Masi, Mr. Speaker. Along the same lines as the Member for Kam Lake, Arnica Inn has been on our radar since the election. September, October, we've heard it. Members, these women here, have supported it going forward, so it's surprising that we are still talking about the process itself.
Mr. Speaker, the territory's 25 percent share of capital cost spread over the project, 42 self-contained apartments, also lists $17,000 per unit. For the sake of people sleeping in apartment building stairways in Yellowknife or, even worse, outside, why did the Minister not jump on the chance to help provide those additional 42 transition housing units as badly needed today? Masi.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to elaborate that the Arnica Inn currently was an ongoing conversation September and October, but my riding is the Sahtu. I was not familiar with the project at all, and I do come from a smaller community, where there are homelessness issues, throughout the Northwest Territories.
Going forward with the Housing Corporation, we do have several initiatives to work with that. Going forward, looking at the 43 units that were available, I believe strongly that there should have been more involvement, there should have been more communication. With the final submission of the application, I actually met with the Yellowknife Women's Society in December, and I advised them that I would like to see Indigenous partnership with the project, and I would like to see how is the project going to be integrated.
In the Northwest Territories, we are a government that does acknowledge Indigenous people. I would have really liked to see the Indigenous component. We did have a strong conversation, and, once again, I advised the Yellowknife Women's Society to reach out to us.
Obviously, Members sitting on this side do not want to lose the hope of the federal funding that is available to us, should be available to us, but if we are talking about proposals, I am afraid we are going to miss out on the opportunity.
The Yellowknife Women's Society is a highly respected, extremely well-run non-profit agency that has been helping disadvantaged northern families for upwards of 30 years. It has extensive experience in transitional and emergency housing. If the Housing Corporation had problems or issues with the Arnica Inn project as the Minister alluded to earlier, why didn't it help the women's society to overcome those challenges as opposed to just plain ignoring those letters and emails that were going back and forth?
I recognize that the women's society has well established themselves respectfully in the Northwest Territories. Going forward, the Housing Corporation does not have any issues with the project. Like I have said, we contributed into projects with them prior to Christmas, calculating at least approximately $2 million. We have looked at the housing and homelessness initiative in the Northwest Territories.
Going forward, I have not seen the final application. I have not seen the business plan. It has not been shared with us, and I would strongly, once again, encourage the Yellowknife Women's Society to quickly reach out to us. They do have a deadline of March 31st or March 30th, I believe. Responding to the emails and the letters that were sent out, last week, we were travelling, and I wanted to solely concentrate on this issue. I wanted to look at it clearly and understand it.
As I said before, the project was not expressed in my campaign. It was not expressed in the Sahtu, but it is for the Yellowknife area. We do have seven MLAs within this riding. Looking at it going forward, I strongly encourage the Yellowknife Women's Society, because they have a deadline, to reach out and get their application resubmitted.
That is the fear that I have right now, where we are not being proactive as the GNWT, reaching out to those organizations and assisting them in submitting the proposal, so we don't raise that issue in the House here. It should have been dealt with a long time ago. I am more concerned about those 42 homeless people today who do not have a place to go to. We are sitting around the table here, talking about the process. This is what we need to do. What is the Minister doing today that will benefit those individuals who are out there hopeless, no shelter, no food? What is happening today from the department's perspective?
The application that was submitted by the Yellowknife Women's Society was submitted to the federal government. We don't see that application, so we don't know what the final ask was. When that application was put forward, I also did express to the Yellowknife Women's Society that they actually budget for renovation costs, should they come through, that they end up with a renovation that could cost millions of dollars, an environmental assessment that could cost millions of dollars.
The other thing that I would like to elaborate on is the age of the building, as well. I am not very familiar. In the letter sent from CMHC, they were concerned about the feasibility, and they did not elaborate on it. I really need to see that report because, if we open these 43 units and the building is not feasible, what are we going to do as a government with 43 people who would end up having to evacuate that building within six months? Are we in a financial state to house 43 people who would end up on the street? The same scenario happened in Hay River with the high-rise burned, and none of the people who were in the high-rise were housing clients, but we did make an effort to get modular homes into that community.
That is my concern, but right now the urgency is to get that application submitted and get it in, put it in, because, if there is missing information, I would really honestly like them to include the renovation costs, should that end up becoming a problem in the future.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. Those 42 individuals who are homeless, obviously they don't want to hear about the paper trail, the process that needs to take place. They want to know what this government is doing to support them, to house them. Mr. Speaker, my final question is: what is the Minister doing to wake the Housing Corporation up to the human emergency that homelessness represents to the Legislative Assembly, our communities, and to all the people of the Northwest Territories, especially those who are homeless?
The homelessness situation in Yellowknife has been addressed. We do work with what we can within the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Right now, we are in the midst of our budget going forward. We have invested into the Bailey House here in Yellowknife; we have invested into the YWCA; and we have invested into the sobering centre. We do have the rent supplementary program that is also here. We have a number of programs and a number of facilities that we have invested into in Yellowknife, and we have taken the same approach.
This application going forward is nothing new to the women's society. They have been through this process before. Right now, there are issues with the building, and I would strongly advise them to resubmit their application so we can go forward with this and try to meet their deadline. However, in the time being, I would just like to make the Member aware that we do have a number of homelessness buildings in the community, and we have addressed them. I will provide the Member with a list of the buildings that we do have in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
