Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. At the end of the last sitting, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment reported on the Income Security Forum she hosted last December. To recap briefly, service providers from non-government organizations and some of their current and former clients met to discuss about how the income assistance program could be improved. Mr. Speaker, as a former ECE minister yourself, you can imagine there was no shortage of suggestions.

First, the application and rules around staying in compliance are complex. They need to be simplified. Second, eligibility must be based on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to talk about climate change, which now, without a doubt, is a climate crisis. I've spoken about this issue before, but today, as wildfires drive people from their homes, I feel a new sense of urgency.

Here's why: The Canada Climate Change Report shows our northern climate is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world. Further, warming is accelerating and it's effectively irreversible. As people have said, there is no plan to refreeze the Arctic. The cause is carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. We can see the results for ourselves in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like this waste strategy may go some of the way towards answering this question. My final question is whether the government has any interest in reviving a program such as the One-Tonne Challenge that focuses on personal action and accountability. Does the government have any interest in drawing citizens individually into this, beyond taxing them with the carbon tax?

Thank you to the Minister for that response. During the consultation on the 2030 NWT Climate Change Strategic Framework, some people suggested that the GNWT create a climate change secretariat, such as exists in both Yukon and Nunavut, to oversee all climate crisis-related work, rather than compartmentalizing responsibilities in one department. Why did government decide to not take this advice?

Mahsi, colleagues. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Here's the thing: we are already paying the cost of the climate crisis, so why don't we invest in mitigation as well? There is no downside, so what are we waiting for?

I appreciate the answer. I guess I would prefer to see a somewhat independent office looking out for climate change rather than having the government do this directly. I feel that the results may be more credible, but it is what it is, I guess, at this point. I mentioned in my statement about taking a whole-of-government approach to procurement, screening it for how it is mitigating or making worse the issue of climate crisis, and I am wondering if the government is prepared to institute a whole-of-government procurement policy that takes this full-cost accounting into account.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also on the climate, and they are addressed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Given the recent scientific studies about the rate of change, the accelerated change of the climate, it is now being referred to as a crisis. Does the Minister consider the current state of affairs, with the warming of the planet, a crisis? Thank you.

I recognize that insurance rates are set by the insurance industry, but one possibility that I would like to bring to the Minister's attention is a self-insurance scheme, where the insurance is provided by the Government of the Northwest Territories to the homeowners so that it is more affordable to them and it meets the goal of moving people who can afford to get out of public housing out of public housing.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few more questions for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. I was interested to hear him tell my colleague, Mr. Beaulieu, that the Housing Corporation had divested of 183 units in the last three years. Could the Minister tell us, even in general terms, how many of those units were sold to homeowners and how many of them were demolished? Thank you.

A previous plan called Toward Level Ground set targets for the Housing Corporation to assist people with housing issues. The goal was to help 1,077 households and spend $67 million. This plan is now in year three of three. Can the Minister tell us whether this plan is going to meet those goals?