Thank you. Committee, Housing Northwest Territories begins -- bMember for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My first question is I recall a housing needs assessment survey that was underway, and I'm just wondering if the Minister could explain if it's over with, if it's done, what's the status of that survey. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The territorial housing needs assessment was conducted over the last number of months working in partnership with the UBC, University of British Columbia, and also with PlanIt North. The quantitative portion of the study was concluded early. The qualitative piece was conducted over the summer and fall of 2025. We should have a draft report probably mid November and a final report possibly by mid December, and this should kind of formulate our response of territorial housing needs across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thanks to the Minister for that information to hear. The reason I ask is that it all fits in with the corporate plan for the remaining term of this Assembly, and I'm quite pleased with the department's actions on previous efforts in trying to identify what the scope is, put a budget to it, and then you draft a schedule, which are really three fundamental points to achieving your construction plan. And aside from that, I see the allocation for this coming fiscal year or the upcoming is 112 new build units, plus -- I never tallied it up there -- the retrofits. So it seems that the Minister knows the stock, knows the age of the stock, and what's the immediate replacement for these aged 50 units. And then upcoming help is going to be coming. I really hope that it would be a multi-departmental effort towards this new initiative that's coming. And I'm referring to the Fort Good Hope construction centre. If they can roll out half a dozen units per year, that's really complementary to the cost savings of transporting these modular units from Alberta or Saskatchewan or wherever the manufacturer shop is. If you can save X amount of dollars, that could contribute to two more units. So all in all, I think the department's on a good path moving forward identifying these needs followed by complementing what the scope is and then putting step number 2, putting a budget to that. Once you have a project budget, then you can do your schedule accordingly. In some areas, added logistics to that schedule is really challenging. As you know, the Sahtu is a big maybe. I don't think we're going to get any water. And the fast deteriorating winter road season just adds to mobilization of goods, services. In this case, housing units. And I think if we continue down that path, I think we're going to see success story after fiscal year, after fiscal year. So I just want to compliment the Minister and staff here, but as my colleague from Yellowknife North had mentioned, keep us updated on that and re progress your schedule. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There's a lot of good things happening, and the Fort Good Hope construction centre is one of those great things that are happening. And we're working together in partnership with the K’asho Got’ine Housing Society and the development corporation to support them and have them be successful because building in a small community like Fort Good Hope modular housing units that could be transported throughout the Sahtu, and perhaps the Beaufort Delta, is a good opportunity considering the low water levels in the Northwest Territories and the challenges for transportation and shipping and, you know, the -- like the Member mentioned, the winter roads and sometimes the -- just the many challenges for Housing Northwest Territories and all our infrastructure. So no, working in partnership is really important and having those discussions so we're all successful. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just add one more complementary suggestion to the Minister and staff here, is we know that we're having -- along with the private sector, we know that we're having labour shortage, okay. And we are going to need trades to build these units at the construction centre in Fort Good Hope to be code compliant. So it really opens the door for, as I said earlier, a multi-department approach to stand behind that emerging industry. How much are we going to offset the wages from the department of ECE? And have we got a land tenure arrangement with the department of lands to compliment the development plan for the new products that are coming off of the supply line? So I really encourage the Minister to add on to the assessment of the survey to a development plan that would address some of these suggestions that I made. Thank you there, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, it's really important that we work with the different departments, and both Minister Cleveland and Minister Macdonald know and understand how important it is that we deliver on housing. It's according to our mandate. It's our number one priority of this government. And we're all working in collaboration so we could move forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for the Sahtu.
That's it, thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Seeing no further -- Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. I know that earlier in the year, too, Minister of Finance and Minister of housing have said it too that, you know -- they talked about Tlicho region, and even the stats says that we're -- based on the data that Tlicho has the worst overcrowding and homelessness. And we all know, so housing is a social determinant. It has an impact on health and education. Knowing that number, knowing the stats in Tlicho region, especially in Behchoko, we have ten houses, ten public housing replacement, and five units were major retrofit. And so I just want to ask the Minister how did they determine this number knowing that we have the worst housing outcome in Tlicho region, especially in Behchoko, with about 140 people on the housing waitlist? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And yes, Behchoko alone has over 130, 140 families on the waitlist. But that's a number across the Northwest Territories. There are over 900 families across the Northwest Territories, over 300 in Yellowknife alone, almost 100 in Inuvik. You know, the stat across the Northwest Territories is pretty bleak. There's a lot of families on the waitlist. And the concern from the Member is how do we make these decisions? Well, we have 32 communities to supply housing to, public and social housing to. And what we did at the time was look at our capital plan and plan to deliver in 11 communities to begin with, to concentrate the delivery based on waitlist, based on unit condition rating, and based on the age of the house along with when was the last time it was modernized and retrofit. Because many of these houses were built in 1969 or 1972 or 1974, and people, families are still living in them.
So understanding the need, especially in Behchoko, I can understand where the Member's concern is. The idea around not only providing new housing but also providing retrofits because many of the units after 25, 30 years plus will get a modernization and improvement, so renovating many of those homes to last another 25, 30 years.
