Julie Green

Thank you. Where in this budget do we find the cost-sharing, or if it isn't in this budget, how is that cost-shared money going to be brought online? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response. The money that is going to be spent in the next fiscal year is money for planning. When will the ground be broken to start construction on this new school? Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for that response. Mr. Speaker, it's hard to recruit and retain social workers because the work is so grueling. I'm not surprised that there are many vacant positions. What I would like to know from the Minister is what he is doing to strengthen the recruitment and retention of social workers.

Thank you. I appreciate the detail on that. What is the Housing Corporation's role in the development of these market units? Are they buying the units, and they are going to be the landlord for them? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's right; there are parents whose children go to that school who have very definite views about whether the new school should be built in the playground and, thus, keep the school intact and the children together, or whether the existing school should be blasted and the rebuild take place on that spot. I really encourage the Minister to hold that public meeting before making a decision.

Can she give me some timing around when the geotechnical report will be reviewed and the other meetings will take place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I note that this is the biggest ever, apparently, Infrastructure budget, the bulk of which is going towards roads and the bulk of which is being driven by the federal government's shared-cost projects that are going on at the moment.

I recognize that these projects are an important generator of labour income in communities throughout the NWT, but it is not clear at all how much of that labour is NWT labour, especially given the scope and size of these projects. I wonder, as well, given that, whether it would make more sense to spread the money out. It seems as...

I think there's a misunderstanding here. The Minister knew about these problems in 2009. He knew about them in 2014. He's been reminded about them this week. My question is: when is the Minister going to show leadership on this issue? It is he who fights for the budget and argues over the spending priorities. Why, over all these years, has he been unable to make the business case to adequately finance Child and Family Services?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. When he was a member of the Social Programs Standing Committee, he and his colleagues made 70 recommendations on the Child and Family Services Act. The committee report says: "We also recognize that some of our most important recommendations will require investment. The committee believes very strongly that the future of the NWT children and families warrants this investment." That was nine years ago. What happened to those recommendations? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wept when the Office of the Auditor General reviewed its latest findings of the Child and Family Services audit. They concluded for the second time in four years that Child and Family Services is failing children in care; not just failing them, but sometimes putting them at risk of even greater harm than the circumstances that brought them into care in the first place. A child has been assaulted. Another was missing from a treatment program.

For example, health authorities must investigate a report of a child in a potentially unsafe situation within 30 days...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have a firm grip on the timeline in which these changes are going to take place. What we've heard, in 2014 we heard it, in 2009 we heard it, in the year 2000, from the Child Welfare League is that these changes need to be made urgently. Children's lives are impacted by the decisions that are being made by the Minister and his officials. Given the urgency that is repeated yet again, how is the Minister going to ensure that, this time, the needs of children are going to be met? Mahsi.