Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In listening to the responses from the Minister responsible for NWT Housing Corporation regarding the Arnica project, it is clear the Minister does not understand the situation. The current agreement to purchase expires on March 31st. The CMHC turnaround time on a re-application is 300 days, Mr. Speaker. This project cannot go forward on a re-application. My question is: will the Minister contact the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation and ask them to change their rejection of this project?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have identified before, we are wanting to work with the Yellowknife Women's Society. They need to contact our office. They have received a response from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, I want to say, two weeks ago, maybe a week ago. They need to move quickly. They need to move fast. I do understand the dire need of homelessness and addressing the issue in Yellowknife. The longer they take to submit those documents and those papers, they are going to lose out on their own initiative. They should at least be able to resubmit that application so CMHC can have another look at the application and reconsider their decision. Also, the concern on the application was to look at the long-term viability of the units and also the affordable criteria. I would really like to look at that application that they submitted. Like I said, I haven't seen it, but going forward, I would really like to encourage the Yellowknife Women's Society to act fast. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is exactly the problem we run into. In the real world, real estate transactions have deadlines, and they can't fit into tight, bureaucratic processes. Therefore, there is a political will for this project to happen. Will the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation contact CMHC and clarify that we support this project?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the application being submitted to CMHC, like I said, CMHC has concerns regarding the long-term viability of the units and also the affordable criteria. These are stressed from CMHC. I would advise the Yellowknife Women's Society to contact our office so we can work with them and go forward from there. I am just thinking: the faster you act, the faster we would be able to submit these applications and go forward.
Once again, we seem to force the Yellowknife Women's Society to do all of the work, and we are not in a position to help them or assist them. My question is: have we committed to providing our 25 percent, our $680,000 if that application is approved?
Depending on the outcome of this application, we will have to go forward. If it is submitted and it is approved by the Housing Corporation, we would have to find money alternatively within our budget. We have not finalized our budget as of right now, today. Going forward, we are going to end up having to cut back on some programs that are being delivered currently. Going forward, we have to make sure that we would be able to find that money somewhere internally within our Housing Corporation within our budget. Once again, I would advise the Women's Society to submit their application so that we have something to go forward with. I need to see what it is that they submitted because I have not seen it today.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It seems I failed to get a single "yes" once again. Have we committed to providing our 25 percent should the CMHC change their decision and approve this? We said earlier that we support the project, but if we have not committed to providing the financial support, I don't understand how we can say we support the project. My question is: have we committed to both CMHC and the Yellowknife Women's Society that we will provide our 25 percent if the CMHC brings their 75 percent to the table?
I know that the Member is very eager to hear a commitment from the NWT Housing Corporation, but, in reality, we need to make sure that we do have that 75 percent from CMHC, and I need to make sure that we are able to afford the $650,000 that the Yellowknife Women's Society is requesting. We will be able to find it, but I just need to make sure that this application is approved by the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
