Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to offer to maybe sit with the Member after and look at the interpretation because my interpretation of the Aurora College Act does not say that the Minister is responsible for hiring and firing. My interpretation of the Aurora College Act says that the Minister is responsible for "appointing" a president, different terminology. It does not say "firing," at all, or "terminating."

As I stated earlier, there are many positions. The employment contract of an associate deputy minister or a deputy minister remain with the Premier. There are many departments...

I need clarification. Was the appropriate notice given to the associate deputy minister? Is that the question?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Miss Nadine Yousif, who is with Maclean's magazine and is up here doing an interview on women in politics. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have heard a number of times from the Member that nothing is going on in this Assembly since we have been elected. I want to remind the Member that this Cabinet has only been elected since November, so it's only a few, it's not six months that I have heard many times. We might have been campaigning six months ago, but the Cabinet has only been around since November. I take offence at saying nothing is going on. We are working on our mandate commitments based on the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly, but I need to say that the priorities are only what is...

Unfortunately, all needs of any social issues, education, housing, legal support, all of them, our needs are greater than our resources. We are not denying that. However, you need to take care of the basic needs. That is Maslow's hierarchy that says food, clothing, and lodging. Take care of those first, and then you look at the higher needs.

This government is committed. We have been going down to Ottawa. I went down when I first was elected. Our Housing Minister just returned from Ottawa talking about housing. We need to keep advocating. I can't guarantee that we will have a house for every...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation takes working in partnership very seriously. There are many Indigenous governments, actually, that are moving into doing housing projects. I will give an example of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation who, in the last Assembly, actually did a partnership with the Housing Corporation. The Inuvialuit Corporation received funding from the federal government. They worked closely with the NWT Housing Corporation to define the housing needs of people in their region. Then both the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and NWT Housing...

Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize one of our Pages here today, a constituent of Range Lake riding, Ms. Brenna Willis. I think this is a couple of times she has been here, now. Welcome to the House. Thank you.

Unfortunately, I can't commit to saying that I would stop the project in Inuvik. I mean, it would be very inappropriate for a Premier to stand here and make a commitment when there has been no research or assessment on the need, so I will not make a commitment to stop a project without the research done.

Like I said, there is not a Cabinet Member here who wants to take seniors or elders out of our communities. Every single Cabinet Member understands the needs of our community, our seniors, and our elders, but we have limited resources. Resources, not only money, but also capacity of staffing...

It's a good thing we have Ministers all around us talking to things. I believe the Member had mentioned not only his riding but the Sahtu in his statement. The health centre is going into Tulita at this point. Inuvik is having a long-term care facility built at this time. To have a whole list of every project and every contractor, that, I do not have. It probably is something that he should give notice of so that we can compile that information. However, I will commit to getting a list of every major project -- not every small project; that is too cumbersome -- every major infrastructure...

Again, in the last Assembly, it was more of a little bit of competition, feed the money through us. That didn't work very well for us. I try to learn. We are politicians. I think one of the Members had said we are not God. Absolutely, we are not God. The best thing a politician can be is humble enough to admit when they need help. The worst politician, in my opinion, is somebody who thinks they have all the answers.

What we are committed to doing: we have already been talking with our Indigenous governments. We are talking about having a strategy, not only around housing but all of the issues...