Okay, thank you. I'll take that as a comment. Did the Minister want to respond to?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No complaints from me either. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, we're going to stop there. We're going to give the translators some time. We'll take a 30-minute break, and we'll come back. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Welcome back, everybody. And we'll continue on. We're on the page 392 homeownership assistance programs. Are there any further questions from Members? Seeing no further questions. Oh, I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
I know for senior aging in place retrofit and repair program, I know the budget has been the same from 2024-2025, and I know it's a popular program, and this year alone or just this -- yeah, this fiscal year, I mean, they exceeded the fund, you know, because there's a lot of elders that apply for the program and some of them got a denial letter because they used up all the funds that -- for that program. So I just wanted to ask to find out to see if there's going to be any increase to that budget because there's, like, a lot of our elders who are, you know, aging in home. I'm sure this 1.6 is for the whole of Northwest Territories. So -- and if they exceed it, then it was like greatly needed, and this year alone was focused on that program alone.
[audio] – to be replaced – ed.
So I just -- so I would like to know if there's going to be an increase in the budget for this coming fiscal year since the program is very popular among our elders, seniors aging at home. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Erin Kelly will provide more information to the seniors aging in place budget item. Thank you.
I'll go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there's no funds to increase the budget, but the reason that you see these additional costs is because we've been able to find other funding and some of those internal resources we've been able to put towards it, so we'll definitely continue to have a look where resources are able to augment the programs when we see that they're oversubscribed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
The emergency repair program (audio) my constituents (audio) this repair program. How does this (audio) emergency repair program.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The emergency repair program is an application-based program. (audio) district office the local (audio) the district office to apply for this program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. (audio) program (audio) together (audio) preventative and emergency repair program. That budget is low compared to emergency repair program. (audio) because a lot of is (audio), so (audio) there's a lot of people that are, you know, (audio) especially living in the community where everybody is flown in.
So preventative maintenance program, a lot of people need that program to -- from further -- especially now with the climate change and things are changing and, you know, it does have a major impact, the house is -- the climate change. So how popular is this program? Like, are you getting a lot of applications? Does the housing get a lot of application for this program? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the program was undersubscribed. But, again, as President Erin Kelly mentioned earlier, in an earlier question, one of the things that Housing NWT plans to do is how they communicate these programs throughout the Northwest Territories, the availability of the program, who is eligible for the program, and the different programs that are available too. Because coming into housing, you know, I thought one or two, but there's a number of different programs available. So how we communicate that to people that really need this program support, so we're doing more communication efforts. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you for that information. Okay, so that the eligibility, is it based on income threshold? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the eligibility is an income threshold. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Is there any other Members that have questions? Okay, I'm going to continue on. Seeing no further questions, we will move -- we will not be voting on activity total.
Moving on to housing operations and support, starting on page 394. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask about the work with the LHOs, the local housing organizations, on apprenticeships. I'm hoping this is an okay segment to bring that up, but. I know that Housing NWT has an in-House apprenticeship program and have been trying to support up to 12 apprenticeship assignments each year. Can the Minister tell us whether or not they manage to actually find 12 apprentices in the last year or how many apprenticeships did Housing NWT actually support? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, Housing NWT has ten apprentices on hand. We're working to 12 and hoping to increase that to 15 in the next fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for clarifying. So that is good to know and that we have plans for the additional three. Does the Minister have any insights on what is -- what are some of the barriers to trying to fill up all those positions and whether there's opportunities for broader partnerships with ECE or Aurora College to try to make sure that we can fill up all those apprenticeship spots? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Kelly will provide more information about barriers and other opportunities working within. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would say that in general this is more of an ECE lead question but from a Housing NWT perspective, training and a smaller number of tradespeople in communities has been something that has been a barrier. We did just recently have a conversation with ECE about trying to improve and support folks to want to go into the trades from a housing perspective. It's really important, in particular, because of the distinctions-based funding and the funding that we have to build and there only being a certain number of trades people, right, so there's more work than we have for the apprentices. One thing we're also doing is putting apprentice work packages into the contracting that we're doing for some of our builds. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Great. And I also noted, so in the business plan -- and here I'm looking at page 421 -- there's a goal to work with ITI to foster the development of innovative approaches to housing construction and expand capacity also in the repair and renovations sector. And so the specific goal there that Housing NWT has set for itself is 16 training sessions. I assume per year but maybe the Minister can clarify. And some of the examples so far are some sort of basic training sessions conducted with LHOs. Can the Minister explain what is the vision here, because it seems like a one-off training on safety or is not going to necessarily get us to the innovative approaches to sort of boosting our housing construction or repair and renovation sector. So I wonder if the Minister or the Housing NWT has sort of a vision here of what kind of training we actually need and what kinds of sessions will get us there. That might be a bit vague, but I wonder if the Minister or her staff can comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Kelly will provide more information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There have been nine training sessions to date with the local housing authorities or organizations. Some examples are things like maintenance, biomass training, and safety training with respect to the types of training for the -- for housing stakeholders.
With respect to work with ITI to foster the development of innovative approaches, I just met with ITI recently to have some discussions, but I can certainly speak to our work with METCAN in Hay River and how we're working together on pilots. For example, a core and then a -- a core that has all of the mechanical pieces in it and then an envelope that would be sent up to a small community for example, and there's a pilot that's going on with that right now. So there is work that's being done on innovative building technologies that's ongoing right now, and that's just one of the examples. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you. And so can you clarify when you're talking about these nine training sessions, is that with staff that are already working for the LHOs and they're gaining additional skills, or are these -- is that training people so that we can hire new people or training people who work for other organizations such as Indigenous governments to -- like, who are we training, and are we hoping to get them, like, certifications out of this, or what is the -- really the expected outcome from those trainings? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Kelly will provide more insight into that question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it could be any of those things, but where we have been focusing right now is on training related to kind of these new units that are coming in. Some of them require additional expertise, like biomass for example, or training on other pieces. So we've been focusing on training the folks that are going to be doing the maintenance on those to make sure that they're up to speed on those elements. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it does sound like perhaps the focus is on training existing staff to sort of up their skills for what is coming and what's needed, which is super useful I understand. I think we do need sort of a more ambitious strategy around how we're going to ensure that we have people with the right skills in our communities to do the kind of repairs, renovations, housing maintenance, that we need to actually take care of our housing. And I know that goes beyond Housing NWT, and it requires working with other departments. I'll just put it out there now. I do think we need clear and more ambitious goals within our business plan of how we're going to get there. Right now we're, I think, just sort of doing little bits and pieces here and there and working around the edges. But I do look forward to further conversations with the Minister in the future about how we might be able to come up with a more ambitious vision and in coordination with other departments around that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on page 388 of the business plan and at the end, the legislative initiatives, it speaks to revision of the Housing Northwest Territories Act, and substantive amendments are anticipated. But in the business plan, it speaks to the fact that there would be information gathered on potential areas for change to this Act at the housing symposium, and I'm wondering if the Minister can elaborate on how those discussions went and what particular changes are being identified. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Kelly will provide more information about the changes around the legislation. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the president.
