Just under the wire. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my questions are still about housing but this time for the Minister of Finance. So this 2025-2026 capital budget proposes to allocate about $11.5 million in capital spending to Housing NWT and that allocation is hovered around the same amount for the past four years, from around $10 million to $13 million. So is this allocation based on the actual urgent needs for retrofits and new builds for Housing NWT, or is it based on, like, a predetermined number that was set based on a perception of what the GNWT can afford to give HNWT for capital? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT is a Crown corporation and so their process is obviously a bit different than that of a department or a line department within the government. As such, they will go out and determine what level of need they may have. They will do their own assessments. They do their own capital planning. That number does come forward then, ultimately, but it doesn't go through exactly the same processes. They are also then out looking always for other sources of revenue, including GNWT, but also federal government, as well as their own sourced revenue that come in from having rental payments and rental amounts that come back. So, you know, that then filters into that total bucket of what they have does then influence what is in their capital budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So that does lead into my next question. So acknowledging that the GNWT's capital needs assessment doesn't include Housing NWT assets, I'm assuming they do their own capital needs assessment, but Members here have not seen it. So how does the Housing NWT capital needs assessment feed into GNWT decisions about what are the priority capital needs for the territory? How do the two capital needs assessments talk to each other or feed in? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT does indeed, it's correct, take under -- undertake, rather, its own capital needs assessment process and that then -- and, frankly, starting from their own LHO. So each individual LHO is feeding up into the Housing NWT's system and then ultimately those reports are coming forward to financial management board when there's an ask put forward to support additional funding based on that work that was happening within the housing LHO to Housing NWT and then to determine what the needs might be. So it still is part of the total fiscal financial picture of the government. It's just, as with all the other Crown corporations that we have, from NTPC to the health authorities, they do ultimately come forward for funding, but it does -- it does happen through its own system. It doesn't have the same risk-based analysis that I happened to be speaking to earlier today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So if Housing NWT has its own different way of identifying risk or prioritizing needs, are representatives from Housing NWT in conversation with, you know, deputy ministers at the meetings when -- I guess it's -- I forget the term, is it a working group? But when you're trying to decide overall for the whole government what are the priority capital needs, are we ranking housing needs in relation to other infrastructure needs? And if so, how do we compare or rank those things, or does Housing NWT just get a set amount of money and then they can decide how to rank and prioritize what they need? Does that make sense? Sort of?
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Please, colleagues, remember to look at me. Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I happen to know that Housing NWT is actually putting together some information about their capital process and how they do their ranking and how they do their assessments because that then does feed into what we do at the financial management board and the Department of Finance and our processes. So, for example, when there's an increase on utilities costs, that's a forced growth matter that comes to the financial management board from Housing NWT, and it goes through the same forced growth process as everywhere else. And in that sense, they are in fact then compared. If there was an initiative over in housing saying, you know, we need an additional navigator, that too does get assessed at the same time as the other initiatives that happen at the financial management board. But the day-to-day operations that happen over at Housing NWT are separate day-to-day. I acknowledge that that's a bit tricky so again I don't want to commit on behalf of the Minister, but I happen to know she's already tasked her department with this work. I just happen to have heard that from her directly. So they are going to put together some information that will hopefully help delineate the operational side of what's happening and how that is feeding into those processes I described. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Great. So just finally, does the Minister of Finance have some idea when we will get this briefing or explanation of how it's all going to work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That's definitely a little outside of my wheelhouse, Mr. Speaker. And I'm honestly just going off of a briefing I happen to have about where I was present with the Minister for housing. So I don't want to commit on her behalf. I know that she feels it's a priority. Again, brought that initiative forward to really help this Assembly to understand how things happen there. So I will commit to getting a number -- or to getting a date, and we'll make sure that that comes back to the House. Thank you.