So it's really the decision's based on data, based on the need to provide throughout the North, and to concentrate the delivery on 11 communities. I mean, it would be wonderful if we could provide housing to every community in the Northwest Territories at this time, but we determined that based on data, we could make these decisions and would -- these would be informed decisions. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
I guess based on the information provided, there's not much that Housing NWT is doing to help the region to catch up to the territorial average. We're always going to be at that number, or we're always going to be in the worst situation. Even in Whati alone, you know, there's that -- with the all-season road open, young families, young people are going home now. So we have -- I mentioned in the house here before that we have are families that are coming home, they are sleeping in the families -- family members' house, sleeping in the living room with their families. And I have family with teenaged children living in the old house with no running water, with no heat. You know, I mean, it's like going back to the '70s, '60s. I mean, people shouldn't be living like that. And there's no housing allocated for Whati. You know, and then if we don't take care of it now, it's going to become like Behchoko. There's going to be more people on the waitlist, and I would like to avoid that, you know. And I would like to see some houses allocated to Whati. And there's ten units in Behchoko because, I mean, I'm getting -- that's why you see emails from all my constituents that we are in housing crisis in -- for public and major repair, and that's the worst in Tlicho region. So what is the department doing trying to help the regions to be at the territorial average with housing instead of being in the negatives all the time? It's really frustrating, you know. It's not frustrating only for me, but it's frustrating because we want things to improve in small communities. We know our education -- our young people are suffering because of their education is affected, and their health is affected. A lot of mental health issues. And we've said it many times, and yet not much is done for communities that really need that help. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I hear the Member, and I understand the concerns. The Tlicho region is really in need of new housing and modernization and improvement of many of their older housing units.
I just want to emphasize to everyone, though, that across the Northwest Territories, housing has rental arrears of $13 million, and this is across the Northwest Territories. So we could use this money to put more houses on the ground in the communities and encouraging everybody to work together to pay your rent, understanding that this money is back and reinvested into communities for new housing.
The other piece of this is the urban, rural, and northern Indigenous fund that was announced by the federal government in 2022, it was like $4 billion for housing, and they allocated about a billion and a half dollars of housing across Canada, much of it going to Indigenous governments. In the Tlicho region alone, $80 million was provided for housing in the Tlicho region to the Tlicho government through the URNI funding. And this is very similar in other regions across the Northwest Territories.
Now, Indigenous governments are making that choice of what to invest housing in, but we need to invest in public and social housing. This has been our argument and our stance for -- since I've been Minister. The opportunity is Build Canada Homes and working with the federal government because we're not seeing any movement on URNI. So we're moving on, and we have to move on with Build Canada Homes. How is that going to come to the North.
Continue, Minister.
(audio).
Okay. So we'll go to the Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you. Well, you know, the $13 million that you're talking about, okay, how many of those are elders? And there's a lot of old houses. You know, there's a lot of people that are living in these units, and they are paying for old house from 1970s. A lot of my community members are complaining, saying -- they're paying, like, $1,500 for a house from -- it's a total write-off. And some of the elders, I have senior citizens living in a market rental unit. I mean, my goodness. You know, like, I mean, don't lecture us about that. I don't know why if -- if GNWT is not going to do anything, why is GNWT in the housing business? If we were dealing directly with the federal government, all this would not be an issue. I'm glad the federal government gave that money to the First Nations, but I think we need to start -- I think GNWT should get out of the housing business because they are not doing a good job. They are doing a poor job, and I don't agree with what they are doing because like here, we're in a housing crisis. My goodness, I don't think they're going to fix anything. It's -- the problem is always going to be there. It's frustrating. It's frustrating for me, and I'm sure it's frustrating for the Deh Cho. It's frustrating for a lot of us. And even in her riding, it's the same as my region as well. We're in a housing crisis. But I think GNWT should get out of the housing business if they're not going to help improve the housing situation. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I totally agree, GNWT should get out of the housing business. We should give it to NGOs and Indigenous governments and communities and have them operate the houses and the public housing units. That would be wonderful if we can get to that point. But until then, we have to operate in this manner because we have to be accountable to this House and constituents. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Seeing no further questions. I remind committee that the estimates for Housing Northwest Territories are included in the capital estimates as an information item only. The committee will not be voting on the activity total. I'm now going to call a break. So we'll go into a break and be back in. Thank you.
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Thank you. Please return now to the Housing Northwest Territories summary found on page 79. Are there any further questions or comments from committee? Seeing none. Thank you, committee, and thank you, Minister.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the chamber. I call on the Member for Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move the chair rise and report progress.
There's a motion on the floor to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress.
Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 388-20(1) and Tabled Document 385-20(1) and would like to report progress with two motions carried. And, Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.
Can I have a seconder, please? Let's just go to our friend from Nunakput. All those in favour? All opposed? Abstentions? There we go.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that Bill 21, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
The Member for Hay River South. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The Member for Nunakput. The Member for Deh Cho. The Member for Sahtu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre. The Member for Range Lake. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. The Member for Monfwi. The Member for Frame Lake. The Member for Great Slave. The Member for Yellowknife North. The Member for Thebacha. The Member for Yellowknife South. The Member for Kam Lake. The Member for Hay River North.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand. Colleagues, all in favour, 16. Opposed, zero. Abstentions, zero. Bill 21 has been passed.
---Carried
Third reading of bills. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member from Kam Lake, that Bill 22, Legislation Act, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Member from Thebacha. The motion in order. To the motion.
Question.
The Member for Thebacha. The Member for Yellowknife South. The Member for Kam Lake. The Member for Hay River North. The Member for Hay River South. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The Member for Nunakput. The Member for Deh Cho. The Member for Sahtu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre. The Member for Range Lake. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. The Member for Monfwi. The Member for Frame Lake. The Member for Great Slave. The Member for Yellowknife North.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand. Colleagues, 16 in favour. Zero opposed. And zero abstentions. The motion is carried. Bill 22 has had its third reading.
---Carried
Third reading of bills. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
