Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, I don't have numbers in front of me. As I mentioned in the last set of questions, under section 107 of the Workers' Compensation Act, the Minister responsible does have the authority to appoint a workers' advisor. A decision was made, finalized, and like I mentioned earlier, I am proud to have a long-time Northerner in that position working on behalf of our employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This is legislated. I did mention in the Workers' Compensation Act under section 107, and I will say it again, section 107, so everyone can hear that. I, as the Minister, have the authority to appoint a workers' advisor. It is legislated. It was a decision that was made, and anybody who is in that position is very well-qualified to do that work.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under Section 107 of the Workers' Compensation Act, the Minister responsible does have the authority to appoint a workers' advisor. Because, as some Members know, our last workers' advisor was retiring, we needed to fill the position, and the process of the Minister responsible appointing a workers' advisor is left up to the discretion of the Minister. That was what happened. I look forward to the new workers' advisor doing a great job working in this position and working for the safety and the well-being and the wellness and health of our employees. Thank you, Mr...

The Member knows that people in our positions, whether it is an MLA or an administrator, in this case with the workers' advisor, as I mentioned, it is legislated under section 107 of the Workers' Compensation Act that we have that opportunity to appoint a workers' advisor. Under 107(5), we also have the opportunity to appoint them from the public service. As I have mentioned, a decision was made. I stand by that decision. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am not going to go into the details of somebody's resume, but I can tell the Member and the Members should know that this individual is very well-qualified, has done a lot of work at the local, regional, territorial, even national level, and that I have full confidence that they can continue to do the work moving forward.

The decision was made, a legislated decision, and I stand by that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can't speak of my predecessor and the decisions that they made. I can speak for the decisions that I make in this House, and I just answered the question earlier, that it was my decision, discretion of the Minister, and I am very glad to have a long-time Northerner working in this area. Like I said, he is going to do a great job working on the health, the well-being, and ensuring the safety for our employees across the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend all the coaches, the teachers, volunteers, Aboriginal Sports Circle, as well as staff from Municipal and Community Affairs who put on a very successful traditional games this weekend. We have a strong partnership, a strong tradition of working with the Aboriginal Sports Circle.

I do want to let all Members know that, at my Ministers of sports meeting, we did promote our Traditional Games. I have invited the National Aboriginal Sports Circle representatives to come up to the Northwest Territories, as well as our Minister responsible for...

I think it is the responsibility, not only for the NWT Housing Corporation, our government, but my discussions with Indigenous governments as well as non-government organizations is that we all have to play a part in this. We all have to bring some type of responsibility, bring some skin to the game, so that we can address housing needs across the Northwest Territories. I do know there is a high waiting list, especially here in Yellowknife and in the regional centres. We are continuing to put pressure on the federal government.

One thing that I didn't make comments to is that we are still...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under our current agreement with the federal government, the NWT needs to ensure that we preserve at least 1,231 existing community housing units across the Northwest Territories. Currently, we have double that. I know that there are concerns about waiting lists and that the new National Housing Strategy only provides funding to temporarily address the declining federal support for public housing units.

One solution that we are looking at in addressing this, Mr. Speaker, and to all Members, is that we do have this Homeownership Program, and once we get...