President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So, yes, any of the surpluses are rolled over and used for capital ongoing. I think it's important to recognize that we have received some large amounts of funding up front from CIRNAC and CMHC, about $135 million. What happens is that we get that money sometimes before the builds begin, so they end up getting rolled over until we're able to spend them. So our capital carryover is all allocated for capital projects that are underway or to begin next fiscal. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I assume that also includes the $6 million in interest that the housing corporation also earned from that surplus in there, and that is then carried into the ongoing surplus.
Can the Minister then -- if that's the case and if that surplus coming into 2025 from 2024 has been allocated, can we get a kind of list of how much of that is work in progress, Madam Chair, if we will call it, and how much of that is new builds, and what portions -- I understand it's all been allocated. Can we get the information as to what it's been allocated for. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have an estimated capital carry forward projects at year end, and it just outlines the different builds that are happening throughout the territory, but it also outlines the major retrofits. And we can provide this to the Member if he's interested in the information. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to the Minister. And we had this conversation last year. Last year, I believe we came in with a $90 million surplus, and there was some -- a little bit of ambiguity around what that was being spent on. I think at the end of the day, it was determined that $40 million was basically work in progress, or $30 million I believe, Madam Chair, and $60 million had been allocated to units going forward. It seems to me if you look back historically year after year, there's always a significant accumulated surplus with housing corp, and it seems like it's like they -- they're holding on to that money rather than spending it and, you know -- and, you know, I'd be curious to see what the plan is for that full funding and what that money's going to be spent on, Madam Chair, because, again -- and, you know, we had this debate last year, but it seems that the -- it seems like a big number for the surplus, and it doesn't always seem like it's going to be spent in a timely fashion. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I'll just reiterate to the Member that we are doing our best with the money that we have. We do have a plan in place. We're rolling out different capital projects across the Northwest Territories. There's no holding back of nothing besides our operating dollars that we need to maintain within housing to meet payroll, our contractors' costs. We are asking that housing look at all builds, look at operations and maintenance, look at modernization and improvements, and advance those. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you. And, yeah, just for clarity -- and the Minister may have said this, and I apologize if I didn't pick it up. So none of that surplus, then, is being considered as part of the new plan going forward for the new builds that the Member from Range Lake had discussed earlier? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As outlined to committee in December, we did have an internal resources document that indicated where all surplus funds would go. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
No further questions at this time, Madam Chair.
Next, I have Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To attempt to follow up on my colleague's line of questioning there, I understand that -- and first, is the time going to restart there? The time is ticking away.
I understand that Housing NWT needs to hold on to a minimum amount of internal resources to ensure that it manages payroll and contractor payments. But my understanding is that above and beyond that, Housing NWT has identified net financial assets that are available for reinvestment. Is the Minister able to tell us what was the total net financial assets that were available for reinvestment as of March 31st last year, 2024, and can she update us what the expected amount of net financial assets available for reinvestment might be coming up to this March 31st, 2025. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As outlined in December with committee, $38 million of net financial assets was provided in an internal resources document, and it outlined year 1, year 2, year 3 besides the $10 million that we keep aside for Housing NWT's operating costs. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you for that. We can establish that as of last year, there was $38.6 million available to be reinvested. Can the Minister confirm whether that has now all been spent and that Housing NWT is back down to the minimum amount that it needs to hold onto just, as we've said before, for payroll and contractors. Has that 38.6 sort of extra net assets that could be reinvested has it been reinvested to date? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. President Kelly will provide more information with that.
President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So every year that there's internal resources, they're reinvested. And if you look in the information item that's part of this main estimates, there is a 2025-2026 supplementary internal resource investment sheet, and it will show that $4.772 million will be invested for 2025-2026, and then there's some notes that explain what those will be used for. So there's that plan. And every year, the internal investments are reallocated. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So Housing NWT's also identified that -- so I -- so that -- it's identified that it has over 130 vacant housing units that need to be repaired and need funding for that repair. Can the Minister explain how much has been allocated so far to try to repair those 130 vacant units and if more is being allocated this coming fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With the 130 vacant housing units throughout the Northwest Territories, there's more vacant units but many of them, we don't have the funding for to modernize or improve those units. So with 130 units that are outlined, these are in the works of being updated or upgraded but it depends on funding. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So if we had $38.6 million available to reinvest last year, can the Minister tell me how much of that was reinvested specifically in repairing vacant units? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. For that detail, I'll ask vice-president Mr. Jim Martin. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Vice-president Martin.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have a line item in our main estimates. It's minor modernization and improvement line item. And that $5 million is dedicated to dealing with preventive maintenance as well as repairs for our units. So that is the money being directed towards ensuring that the units do -- that do require repair are repaired. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister explain -- you know, the $5 million that's been identified, it sounds like that's not nearly enough to actually do all of the repairs that would be needed. Is that amount limited because we can't find people to do the repairs? Like, is there a cap on how much we can realistically spend because we won't be able to complete the repairs, or has it just been determined that other things are more important than, you know, doing more repairs so we'll put the money somewhere else instead? Can the Minister explain, you know, why, for instance, we can't put more than $5 million this year into repairs and improvements. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Madam Chair, for that information, I'll ask President Kelly to speak on it.
President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So there are capacity challenges in many communities, and we have had situations where proposals have gone out, projects have gone out, and we haven't had folks that have been able to -- they haven't been taken up because with the builds, with the distinctions based funding, there's more projects that are happening in more regions and communities and there's still the same number of tradespeople which we, I think can all agree, is not adequate to meet the needs that we have.
But as far as the amount there, there's a balance when creating a budget, and we've heard from other Members interested in new builds and preventative maintenance in programs for owning homes and repairing homes, and so the department looks across those and builds a budget based on what we can achieve and the interests of folks.
When we get additional funds, we look at where the need is, and we use unit condition ratings and other factors to determine where these repairs are done and need, and so that's how those numbers are put into the main estimates. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to switch gears a little bit and point -- so, like, the line item for homeownership entry level and market housing programs.
So I know that are plans to discontinue the homeownership entry level program, and I understand that the goal when this program was started was to allow people to transition towards owning those units, and some people have been in there -- those units for a long time and never have been able to or wanted to transition to homeownership, so it was sort of decided, I guess, enough is enough and we just discontinued the program. But it sounds like there's 51 units that are being disposed of somehow. Can the Minister explain what is actually happening to those 51 units and what's happening to those who currently live in them. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So in the last year's budget, we had the same line item with these HELP units, and we're not disposing of these HELP units. We're actually counselling with the owners of these HELP units to see if they want to purchase these HELP units. But if they feel that they can't afford it or if they want to stay within that HELP unit, we look at turning it into either a market unit or a public housing unit. So they are being counselled. There is advice. Depending on financial situation, depending on the situation within the family, that would depend on them with Housing NWT providing that support in place. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you for explaining that. My understanding from some of the research we had gotten was that there is a $556,000 reduction in the budget which is an adjustment related to the planned disposition of the 51 units. Is that understanding incorrect, that -- is there to be a reduction associated with the discontinuation of the HELP program? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Jim Martin here will provide more information with the HELP unit disposition. Thank you, Madam Chair.
