Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witness into the chambers.
Thank you. Would the Minister please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with me today, on my left is president of Housing NWT, Eleanor Young. And to my right is the vice-president of finance and infrastructure, Jim Martin. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Committee, Housing Northwest Territories is included in the capital estimates as an information item, and the total is 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.
The committee has agreed to forego general comments. Is the committee agreed to proceed through the detail contained in tabled documents? Committee, agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, Housing Northwest Territories begins on page 72. We will defer the total and review the estimates by activity summary, beginning at page 73, with finance and infrastructure services with information items on page 74. Are there any questions from committee? Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is one item on the list -- the project listing on page 74, biomass projects public housing, and it lists the location as territorial. Could the Minister please give more detail about what locations the biomass projects are projected to go to in public housing? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, vice-president of finance and infrastructure will reply to the question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the vice-president of finance.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have the -- we have funds set aside for 2025-2026 to continue to advance our biomass system investments. We continue to advance these investments under our energy management strategy actions. And for 2025-2026, we've identified this allocation as various given the fact that we are currently in the process of completing a biomass feasibility study across the territory, and we're going to wait for those results to determine the most appropriate, effective location for those biomass -- for our next round of biomass investments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So thanks for that. Do we know when that feasibility study will be completed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Vice-president of finance and infrastructure will reply to the question. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the vice-president of finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're expecting to complete that study by the end of this fiscal year. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have one more question of the project listing. On all of the major retrofit listings, they are identified as public housing units save one which is one unit of market housing in Fort Liard. Can the Minister please speak to why that one unit is market housing? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. President Eleanor Young will describe the Fort Liard market housing retrofit. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Housing NWT, in addition to roughly 2,600 public housing units, has approximately 180 market housing units that it currently operates. And so much like public housing, as those units need retrofits or repairs, they are built into your capital planning, and so that's why you see a market unit on the list. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Nothing else at this time.
Thank you. I'll go to any other Members that want to speak? I'm going to go to the Member from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. You have here 14 public housing major retrofits in Fort Providence. When you say major retrofits, can you explain that?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Vice-president of finance and infrastructure will describe major retrofit.
Okay, I'll go to finance -- vice-president of finance.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. We refer to a major retrofit as essentially a major renovation of a housing unit, and it's reflected in this plan due to the fact that we consider it to be a major repair, and it's of a capital nature, so it would be essentially a major repair to extend the life of the current housing asset. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Deh Cho.
So it's on the unit. Is it, like, something like a -- putting in a new furnace, or is it rebuilding part of the unit? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. A major retrofit for a housing unit would include electrical, plumbing, foundation work, roofing work. It's detailed work to extend the life of the housing unit. But I will ask vice-president of finance and infrastructure to give more of a detailed description of our major retrofit. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. I'll go to the vice-president of finance.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. For this specific retrofit, we're looking to undertake plumbing, sewer upgrades, and some repairs to the -- the landings as well for health and safety as part of that work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Deh Cho.
That's good.
I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, I just wanted to ask, because we know that we're in a housing crisis, it's all over the North, it's not just my region but it's within all the regions. And I see here for retrofit, in Behchoko, you know, like we have 130 people that are on the waitlist, or maybe it's probably more than that, you know, and there's some families, they've been waiting for the last two, three a years, and -- you know, and they haven't moved up the list. So I'm just wondering why only three units that's being retrofit within this fiscal year when there are still other, like five or six units that are boarded up? What is -- what is the department going to be doing with those boarded up units? Are they going to retrofit those units, or are they going to give it away to the community members? Because it's an eyesore, you know, like, those boarded up units, it is an eyesore. It's not good. And people have been inquiring a lot about those units, and it's still sitting there. Thank you.
Before I go to the Minister, just for clarification, are you speaking for your riding in terms of boarded up units?
What's that?
Are you speaking for your riding for the boarded up units?
Yes, I am asking because there's only three units that's -- that's within this fiscal year that's -- it's -- I'm sure it's a major retrofit, you know. It's not replacing an appliance or anything like that, but I'm just asking why only three units that's -- you know, that's being retrofitted, major retrofit, and there's still a lot of other units that are boarded up. What is the department going to do with those boarded up units because it is an eyesore. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just getting some information from the vice-president. Currently, Behchoko, there is two units being repaired, and 15 units still to be repaired. The plan is that we repair three in Behchoko which would leave 12 units to be repaired once this capital budget is approved. The reason we're not repairing more units is this budget is based on what we have as Housing NWT for capital planning purposes. We look at our budget, we look at -- we provide an analysis of our operating costs, and at the end of the day we're left with $11 million for capital planning. So that's what's left over after everything is said and done for Housing NWT. So the need is great throughout the territory but this is the funds that we have left. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Okay, thank you. I know the need is great throughout the Northwest Territories and there's 12 units that you just mentioned, but I'm just wondering if the Minister can answer me. Does the department really have any money to do work on these units, or is it just to get people's hope up that, okay, there's actually three units that's going to be retrofitted and hopefully the waiting list will go down? Because from what I heard from the -- in Behchoko is that they're asking people to move out of the unit because they're going to fix up the unit, so they're going to do a retrofit when, in fact, they don't have any money; they don't have the funds to fix up those units. So I'm just wondering if the department, I'm not too sure, if the department has any money to really, like -- to do the actual work on these units. Thank you.
