Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, you know, one of the ways that we're able to track this sort of thing and determine for ourselves and be engaged with our constituents is to see what's being brought forward. So does the Minister or the public administrator have any plans in place to establish some kind of a plan or list a set of actions that are going to be taken and, you know, maybe a timeline for how things will go down so that staff can see, you know, what actions are being taken, how their concerns are being heard and actioned? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I had mentioned in this House, you know, the PA is working with the leadership of NTHSSA right now. But when I mentioned about the town halls, those town halls and bringing those concerns forward, there are internal actions for each of those COOs to go back to their staff to work through some of those issues that were brought forward. So I know that we've only -- like I said, mentioned, we've only done two or three of three different regions now, and we have the rest of the regions to go there. And I encourage those staff to come out and voice their -- you know, their concerns. Not just their concerns, but what's working so that we don't change the things that are working. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, continuing on, and I'm kind of a role of collecting information on what we're spending on renewable energy, and I would like ask the Minister of ECC if he can kind of let us know -- I understand that this year's budget's currently being negotiated but in previous years, what we spent on the climate action plan, what we budgeted for that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you very much to the Member for the question. The climate change action plan budget is not something that I have right at my fingertips at this specific moment, the amount. But I think as we look at our action plan and how we roll that out from the department, it supports an all-of-government approach. So a lot of the work that we do through that climate action plan involves many of the departments and supports many of the initiatives that the GNWT does as a whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. And I appreciate that, Mr. Speaker. And I'm sure if I'd have given the Minister a little more time, he certainly would have got those numbers for me. But maybe he can speak in general, then, around the amount -- you know, that budget, the amount of that work that's done by consultants and/or contractors and particularly how much of that money is spent outside the territory, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, maybe just to finish the end of the last question, I'm happy to provide that information to the Member on what we spend in the budget and with a bit of a breakdown just to -- and to the other Members of the House as well.
When we talk about consultants, again, not a number I have off the top of my head but happy to get that information and bring it forward for the Member and the other Members. And with a bit of a breakdown, we can see what percentage of that work is done by NWT firms within the territory and break that out for work that may be done by other firms outside of the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I talked to some -- in talking with some of my constituents who have travelled to Edmonton, and they've gone to Edmonton for medical travel and they're concerned about some of the medical travel rates and the accommodations at Larga House. I'm curious on how often these programs get reviewed specific to location and the rates. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure what the Member is referring to. If they're staying at the boarding home, then they don't get -- they don't get -- everything when they're assigned a room there is free. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Fair enough. I'll say it this way: In some cases, they go to the Larga House and I'm curious on how often that opportunity gets reviewed. In other words, is Larga the only location or the preferred location, and if so, how often does that go to competition? I was referring to the rates as in per diems. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Larga boarding home, as is the Keskorie, are both RFPs, so that people that are travelling for medical travel, if they're coming to Yellowknife from any of the communities, they stay at Keskorie. There is no fees. There is no -- they don't get per diems. They get meals while they're there. They get a room. If there's no room, then they'd be put into a hotel, their meals are provided to them. If they're in Edmonton and they stay at Larga, that is the RFP that we have. It is a hotel in Leduc. There is transportation provided to and from the appointments. There is meals provided. They will provide them with a lunch if they're going to be away from their -- from Larga for extended periods of time and miss meals. So there is no per diems provided to those who stay there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's -- do we ever do any follow-up or surveys of people with respect to their stay at Larga? I've heard complaints from constituents that they don't find it very comfortable, don't find the meals, etcetera. I mean, it goes on -- I won't go on, but it goes on with a lot of further not very happy experiences. That said, do we do any surveys with our medical travel clients to get a sense of how they've enjoyed their stay or may not have enjoyed their stay and ways we can make them better? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear from many MLAs and many constituents when it's not a good stay; however, since Larga has moved to Leduc, there were initially -- there were concerns and complaints. Larga has accommodated many of the issues that were brought forward just because of their distance away from Edmonton, and they provided a lot of different space. People seem to enjoy staying in the hotel, in Larga. Recently, I haven't had a lot of complaints. There are -- Goba Care is working a lot out of there for, you know, providing programming while people are there for extended stays. We do, however, have, you know, concerns with our capacity here in Yellowknife but we are in the process of -- we are going back out to RFP, and we are looking at taking into consideration all of the concerns that we have. Unfortunately, right now, within Yellowknife, the issue is is that the dental travel has really increased the capacity that Keskorie can hold, but we haven't had the problem in Edmonton. But I would -- you know, and I mean, and any program that we provide to our residents and if there is a way that we can take feedback from residents through our RFP process going forward, I would look into that and commit that to making sure that that's something that we would do with our residents that are travelling. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 21, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for WSCC. Pursuant to Rule 8.2(3), Bill 21 is deemed to have first reading and is ready for second reading.
I now call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), the 2025-2026 Main Estimates, Department of Housing Northwest Territories and Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates. We will now continue consideration of Housing Northwest Territories.
I will remind the committee that the Housing Northwest Territories is included in the main estimates and information and the totals are not voteable items. We will review these estimates as we have for the previously consider the departments; however, we will not vote for the totals. If Members have comments or questions, they can be raised at the appropriate time.
Does the Minister responsible for Housing Northwest Territories wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.
Colleagues, we'll just take a five-minute recess.
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I'd like to call committee back the order. Would the Minister please introduce her witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right is the president of Housing Northwest Territories, Dr. Erin Kelly. And to my left is Mr. Jim Martin, who is our vice-president of finance and infrastructure.
Thank you. Committee, we will resume where we left off yesterday. We are considering community housing services starting on page 386. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a few remaining questions. The first is just following up on the last line of questions that I was asking about the HELP program and the disposition of those 51 units. The Minister or her staff people had said that the adjustment is $408,000. I think there's a reduction there. Can the Minister explain where those savings come from? How are we saving $408,000 by disposing of the units? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Jim Martin here will provide some insight to the savings of the $408,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the vice-president.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The savings as a result of disposing of the HELP units is the cost savings that we would realize by no longer operating those units. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. And can the Minister clarify, and maybe this is not all decided or sorted out yet, but who is going to operate the units? So if residents don't want to own them and they don't necessarily need to be kicked out, so -- and we're going to save money by not owning and operating them anymore, who is going to own and operate them and rent them to tenants? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the HELP units, the disposal of the HELP units, what we'll do first as Housing Northwest Territories is we'll talk to the tenants to see if they're interested at all to take ownership of the unit. If they're not interested in taking ownership, housing remains the owner and will continue to operate and maintain those units and perhaps turn them into a public housing unit or a market housing unit. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to leave that for now. I'm still confused; if we don't even know yet who's going to own and operate or how these units are going to work, I'm not sure how we can get a very specific number like $408,000 in savings if we're not sure what's happening to the units. But to be continued.
I had a few questions about items in the business plan that I think are related to this page. So on page 407 of the business plan under -- it's titled initiatives of community housing, it talks about the goal of working with Indigenous governments or NGOs to create supportive or transitional housing or working with ECE to provide market housing for teachers, and the specific goal that's listed is three per year. And I wonder if the Minister or her staff could clarify three of what per year? Are we talking about the goal of three units? Three communities? Three partners? Three projects? Or what counts as a project? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Erin Kelly will provide some information to that question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
