Thank you. Now, seeing no further questions, I remind the committee that the estimates for Housing Northwest Territories -- sorry? Oh, Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask some questions about the business plan. I figured this would be as good of a spot as any so I will try to refer to pages to keep the Minister and staff on track. The first one is on page 10 of the business plan.
It talks about updated legislation, updating the Housing NWT Act. And it says in the business plan the legislative review is underway and there's a proposal planned for 2026-2027, quarter 1. So I think -- I always have a hard time with the way fiscal years work and everything. But I think we're in quarter 1 now. So is that on track; do we expect to see that LP within the next couple of months here, or?
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Associate deputy minister Michael Saturnino will provide an update related to the legislation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Associate deputy minister Saturnino.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the legislative project has been -- to this point, we've been -- we've undergone the planning, going through research, doing all the preliminary work that we typically do, jurisdictional scans, digging into the issues that were, you know, within the legislation that we want to -- like, to narrow the scope.
Specifically on the Member's question, this refers to the fiscal year, so it'll be quarter 1 of 2026-2027. So the April to June time frame would be the target for a legislative proposal. Thank you.
I will go to the Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And so is the department confident that they'll be able to go from legislative proposal to draft -- or to having legislation drafted and a bill in the House within a time period to get this done within the term of this Assembly? We are -- the time is ticking. Thank you.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you for the question. Yes, that's the current plan. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Looking forward to reviewing it and getting that through the Assembly, especially considering my statement today about moving legislation quickly.
The next question I have is on page 16 of the business plan. I just note that the department has a goal of getting 25 Housing NWT units demolished and moved out of communities to make land available for housing development. They have a goal of getting 25 units done by October 2027. We're only at four units in 2026, and they have seven units currently approved for demolition. So we're not quite halfway there. I am just wondering if the department is still confident they'll be able to meet their goal by the end of the term of the Assembly?
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think Housing NWT is still confident that it could meet its goal. One of the things that we are finding, especially in smaller communities, even our larger centre, is the room within the solid waste site and if there's certain types of, like, asbestos or other materials that need to be remediated. So there might be some challenges there. But President Erin Kelly can provide more information related to that business plan item. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Minister mentioned, we think that we are going to be able to get to this goal. And we do recognize that there are many units that people are looking to have demolished so our hope is that there'll be more available funding and we'll be able to do more than what we have. And it's looking positive from a federal government funding perspective, but we'll see how that results. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And before I go on with questions, I do just want to make a note of complimenting Housing NWT on all the outcomes based goals in their business plan, certainly appreciating that. It's something we talked about at the beginning of our Assembly when the business plans were updated. Didn't see that from a lot of departments, and I think HNWT is a great example of, you know, just setting an outcome that they're trying to achieve and working towards it. I see that in the business plan here, so good work.
But I want to -- the next item is on page 19 of the business plan. I am curious about this project, mixed-use building, the 50 units being built in Yellowknife which combines advanced manufacturing for mass timber structural components. So it sounds like HNWT is taking an innovative approach there. I am just curious, how does that relate back to creating capacity and building entrepreneurship and building local economy? I am just curious how that works. If the Minister or her staff can help us better understand this project and how it's leading to local job creation and construction. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Madam Chair, President Kelly will talk about the 50 unit and the builder. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There's been a number of RFPs and projects that have gone out recently, and many of them are focused on developing capacity locally. And one example is the core project that we've been working on in Deline, where we're hopeful that that can be expanded out so that there's more work for folks in local communities. The 50-plex is looking at a different technology that can go up faster and be more efficient. And so when we say that we're looking to build jobs and capacity, it's true when you look across all of the work that we're doing.
In the case of the 50-plex, it's looking at different innovative ways that we can get units built faster. And in this case, this mass timber, what we're hearing is that in the coming months you'll be seeing things going up really quickly at that site. So we're learning from that process. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will return to the Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And certainly very excited to see that and really appreciate Housing NWT's work there. As I am starting to run out of time, I did have one kind of just basic and fundamental question to ask the Minister.
Can Housing NWT confirm how many new units are anticipated to be added to the public housing stock by the end of the 20th Assembly? And just to be clear about the question, I am not asking how many units is Housing NWT building but how many units are being added to public housing's overall stock, knowing that some get removed when things get built so I am just curious. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. President Kelly will provide an exact information on how many units. I do know with the $150 million fund that 152 units will be provided, along with $30 million for M&I projects and preventative maintenance, deferred maintenance that has been deferred over the many years. So we put $30 million aside, and then $120 million was the 152 units that will be built over the life of this Assembly. And more information will be either President Kelly or the associate. Okay, Mr. Saturnino will provide the exact number. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Associate deputy minister Saturnino.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The 152 units being funded by the $150 million capital plan are all replacement units. So they're not new -- they're not net new. They're replacing aged units. There was, in the last government, an incremental investment of a hundred new units into public housing. Some of those did carry forward into the current government so there -- many were completed in the 19th Assembly but they carried forward. Those would be new, net new. And then beyond that, I would point out that on the recently announced Rock Hill project, we're adding 10 new social housing units. And also in the 50-plex, those are all units that are intended to allow us to exit leases with private contractors. So it is a little bit of a complicated question as far as net new, but we are building units. It's allowing us to exit leases. There is a bit of an increase. I think as we kind of move forward and we look at something like Build Canada Homes, which is intended for new units more so than replacement, that's where we would see the focus sort of shift. But given what our current infrastructure deficit is and what our 20-year infrastructure needs are to replace units, we still have a very big focus on replacing existing units that have reached the end of their service life. Thank you.
