Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the housing Minister. I am wondering if the housing Minister can let us know when the Housing Corporation decided not to support the project of the Arnica Inn.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The project for Arnica Inn and the NWT Housing Corporation, I would like to elaborate on it a little bit, is that the Arnica Inn was advised to submit an application to CMHC. Once that application is approved and it's going forward, and it's supported by CMHC, NWT Housing Corporation would have followed up after.
We have gotten a letter from the CMHC that was addressed to the Yellowknife Women's Society, and they were given the instruction to resubmit their application and to fill the missing information that needs to be on that application and that would meet the affordability criteria for Yellowknife and that the long-term viability was not demonstrated. I would strongly encourage the women's society to go forward with the application and resubmit.
Just so that I am on the same page, then, the government did not not support the project of the women's society and have asked the women's society to resubmit their application?
Once the application is approved by CMHC, the application will now be supported by the NWT Housing Corporation. With the missing criteria, that has to be completed first because it is a federal program; it is not a territorial program. I would strongly advise the women's society to go ahead and look at their application, revise it, because they do have a deadline, and to contact our office, reach out to us, should they need us to go ahead and assist them in completing the application, as we did provide assistance before. I would like to strongly advise that the women's society reach out to the Housing Corporation.
On the Housing Corporation website, I found a presentation that was delivered by the Housing Corporation president, called the National Housing Co-Investment Fund and NWT Housing Corporation. The presentation explained the co-investment fund to stakeholders and advised that the federal government would contribute 75 percent and we would contribute 25. Slide 4 of the presentation indicated that the Housing Corporation would help prepare applications. Would the Housing Corporation be prepared to help the women's society resubmit this application?
Absolutely. The Housing Corporation is in support of assisting the Yellowknife Women's Society to resubmit their application. I also just wanted to express that the Housing Corporation did enter into a partnership with them in December, and we did complete a women's shelter, and the Housing Corporation did contribute $750,000, and the centre was opened prior to Christmas.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think what I would like to know for my final question is: does any GNWT department have an environmental assessment of the Arnica Inn?
We have not. To my knowledge, I have not seen an environmental assessment, but I will follow up with my department to see if we have received anything in the time being. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
