Julie Green

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is arguably the most important recommendation in all of these reports. It's certainly the area that I've heard the most about. Members here have talked about encountering people who are visitors to the NWT who didn't seem to be self-isolated. We've heard from people who filed self-isolation plans and there was no follow-up. We've heard about communities putting up check stops in order to strengthen their own response to who is coming into their communities. This has been such a huge area of confusion and, to some extent, frustration. If we had a second wave right...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement, I mentioned that there is a strategic plan to create safer communities for older adults. This wasn't a government strategy, but government was at the table along with various stakeholders for the seniors community. Are the strategy's recommendations still on the government's radar? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to recap the rationale for this recommendation. From the report itself, it says: "The authority of the GNWT to declare a public health emergency pursuant to the Public Health Act and a territorial state of emergency under the Emergency Management Act underlined a potential legislative void in that it did not expressly provide the Premier with authority to coordinate and manage the overall response."

As the public is no doubt aware, the Public Health Act previously has been used for things like whooping cough and sexually transmitted disease, and the Emergency...

Thank you, Madam Chair. When we reviewed this work, we found that there were two issues for many families. One was that they didn't have the tools to participate in the technology which are things like pads and laptops and so on. The other end of the problem was having the infrastructure where they could have the bandwidth to participate in long-distance learnings, and that's an issue that has been addressed by my colleagues from the Standing Committee on Economic Development and the Environment. They have talked about the need to complete the infrastructure necessary to make broadband...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I've heard very good things from my constituents about the revamp to the Transitional Rent Supplement Program. They've had positive interactions with Housing Corporation staff, and they're grateful for the support to make their housing more affordable. I think the biggest challenge here is finding some bridging that will go from the end of August, when the current program is expected to expire, until the end of March next year, when the Canadian Housing Benefit will be introduced. I want to commend the Housing Corporation for good work on this and ask them to look...

Thank you, Madam Chair. For more than 10 years in the time that I've been here and the time that I worked with the YWCA, there have been repeated calls to revamp the Income Assistance Program, which is well known to be onerous to comply with if you're a client and onerous to deliver if you're staff. One of the great things about COVID is that it jump-started the reform of the Income Assistance Program in ways that are very helpful to clients by giving them additional money and less paperwork to complete. This has been a change that's been very well received and is very important to me...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT Seniors' Society has requested this government and the previous government create an NWT seniors' strategy for a number of reasons. I am going to recap some of them today. The first is that the existing strategic framework, called "Our Elders, Our Communities," was published in 2014, and much has changed in that time. It also is a strategy that is specific to Health and Social Services. It doesn't address issues such as housing, transportation, social inclusion, and so on. While this is a good strategy in and of itself, it's not current to our needs at the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS the population of elders in the Northwest Territories is the fastest growing sector of the population;

AND WHEREAS this population is expected to increase by 56 percent to 9,400 people in the next 15 years;

AND WHEREAS 40 percent of seniors and elders have income of less than $25,000 per year and thus live in poverty;

AND WHEREAS this 19th Assembly agreed in its mandate to enable seniors and elders to age in place with dignity;

AND WHEREAS there is a need for a whole of government approach to provide and co-ordinate services and programs that respond to the complex...

Thank you to the Minister for that. This recommendation was aimed at government to set up a centralized data reporting system. Another of the recommendations was to research the need for legislation which would protect older adults from abuse. Is this something that is anywhere on the government's radar?

Thank you, Madam Chair. This was an issue that I certainly heard a lot about during the lockdown. As Members are aware, some GNWT staff have worked right through the pandemic. They have worked very hard to implement the different measures that keep us safe. Other people went home and there has been some uncertainty about how productive that time has been for them. In order to provide some accountability and consistency, this policy is a key piece of the puzzle. It will then tell not only the employees but also the public what is expected from someone who's working at home. I think there is a...