Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, our original mandate document called on the government to create a plan to provide for universal child care in the Northwest Territories. The intention there was not necessarily to look for the funding to implement universal child care within the life of this Assembly, but to ensure that there was a plan in place in the event that there was money available to implement universal child care. As it turns out, the new federal government does have money to create 40,000 new spaces for child care in Canada over the next ten years. What we need is a plan so that when...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the effect of this motion is to put the content of a motion that we passed in this House on June 2016 into this mandate. At that time, we voted unanimously to address the long-standing issue of the shortage of safe, affordable housing in the Northwest Territories. This was something that we did after the original mandate document was created. We are catching up now by putting this motion in.

What we know about core housing need in the NWT is that there are about 15,000 households in the NWT, and approximately 20 per cent of those households are in core housing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this follows on from the previous motion where we are trying to strengthen post-secondary education in the Northwest Territories to equip the workforce for coming high-demand occupations. That has already been studied. We know what those occupations are. We just need to make sure that we are in a position to train people to fill them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this represents an expansion of this area to acknowledge that the knowledge economy is an important growth area for the NWT in terms of employment and that we would like to see those opportunities developed by introducing this amendment. Thank you.

I have no further comments on this. Could you advise how we are going to review this document? Is it going to be page-by-page or in another way? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister funding an operational review of Avens at this time? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to continue my questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. My first question is: how long is he prepared to wait for Avens to get itself into a position for providing a day program? Mahsi.

I appreciate the Minister's willingness to share that report. The report, I gather, sets out what is required for a quality and safe program for elders in Yellowknife. My question is: how is the Minister going to provide that? Does it all depend on Avens, or is he going to put out an RFP so that other non-profits can bid on it?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As I said in my statement, the closure of the Elders Circle adult day program is clearly not temporary. The service provider has no plans to restart it because they cannot afford to do so. My question is: what is the Minister going to do to get an adult day program up and running in Yellowknife? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Avens Manor and Avens dementia cottages together lost almost $200,000 in the last fiscal year. Granted, that’s less than the year before, but it’s still not a sustainable position for Avens to be in. I would like the Minister to talk about what he thinks the possible solutions are, especially with respect to revenue. Mahsi.