Thank you. I will allow Member from Monfwi to ask another question.
Yes, or else I could wait until we do the, you know, summary. But I can -- if it is okay, I can ask, you know -- I can ask this question here. Community housing services, administrations, you know, for the upcoming fiscal year, $7.7 million, and funding for local housing organizations to provide property management, so does that include the administrations like the office staff or administrative team? And so that includes the maintenance as well maybe? Okay, thank you.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With the administration funding of $7.74 million, that's funding our local LHOs for their administrative staff within the LHO. And then in terms of maintenance, it's $15.182 million, and that's for the LHOs to undertake demand and preventative maintenance activities. So LHOs are provided funding for maintenance, and LHOs are provided funding for administration. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member from Monfwi, do you have any more?
Okay. So that $15.2 million, so how are these funds allocated? Because, you know, in Tlicho region alone, you know, in Behchoko there's a lot of houses that are boarded up and some are beyond -- you know, I mean, it's been boarded up for 10 years, and I think it needs to be demolished, some of them, but -- so how is this fund, you know, going to be allocated or being allocated? Thank you.
Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I think that's throughout the Northwest Territories, is the LHOs are faced with an aging housing stock and they're trying to keep up, especially with the preventative maintenance side of managing the housing stock within community. And many times, LHOs won't be able to find the part for either the furnace because it's so old or, you know, another part of the system within the housing unit. But in terms of the allocation itself and how we allocate those funds throughout the Northwest Territories with our 24 housing associations, President Kelly could provide more information with the allocation itself. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. President Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So one of the reasons that we do unit condition ratings is to know what the state of the units is in and so that we can make good decisions about where we allocate our maintenance funding. And I should -- this is base maintenance funding that is being provided, but there are other types of funding that are provided for major repairs, for example, or if we get federal funding for repairs, that also would be divided up amongst the communities, and they would look at those unit condition ratings, and so how old the house is, what shape that it's in, and allot the money based on those types of things. Thank you.
Thank you. Now we're going to move on. So seeing no further questions. I remind the committee that the estimates for -- okay, I will go back to Ms. Morgan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate your indulgence.
I just wanted to ask about the apprenticeships. It's the line in the budget on page 379. There's $861,000 allocated for apprenticeships for LHOs to hire apprentices to try to get more qualified tradespeople into the communities. Now, I don't see anything in the business plan about targets for numbers of apprentices or whether we're sort of meeting those targets, if we have them. So I guess my first question is, do we have a target for a number of apprentices that we're hoping to have on any given year or in the coming year specifically? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Housing NWT increased the number of apprentices from 12 to 15 in the most recent fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, so that's good to know. Does that mean that we're using up the full amount, $861,000? Like, are we fully subscribed in terms of the maximum number of apprentices we can handle, or could we -- or do we have room in that funding to take on even more if we could find interested apprentices and interested, like, supervisors, mentors? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The fund is fully subscribed. And what we're doing is Housing NWT is actually having conversations with our other sister departments about apprenticeships and trade opportunities and labour market development within community because, truly, like, with the projects that are coming on stream, that we really need local capacity so we're encouraging apprenticeships. And also apprenticeships is part of the terms and conditions with our projects within community. Like, if we're putting out an RFP for a housing build within community, that company needs to add some apprenticeships to the overall -- the overall proposal. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. That's good to know that that's underway. And I wonder if some of those successes could be shared with other departments that I know are struggling to find apprentices and put those requirements in. I think infrastructure was saying they're struggling to find apprentices and integrate those into the ongoing work.
Okay, last question. In the business plan on page 14, it talks about a new asset management program, and there's a policy and a roadmap. And I know the Minister was speaking earlier about needing more sort of ongoing maintenance happening at the local levels with the LHOs. Can the Minister give any examples or idea of what is this new, like, high-level asset management program going to do for people on the ground or what is that going to do for LHOs in terms of keeping more on top of needed, you know, maintenance, repairs, improvements? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Housing NWT.
Madam Chair, if I could defer the question to President Kelly. Thank you, Madam Chair.
