Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today I have some questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation about the sale of the treatment centre on the Detah Road. My first question is: does the sale include both the land and the building? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The building that we're talking about was sold, actually, by the NWT Housing Corporation on August 6, 2015. At that time, it did include both the land and the building. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
How did the NWT Housing Corporation arrive at a price for that land and building?
In 2011, actually, the Housing Corporation had a formal appraisal done of the building and the land.
Right around the time we were elected, so in other words when the Minister was not yet the Minister, the treatment centre sold for almost double the price of the appraisal, which I take to be $880,000. Does the Minister have any idea how the building suddenly gained all that value?
At the time, the appraisal came in at $1.225 million.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister tell us, then, whether the media report of the centre selling for $880,000 is accurate and why and how it came to be sold for that price? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The building actually was zoned as an institutional building which limits the usage and so we had very few people that were interested in purchasing it. We had tried to go to the community. We had offered it to other departments. Selling of the building is actually one of the last recourses, so the price that we did actually sell it for was negotiated with the buyer after being on the market and Coldwell Banker which is our normal real estate firm. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
