Yes, Mr. Chair.
Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Thank you. Would the Minister please introduce her witnesses.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my left I have deputy minister Pamela Strand. And to my right, I have Nina Salvador who is the director of corporate management and finance.
Thank you. Members, there are additional questions on this key activity yesterday. On page 243 to 247, we stopped at 746, so we're going to continue on. Is there any questions from the Members on pages 243 with information items on 247? Seeing no further questions, so I'm going to continue on to please turn to page 244.
Industry, Tourism and Investment, tourism and parks, operations expenditure summary, 20242025 Main Estimates, $17,226,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Turn to additional information items from pages 248 to 252, are there any questions? Thank you, Members.
Please return now to the department summary found on page 227 and revenue summary information items on page 228. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions, committee, I will now call the department summary.
Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditure, total department, 20242025 Main Estimates, $63,392,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the main estimates for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried. Consideration of Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditure, 20242025 Main Estimates, total department, is deferred.
Carried
Thank you, Minister, and thank you for the witnesses for appearing before us. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses from the chambers.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, 20242025 Main Estimates, Housing Northwest Territories.
Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 9320(1), 20242025 Main Estimates. We will now consider Housing Northwest Territories.
Committee, Housing Northwest Territories is included in the main estimates as information and the totals are not voteable. We will continue to review these estimates as we have for the previous considered departments; however, we will not vote on the totals. If Members have comments or questions, they can be raised at the appropriate time.
Minister, please proceed with your opening remarks.
Thank you. I am pleased to be here today to present the 20242025 Main Estimates for Housing NWT.
Overall, the corporation's estimates propose an operating budget of over $120 million, representing a decrease of $12.76 million from the 20232024 Main Estimates.
This decline in annual funding is primarily related to the sunset of shortterm funding from the federal government and funding for shortterm initiatives from the GNWT to assist Housing NWT in developing partnerships with others delivering on housing projects in the Northwest Territories by cost sharing on approved housing projects under Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s CoInvestment and Rapid Housing Programs. A smaller portion of this decline relates to adjustments that were made to support our government's fiscal sustainability initiative.
Housing NWT's 20242025 Main Estimates also includes the following incremental funding allocations from the GNWT:
A $1 million initiatives contribution from the Government of the Northwest Territories to assist Housing NWT in cost sharing the continued delivery of the Canada Housing Benefit, supporting access to affordable private rental options; and,
A $567,000 allocation received under a new genderbased violence funding agreement with the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs to enhance the Northern Pathways to Housing Program.
In addition to this $120 million operating budget for 20242025, it is also important to note that, with financial support from both the federal government and Government of the Northwest Territories, Housing NWT is currently constructing 150 housing units and advancing over 390 renovation projects throughout the territory, valued at over $107 million.
This delivery, comprised of current projects and carryover projects from the prior years of $93 million, includes much needed new public housing units, the replacement of aged public housing stock, transitional housing projects, and numerous modernization and improvement repair projects across the territory and various biomass alternative energy investments.
In addition to supporting responsible spending, these estimates align with the priorities of the 20th Legislative Assembly by:
Directly investing in areas that support the suitability, accessibility, and affordability of housing in our territory;
Improving housing outcomes by contributing to a strong economic foundation for the Northwest Territories;
Supporting healing from trauma and positive outcomes through a planned transitional housing partnership with the Department of Health and Social Services; and,
Investing in initiatives to mitigate and adapt to the increasing risks of climate change, to name a few.
Recognizing that no single government or organization can improve housing outcomes and address the core need alone, I look forward to continued conversations with Canada, Indigenous governments, community governments, nongovernmental organizations, industry, and other housing delivery agents towards developing housing solutions appropriate for the Northwest Territories. Important to these conversations will be completing the housing needs assessment to get a clearer picture of the total amount and types of housing required along the housing continuum. That information will anchor future funding conversations with our partners in the federal government, as well as working with Indigenous governments about longterm sustainable financial solutions for housing.
In closing, the 20242025 Main Estimates allow Housing Northwest Territories to continue to implement its capital plan and invest available resources in our current stock. We will then in turn focus significant efforts towards this strategic approach to addressing core housing needs in the Northwest Territories with all of our partners.
This concludes my opening remarks. Quyananni.
Thank you. Does the Minister responsible for Housing Northwest Territories wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the chambers.
Would the Minister introduce her witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm pleased to introduce Eleanor Young, who is the president and CEO of Housing Northwest Territories. And to my right is Mr. Jim Martin, who is the vicepresident of finance with Housing NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does committee agree to forego general comments on Housing Northwest Territories?
Agreed.
