Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we do see a significant decrease in the budget for minor modernization and improvements, both on page 383 and then oh, it's the exact same one in the wrapup page, 379. So what's the reason for such a major decrease in the budget for the modernization and improvements? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Unfortunately, our CIRNAC agreement sunsetted, and it decreased our MMI budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So was this budget being fully used? Was it fully subscribed before the sunsetting? Like, is there a need for at least, you know, $6.6 or even $7.1 million worth of modernization and improvements? That was the number from 20222023. If we could find that money, could you use it? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Member for the question. I mean, housing always could use more money, but we do have a carry forward plan. MMI is part of that carryforward plan, and we got some a lot of work over the next year to catch up with that work. So our capital and our MMI budget is carried forward, and there's a lot of projects on the go. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister give any insights into why there is a lot of carryforward? It sounds like there's trouble implementing some of these projects and they needed, you know, repairs and improvements. Can the Minister give us some insights into what is holding us back from being able to use the money each year for the improvements that are needed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the things that Housing NWT is finding with much of our capital projects and our MMI projects is either cost. We put it out for tender, and it just the costs come back and they're way too high. Maybe because it's government, they think they can bid a higher rate. Sometimes we're having resupply issues. We're having capacity issues. There's many issues that we're having with Housing NWT with our capital and MMI projects that have deterred us from completing those over the last couple years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do hope we have much more indepth conversations, you know, from here on in going forward as to how we can address some of these challenges and problems because I think this gets at the crux of we are all so desperate to try and improve our housing stock and increase stock, and if we're having these bottlenecks or problems, like, we really need some detailed plans and sort of getting everyone on board to figure out how we can work together to address them. So I look forward to those continued conversations.
One more question about apprentices. So are we able to use all of the money that we're setting out there for apprentices? So it looks like LHOs are hiring apprentices to so we can increase the supply of qualified tradespersons, which is exactly what we need. How is that program going; is it fully subscribed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The information from staff is the program is fully subscribed. It does change from year to year depending if an apprentice would graduate from the program. But in partnership with ECE, this program is fully subscribed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, that's good news, and that's perhaps something we could identify going forward as if it's fully subscribed now and we, you know, increase our efforts, maybe we could even expand it and get more and more apprentices in there. That could be a positive step and a good news story. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll take that as a comment. Is there any further questions from Members? I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I was going to save my comments when we went back to the overall, but I want to follow up on my colleague's questions from Yellowknife North.
And it's kind of alarming that we do have a $93 million surplus. And I know the Member from Yellowknife North asked if there was a capacity issue getting this work completed. And I know, you know, living in Inuvik, I know there is often it's difficult in getting contractors to do work. I know a lot of the work that has to be done is work that's beyond the scope that our typical housing maintainers would do. But the fact remains there's still 16 units in Inuvik that are still waiting for repairs to be done and, as the Minister knows, we have an extensive waitlist in Inuvik for those units had they been repaired so people can get in them. And I guess my comment is, I mean, the fact is we know it's getting more expensive to build in the North. It's got more expensive in the past five years. We know during COVID, it was very expensive, and we know that even postCOVID it's still it's come down but still certainly significance. So, I guess, my comment would be, I mean, is the department confident in the due diligence they're doing in budgeting and getting this you know, ensuring that, you know, when they're putting out tenders or RFPs to get these units either repaired or some of this major work done, that they're confident that they're keeping up with where costs are, particularly in the regions further North? Obviously trucking with the carbon tax, with the cost of fuel, we know things are getting more expensive, so I just want to make sure that you know, that the department is confident that they're doing whatever they can. Because $93 million is an alarming number. I'm sure they appreciate the $2 to $3 million worth of interest they get on having that cash in the bank, but it certainly doesn't help the residents that are waiting on a waitlist to get into these units. So just maybe a comment on that, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister to the comment.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member's comment, I understand that the work that Housing NWT has to do over the next year, especially in carrying out much of this capital and MMI projects, it's going to be a lot of hard work over the next year, especially with the timelines and the deliverables. But I'll ask President Eleanor Young to comment as well and just to give some more information if you don't mind, Mr. Chair.
Absolutely. I'll go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I just want to clarify the $93 million, because there's more information in that than just the MMI conversation that we were starting with when we were talking about some of the challenges. That $93 million also includes projects that are in progress. Because many of our new construction projects do take two years to complete by the time we ship, stage, you know, and get the project installed. So it's quite normal for us to have a carryover related to projects that are in progress.
The other big part that impacts the surplus this year is some of the federal funding that we received for two Yellowknife projects, the 50unit build and the 36unit renovation, both of those projects, the money came in partway through the year and so those projects again, we received the money upfront, but the projects are actually scheduled for completion by March of 2025, I believe it is, so that money does sit to be able to finish those projects but we did receive the full allocation upfront from the federal government for those projects. So the $93 million surplus looks quite large but in reality, it is cash flowing projects that we have underway throughout our capital plan. It isn't all because of delays in contracting and things of that nature. And also just we do track cost of construction through a number of sources, and we test some of that with some of the local tendering just to make sure that our prices are falling in line with what the market is doing and look for opportunities to reduce those costs wherever possible as well. So our staff are quite good at trying to make sure that our budgeting is realistic to what work we have to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake have any further questions?
Yes. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that. And, again, obviously as I know, the Minister knows, this does vary throughout the region certainly. As you get further North, the costs certainly go up and have continued to go up.
You mentioned that obviously a significant portion of the $93 million is major projects or projects in progress. Can the Minister tell me what portion of that $93 million is work that is currently in progress and over a twoyear or threeyear time span? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jim Martin here is going to provide some insight to that question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the vicepresident.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, currently within our capital delivery plan this year, we have a total of 150 units that are under construction at various stages of delivery.
In terms of the multiyear, we have 65 of those units within the 150 that relate to the 100 public housing expansion initiative that was a multiyear program that we set out during the 19th Legislative Assembly. And we're entering the final year here of delivery, so we expect all 65 of those units in the current plan to be completed this fiscal year. In fact, 14 of them are already completed, so we have another 51 left to finalize this year. So that relates to the multiyear delivery.
The public housing replacements within the plan, we have 25 units, and 4 of those were previously initiated in the previous year, but the 21 are currently new for delivery. And we also have as Ms. Young outlined, within that 150 we also have 50 units associated with the 50 plexes being constructed here in Yellowknife, and that is a multiyear project. It will be completed in the fall of 2025. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you for that. Can you provide a dollar value on that $93 million? I think that's what I asked, how much the $93 million that equates to in cash. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll ask Jim to help me with the answer. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the vicepresident.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So first off, the 65units that was mentioned part of the 100unit delivery, there's $12 million left of that delivery. So they're nearing the final stages. In terms of the 50unit build, which will be a multiyear, that number there, it's currently out for tender, and I can't provide that number at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try one more time. Can the Minister provide me with the amount that is not tied up in current projects?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll ask Jim to help me with this answer again. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the vicepresident.
Sorry, Mr. Chair, could the Member please repeat the question. I just want to make sure I fully understand it.
Okay, I'm going to go back to vicepresident. I'm assuming you got the question from the Minister.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. Not committed, just looking here, about $60 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for that answer. Just to clarify, $60 million of the $93 million is for projects that have yet to be started and hasn't been committed.
(audio) if we go back to the summary (audio) back to the summary, and I'll ask it then. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to move on to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My statement is more of a comment here. Having seen a number of projects here out in the communities under construction, during construction, after construction, is it part of the housing department to have a followup review, a completion review after the project is done to see how it went, was it on schedule, was it done safely, was it done within the budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, Housing NWT does that work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
