Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, on page 378 of the main estimates, the line item for minor modernization and improvements, there is a significant jump from slightly over $5 million to just slightly over $9 million. And then in the same key activities, grants, contributions, and transfers, there is a minor jump also in maintenance. Can the Minister please speak to the substantiation around improvements and maintenance costs going up. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of housing.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will begin with grants, contributions, and transfers. In terms of the expenditure increase, $241,000 is to adjust LHO's maintenance, materials, and contracts funding for inflation. And then $240,000 is to increase Yellowknife Housing Authority funding allocation to add two maintenance positions. With the minor modernization and improvement, the increase of $3.967 million is for additional funding allocation to minor M&I budget for repairs and preventative maintenance, and that's $4.44 million. And then an internal reallocation from the minor M&I maintenance repairs budget to increase LHO's maintenance, materials, and contracts funding by $241,000 for inflation, and to fund two additional maintenance positions for Yellowknife Housing Authority in the amount of $240,000. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you. I feel so incredibly silly right now, but that was a lot of words and I am not sure I understood what the $4 million is for. Perhaps the Minister could explain it. I am very sorry; it's my own time and it's my apologies to the Minister.
Minister of NWT Housing.
No worries. It is a lot of information to take. And perhaps I will turn to Erin who -- or President Kelly who will provide more in-depth information to the minor modernization and improvement.
President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So there was $4.48 million that we were able to add to the minor M&I budgets for repairs and preventative maintenance. This is from internal resources, which is what we tend to do with the internal resources when there's additional funding available, is try to put it back into repairs. So you can see it here. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And just for clarity, if you're finding $4 million internally, where was the $4 million coming from? Thank you.
I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. President Kelly will provide more information to that.
Thank you. President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Sometimes there are things like infrastructure projects that don't get completed within this time frame that they were allotted for. Sometimes we make revenue from the federal government or from some of the market housing that we have, and we're able to put that into repairs. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I am not certain if this is perhaps the best place to ask this question, but it's a very general question so I hope the Minister is all right with that.
But can she tell me what was the infrastructure deficit before and after the $150 million that came to Housing NWT after negotiations in this House? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In April of 2025, Housing NWT's infrastructure deficit estimate was updated to $307 million, with a 20-year projected deficit of approximately $1.27 billion, or $63 million a year. The $150 million, which included $124 million from the GNWT, will reduce the infrastructure deficit estimate to $257 million, with a 20-year projected deficit reduced to $1.17 billion, or $58 million a year. So the 20-year projection was initially $63 million a year, and with the $150 million injection it was $58 million a year. But we still have a deficit overall for infrastructure estimating at $257 million.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't want to ask any further questions on that before the Minister has announcements later this week, so I will stop there right now.
Anything further? Member for Monfwi.
Okay, thank you. It says here on page 377, Housing NWT operates 3,000 rental units in 32 communities. According to website, to MACA website, there's 33 communities. So maybe it's a typing error, or like -- so which community is left out that the housing is not -- have no housing rental units in that community?
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. At this time, there's no public housing or market housing units in Enterprise. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Monfwi.
Okay, thank you. Thank you for that information. And maybe it should have been, you know, included in there.
But there's another one too, is that HELP, homeownership entry level and market rental housing program. That's HELP program, is it?
Okay. I know that the last time we were talking, say that housing is trying to get rid of the -- or get out of this HELP entry -- or this HELP program. To date, can the Minister tell us how many -- I know there's, like -- I don't know how many is in the Tlicho region but just to let us know, like how many are these settled in the Tlicho region. I know there are some in the community. People have said, okay, they're doing their paperwork, or it's in the process. So I just wanted to ask the Minister, to date how many did we settle so far out of the -- I think there's 30, I think, in the Tlicho region. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of our HELP units, we have 140 units across the Northwest Territories that are designated as HELP units. And I know in the last couple of years, Housing NWT has been kind of rolling back and working with the HELP tenants to ask them if they're interested in either taking over their unit or turning that unit into either a market unit or other possibilities within the housing infrastructure. But in terms of the day-to-day, what we've done so far in the last couple of years, perhaps I will turn that over to President Erin Kelly to provide some -- just exact numbers of what we've done over the last couple of years with those HELP clients. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Unfortunately, I don't have the data with me by community, but we can certainly provide that information.
