provincial, territorial matters, as well. In November of 2018, the bilateral agreement with CMHC on the National Housing Strategy was signed by our government. I don't think I've seen an action plan that spells out how that money is going to be used. I thought that was a requirement of the funding agreement. We are now a year and a half into this nine-year program, and I still haven't seen an action plan. When is the corporation going to have an action plan? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In regard to the action plan that was developed in 2018, I am going to have Mr. Carpenter elaborate on that.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Carpenter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we did sign our bilateral agreement with Canada in November 2018. Part of the requirements of all the bilaterals across Canada is that provinces or territories are obligated to develop three-year action plans throughout the duration. We have been working on that since then. All of the provinces and territories have been. We are pleased to announce that we just got ours approved and signed off recently. We plan to table that during this session so the Members can see that action plan. That action plan includes priorities related to maintaining our existing social housing stock, repairing and replacing where possible, and there is some money in there for home ownership repairs, as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Carpenter. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Is there any money in there for new housing to be built and added to the stock? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Mr. Martin elaborate on the question. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. As Mr. Carpenter alluded to, in the action plan, there are a number of areas that we are planning to invest in. One of them is the repair and replacement of existing housing stock. That would be an example of where we would be constructing new public housing, for example. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I am kind of anxious to see this plan. I wish that it had been shared even in draft form with Regular MLAs before it had been signed off on. That is more of a comment than anything else. I would encourage the Minister to do that in the future. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Are there any further questions under the NWT Housing Corporation, executive? Seeing none, Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, executive, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $2,528,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now move on to finance and infrastructure services, beginning on page 368, with information items on 370 and 71. Questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am wondering if the Minister can explain the first item on page 369, debt repayment, which has grown substantially since the 2018-2019 actuals. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Mr. Martin elaborate on it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The debt repayment component represents the annual debt payments that the Housing Corporation makes under the Social Housing Agreement. The components in there are both an interest component, which is approximately $370,000, as well as we do budget for the principal portion. That is the balance of the $955. The previous year actuals, that represents a net amount of the debt payments. You can see that the actual payments in the previous year, under mortgage payments, social housing agreement, you'll see that that is $463,000. That represents the interest portion.
From an audit standpoint, you report your expenditure for interest, but the principle portion would have been charged against the debt obligation. What you are seeing here is just the interest portion. However, the Housing Corporation does budget for both because we do need the cash set aside in our fiscal framework to accommodate both payments.
The combination of the "mortgage payments - social housing agreement" $463,000 in the previous actuals, 2018-2019, are netted with the valuation allowance of $350,000. You will see that as a credit. Those two net together to give you the hundred. The hundred, the valuation adjustment, just to explain that as well, the valuation adjustment represents an adjustment that was made on the mortgage receivable portfolio. This past year, the Housing Corporation's mortgage valuation improved, so it ended up being an offset to the expenditure. Lots of details, but that does explain the change. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Martin. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. The next line item is finance and administration, and then the third is financial planning, which was broken away from finance and administration. I'm wondering if you can explain what is encompassed in that line item, please?
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Jim elaborate on the response. Thank you.