Thank you. Seeing no more general comments, does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled documents?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will defer the total and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with community housing services starting on page 382, with information items on page 383 and 384. Are there any questions? Going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, are we going to come back to page 379 at the end, is that the idea? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, so knowing that, I'll save that question for later.
But I just wanted to turn to the business plan. So there's a couple commitments in there. I think that they probably fall under the community housing services area. The first one is the completion of housing needs assessment. I've spoken to that a few times and, you know, I am supportive of housing doing that. I note that it's noted for March 31st, 2026. Is there a possibility that they could get that needs assessment done sooner than that date?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In speaking to Housing NWT, I have encouraged that we get the housing needs assessment done sooner rather than later, and we're hoping to have something done for winter 2024. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Okay, thank you very much to the Minister for that. I really appreciate the additional emphasis on timeline for that. I think that document is going to be crucial for us kind of determining the need, quantifying the problem.
Continuing on with that along that thread, there's the needs assessment for new stock and then there's what we already have. So I was pleased to see in the business plan, page 255, develop an updated infrastructure deficit assessment for Housing NWT's owned residential assets to identify current and longterm capital investment needs. So the target is that we're going to have a current housing infrastructure deficit assessment. There is no timeline associated with that one as there is for the needs assessment. So I'm just wondering if the Minister can give us an update on perhaps a timeline that could be included on that item in the business plan.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to note that it is the same timeline as the housing needs assessment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And thank you very much to the Minister. I really appreciate you pushing the department on this. I'm very excited to have both of those highly informative documents well, I hope they're highly informative, because I and I just want to emphasize the importance of those in making decisions going forward. I've been speaking in the House a fair bit about our infrastructure deficit that we have in the Northwest Territories, both private and public, but we got to focus on what we're in control of here at GNWT. But until we kind of quantify this problem and come up with a longterm plan to address it, it is going to continue to hang over our heads. The Assembly has said that housing is our number 1 priority. I want us to put our money where our mouth is. So I would like to see us come up with a costed plan for addressing the deficit once we quantified it. So very much appreciate the Minister accelerating fthe timeline for those two documents because I think that they will be crucial to us making future decisions. I think that's all I need to say on this aspect of the business plan for now. I have some questions about what Housing NWT is doing over the next year, but that's going to be captured on page 379, so I'll leave my comments at that for now. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Is there any further questions from the Members on this page item? Seeing none, no further questions. I'll remind the committee that the estimates for Housing Northwest Territories are included as an information item only. The committee will not be voting on the activity total.
Moving on to the homelessness program starting on page 385, with information items on page 387. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions. We will now be voting oh sorry, I didn't see you. The Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're moving so quickly here, I think there's probably a few of us that have some questions on these but you're just getting ahead of us there. Though I do appreciate you running a tight ship.
On the Housing First programming, when I was serving on the Yellowknife Housing Authority previous to taking on this role, we were hearing a lot of concerns from folks in public housing who were sharing space with Housing First program, that the kind of mixed use of the building was causing a lot of problems for people, you know, people who are trying to raise young children in the same building where people are experiencing pretty severe addictions issues and the kind of fallout from that. And I was just wondering if the Minister is whether the department is live to this issue, has a plan to address it, or has any comments on kind of ensuring that the Housing First program is implemented in such a way that it can best be set up to succeed? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand, and I've heard of the many concerns around the Housing First program and the implementation of the program within the city of Yellowknife. Perhaps I can allow the president of Housing NWT to talk more about the Housing First program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, yes, to confirm, the Housing NWT is live to the concern and has had meetings with the deliverers of the Housing First program and is looking to see if we cannot find funding solutions to allow them to have their own space for the delivery of their programs and also to be able to expand their programs, and that's the desire of those delivering the program to be able to do so. And it would make more sense to be able to have adequate and appropriate space for them, so we will work with them with that goal in mind. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One thing I do want to note on this page is just I am very happy to see that we didn't make any cuts that I can see to these homelessness programs. That's absolutely what I want to see, and I was quite pleased to see that there's been a fairly significant increase to the Northern Pathways to Housing program. Can the Minister just speak to what those funding increases are going to be utilized for.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if I can have President Eleanor Young speak on the Northern Pathways for Housing program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In her opening comments, the Minister spoke to some additional funding we've received through the GenderBased Violence program, and so that is where this funding is being targeted to, to be able to expand this area of our programming with that funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the Minister and her staff are making me quite the happy Member this afternoon. I'm very happy to see these increases to funding, very happy to hear answers about fast tracking our needs assessments. I think this is great to see. So appreciate the work they're doing on this. Of course, I'll always support more funding towards these programs. I would happily support supps coming in from the Minister when they receive more funding for programs like this because they are really crucial to getting people into housing in our communities. So thank you very much. Those are my comments on this page for now.
