Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I spoke about earlier today, we've ended up in a situation where we're giving $20 million a year to one company in Yellowknife. And, really, looking at the fact that the GNWT averagely occupies a building for 20 years, some of them we've been in for 40 years continuously, we're talking about hundreds of millions, if not a billion dollars of contractual obligations here. And, really, when looking at how this happened, there is one policy. It is the leasing of improved real property policy that was written in 1986, Mr. Speaker. And it speaks to trying to create northern ownership but clearly that has not happened.
So my question for the Minister of Infrastructure is will she commit to changing the leasing of improved real property to get our leasing portfolio into northern hands? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we recognize that the last substantial update to this policy was more than 20 years ago, as the Member probably already knows, and also note that there were concerns that were raised with the policy that is related to the procurement of the leases. So the GNWT, as we all are aware, is going through a procurement review, and we have recommended that the procurement of these leases be included as part of the overall review.
The results of the procurement review should also inform any proposed changes to the policy in order to align the principles of northern business development. And I also want to note that in recent discussions with the NWT Indigenous Economic Coalition, Infrastructure did commit to reviewing its existing leases with the Indigenous development corporations and also to bring forward a proposal to Executive Council because that is the process that we -- you know, we have to go to Executive Council in support of stability and economic growth across the territory to have a look at some of these leases. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that. I think that was almost a yes, and it even led into a bit my next question.
Mr. Speaker, I really do believe there is potential to leverage this money we're being spent by getting creative with our leasing portfolio, by approaching Indigenous dev. corps and saying listen, if you want to build us a building or buy an asset, we will give you the long term lease. They can go and then finance such a project. We could do a similar thing to nonprofits with the 160 housing units we presently rent from one landlord. Why don't we distribute that to nonprofits to run public housing.
So is the Minister willing to make those offers, that I think actually many of them may not be allowed under the policy right now, to Indigenous governments and nonprofits to diversify this leasing portfolio and let others leverage it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned we are looking at the policy and, you know, we respect that, you know, this has been the Member's second time bringing up leases so it is something that we need to have a look at as well.
Having said that, there are a number of exceptions. We are required under our legislation and trade agreements to have an open and fair procurement, which means government cannot exclude a single business from participating in a public procurement opportunity when that business is not in either default with the GNWT regardless of the location of that building. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess, you know, there's a couple of things that have happened over the years. One is leasing was largely across all departments and they were slowly moved into the Department of Infrastructure. A lot of our leases are from the federal government. We have over actually 90 leases for various periods of time, many of them short three-five year periods. And the reality is you can't go to any northern landlord and say build us a new building or, you know, buy an asset without giving them years' notice. By the time we get to the end of a three-year lease, we just simply renew it and this is the kind of cycle we've got in. So I really think there needs to be some political direction from the top to the department to look at that all leases across the board and give direction now, even if they have five years left, of find a plan to get them out of the hands of large southern REITS.
Is the Minister willing to give that direction to revisit all of these leases and give some centralized clear purpose to this portfolio? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for existing leases, the GNWT must comply with the terms of those leases. So our standard lease agreement does not include any early termination clauses. Under our standard lease agreement, an existing landlord may assign the lease to a buyer as long as the buyer honours the existing terms and condition of the lease until it expires.
So there is an option for NWT landlords to purchase buildings with existing leases in place. Infrastructure is in a position, however, to procure new lease space when there is a need for commercial office space that has been identified either at the expiry of the existing lease or when a new program is established. If the GNWT was approached with the request to negotiate a lease at this time, Infrastructure, yes, would prepare a recommendation for Executive Council's consideration.
This recommendation, again, would take into account many things, such as including supporting the priorities of this 19th Assembly, such as maximizing economic development benefits to Northerners and also, again, supporting Indigenous businesses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
