Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Member's statement, there's a number of houses that are beyond repair within the Northwest Territories specifically referring to the Mackenzie Delta ridings. Does the department know how much of these houses that are not liveable anymore that belong to Housing NWT that are situated in the three communities of the Mackenzie Delta riding? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. His concern is my concern because living in small community, you drive around, you walk around, you see many units within the community that are boarded up or that have no windows or busted up windows. So this is something that we are working towards as Housing NWT is working within our community, working with Indigenous governments, to either remediate or demolish or modernize these homes.
So in terms of the question from the Member, we have 293 units in the Mackenzie Delta riding. 265 are occupied. We have one that is surplused, approved for demo. We have four that are approved for sale. We have three that are ready for occupancy. Four, repairs in progress. And we have 16 that require repairs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Minister for the detailed answer. You know, we have companies within the region of Mackenzie Delta that can conduct these demolitions. Will the Minister look at acting on the concern and have these hazards removed before an accident happens? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I completely agree that we need to remove many of these boarded up or derelict buildings. The situation is it's hard to get money for housing. It's even more difficult to remediate or demolish older housing units. Our budget for Housing NWT is $500,000 a year. We have 2900 units across the North. It costs up to $50,000 to remediate or demolish a unit considering the contaminants or the age of the unit, the space within the solid waste site, and sometimes we have to ship that material south. So it could be difficult but we are willing to look at partnerships. We are willing to look at arrangements. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it is quite hard to look at removing some of these units because of the contaminants that are in there but, you know, they work with the Indigenous governments, with these local contractors, maybe something -- we can find something out.
Can the Minister commit to a timeframe as to when these projects can commence within the Mackenzie Delta region; hopefully this calendar year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I'm willing to commit to meet with the Member to discuss this further. We do have funding available. It's called the community housing initiative funding. We could work with Indigenous governments or local government or bands to look at some of these opportunities and perhaps advance them in his riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from the Deh Cho.