As the Minister mentioned, we've been working really diligently with clients to try to determine next steps for them. Some folks are indicating that they are not interested in ownership at this time and they'd like to continue to rent, so we've been looking at options with those clients. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Member for Monfwi.
Okay, thank you. I am a bit surprised with that response. Maybe it's -- so can the Minister tell us what are the eligible criteria to become a homeowner of these program? HELP program, I mean. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of the HELP program -- and, again, this program was initiated probably 25 years ago, and it was working with the clients, working with potential housing tenants to take on a HELP unit. With that criteria, what we're hoping at the time with HELP was that they would pay the utilities and the overall cost for the unit and pay a minimum amount of rent to manage the unit itself. So housing would speak to the tenants themselves. If they had a steady income, they were employed, they were probably either a public housing tenant or a market housing tenant at the time and there was a lot of good interactions with local housing authority so they probably graduated to the HELP program at the time. And, again, this program is a longstanding program. Over the last couple of years, housing is slowly getting out of that program and just talking to tenants about would you take this on and would you take it on as an owner rather than housing managing the HELP program. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go over to the Member for Monfwi. Thank you. What about for arrears? If they have arrears, would they be eligible to become a homeowner of the HELP program? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to clarify, if they had arrears with the HELP program or overall arrears with the public housing program? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Member for Monfwi.
Arrears with this HELP program, yeah.
I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Madam Chair, I think it's really important that housing with our district office and the LHO that we talk to tenants about the arrears, especially in the HELP program and especially with housing looking to potentially ease out of the program, that we counsel clients to pay down their arrears so they're eligible to take on the house full-time as owners. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Monfwi.
Okay. Okay, because I know there are some people in the communities -- you know, I guess this is one of the good programs too, you know. And there are -- you know, we don't have no more HELP program -- I mean, what do you call -- HAP program, so -- and I know that because, you know, like, with that legacy mortgage that we just did yesterday, you know, the announcement, I know there's quite a few that -- you know, there's no market in small communities and I know there is a house that I think it's been on the market for three years. It's a private homeowner who bought it through the financial institutions, through the bank. But it's been sitting. I mean, they're renting it. It's good. It's being used. But it's a well-kept house. It's a new House. But it's been on the list to be sold. It's not happening. So I think this is where some of the young people are kind of, like, you know, they don't want to buy. I don't think they want to buy unless there's a program in place, you know. And I know yesterday you mentioned about the down payment deposit. Is that program still available?
I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With the down payment program, that's usually offered in our regional centres, and Housing NWT right now is doing a review of the programs to look at the eligibility to include those outside the larger regional centres because we are getting many questions throughout the Northwest Territories of interested -- mainly young people that want to have -- want to buy their own home, and if housing is kind of exiting, like the HELP program and other programs in our smaller communities, they want to put a down payment on a unit themselves. So housing is looking at that right now, all our homeownership programs housing is doing a review on it. And presently we're doing, like, applications in our regional centres but could consider applications from smaller communities. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member from Monfwi.
That's what I was going to ask about, is that small communities don't -- at this time they don't qualify for it. Even in Behchoko and Edzo, they don't qualify. We used to have that program there, that's what we were told. And then they -- yeah, they stopped funding that program in Tlicho region so I was worried about that. So do you think you'll be expanding that program, not just only to Tlicho region but to other regions as well? Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Housing NWT really wants to improve our programs and the outreach, and I've asked staff and asked the president if we could expand it to the smaller communities. They're currently looking at that and they will review applications, like on a one-off basis now right now until we get a firm policy in place. Thank you, Madam Chair.
