Katrina Nokleby

Yes. Let me rephrase. I'm sorry I don't have your position right, but the departmental staff indicated that it would be consistent with all of the other seniors programming across the Northwest Territories government. Is the trend across all of the Northwest Territories government towards income testing for seniors, and is that something that the Minister is looking at for her department specifically? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Is there a move to be implementing income testing for seniors across all MACA programs or a variety of MACA programs in the upcoming year? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just going to piggyback a bit on what my colleague has said and again more of a comment. I feel like this is an area where I would be supportive of any sorts of increase of funding. I like what my colleague was saying about the idea of using youth and sports to act as almost sort of a mental-health-and-wellness-counsellor-type situations and the crossover that could be happening between almost all of those types of departments. When I look at the positions, there are seven across the entire territory, which makes this really quite small. It's probably one of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question just has to do with the upcoming cultural sensitivity and training that we will be doing. Does the GNWT make available to all GNWT employees cultural sensitivity training that has the purpose of raising awareness on how to interact with Black or people of colour in the workplace and other departments? I do recognize that I am kind of asking a lot of the same questions. Thank you.

Thank you for that, Madam Chair. My next question is: does this organization or this area of the department support SAO development and retention? I have become aware, in my time in the North, of how difficult it is for SAOs to be retained in small remote communities at times, often being at the whim of mayor and council. I'm just curious to know: is this an area where the funding would be to support those types of employees and their roles? Thank you.

Growing up in western Canada, I never knew anything about Black history or the history of African-Canadians in our country until, as an adult, I went to Halifax and first heard of Africville. It has come to my attention that literature around Black history is all but absent in our school curriculums and systems. What is the Minister doing to change this in our educational institutions in the North?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at the actuals for 2019-2020 for compensation and benefits at $847,000. It has gone back to its original estimate of $1,096,000. I am just curious to know: there are no changes to positions within this area of the department, so I am just wondering why there was that drop over the last year. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would actually even ask maybe a little bit further, if this funding is not accessed for specifically National Indigenous Peoples Day or the Treaty Days, that you do just open it up as a general pot to the communities to put on well-being events or high spirits type of events. I can't get my language right after five days of this. I really do think that the more the government can do to raise the spirits of our people by funding events in communities, that will not only put dollars into those communities, they have an effect of raising people's spirits, and I think...

Thank you, Madam Chair. First off, I would just like to make a comment that I am glad to see this is one area where the travel budget has gone down for once, so perhaps there has been a little bit more of a COVID lens put on that one. As well, I am really happy to see that there is an increase in funding, or more than was spent in 2019, towards the Metis organizations. I guess my question is around the NWT friendship centres and the fact that we are no longer funding money there. I know that I have been approached by friendship centres, EDs et cetera, asking for that funding to continue. I...

Thank you for that. I agree that we don't want to just give people money and set them up for failure. However, to go from such a large amount to nothing, and then just from the conversation that I have had with them, it sounds like this is hurting them and their bottom line and their ability to deliver services. While maybe that $250,000 was a one-time thing to do a certain role, they are crying out for money and funding. They provide good services, so I would like to encourage the Cabinet to think about adding a line here at least to give them some additional funds, particularly in light of...