Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, between 2003 and 2021, the senior population in the NWT rose from 2,787 to 6,920. Although we should continue to focus on attracting people of all ages to the Northwest Territories to live and work, we must also focus on supporting our seniors and their ability to age in their home communities within the Northwest Territories. We have many benefits for seniors, including resources to help access medical care and medication which makes the Northwest Territories an attractive place to live, work, and retire for seniors. However Mr. Speaker, I worry that the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, and I have to say that I struggle at times with the conversation around, you know, women's rights or things for families and women and children because we are moving away as a society from the traditional binary role or idea of there being only two genders or even people being gendered to begin with. And so it's I find sometimes that it allow it ends up being that we're so hyper focused on one group, we're kind of losing intent of that everybody needs help, and any support that's there for one person that might fit some demographic will also help another...

Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the pieces that I just wanted to point out here that I think is super key is the sustainable multiyear piece, and that, again, comes back to everything that we just continuously hear from any of the organizations that receive government funding, that the uncertainty from year to year to year about getting funding actually causes more of a cost to them than it would if they just had it for a few years in a sense of a cost for the capacity to report or to reapply but also just even that uncertainty always adds additional costs to it because you don't know for sure...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do apologize that I seem to be speaking a lot but this is a topic that just really touches my heart and honestly one I feel that we can't give enough attention to.

When I look at what is going on for LGBTQ youth and apologize for not using the longer acronym, but I don't have it in front of me that, you know, not only are many of them facing issues around their own orientation and sexuality but often times if they're Indigenous, they are also facing racism. And this is creating an even more of a marginalized and vulnerable group.

You know, I was very hardened...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, one of the things that we heard repeatedly as a committee, both in this work and as well if anything around addictions and such, is that the youth that have nothing to do with they're bored, that's when they're getting into trouble and that's when they're finding themselves, you know, too wrapped up in their heads and what they're thinking and their emotions, and they need creative outlets and places to go that are safe spaces that are free from the harmful influences of perhaps alcohol and drugs and the trauma that they have dealt with. And we've often...

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I mentioned when we were talking about the coroner's report, I have heard numerous times of people presenting at emergency rooms across the territory and either not even making it in to see anyone given that it's not considered to be high in the priority list when you look at triages in an emergency room situation, the emergency the people working there are going to prioritize physical threats to life that are immediate, such as, you know, injuries and wounds, over mental health concerns. And I'm not saying that's right, but that is what is happening.

I have heard...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I too just wanted to thank to take a moment to specifically thank or staff and anybody that did contribute to this report and the work that we've done. It was very weighty work and very heavy work at times and not only I think for us listening but for people who have to actually come in and share trauma. And it's known that people having to relive and over and over telling their stories that that in itself at times can be very traumatizing. So I do really want to thank the staff particularly because I think there was a real sorry, I'm a bit out of breath, Madam...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the willingness of the Minister and the department to try and rectify the issue that we had raised and clearly was listening to what our concerns were. Again, though, this I don't necessarily, though, agree with 3(b) as authorized by the director. And the reason I have concern there is further to what I was saying yesterday about the way that this is going to be set up that it does allow for there to be an arbitrary GNWT employee who is making decisions about people's livelihoods in an industry. And I just don't see that we have a lot of that type of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, I also just think this is a great idea for our people. I also think that there is an economic benefit for forgiving people's debt. And I've mentioned it here before. We've heard the conversation in the US around forgiving of student loans and how that will actually help with stimulating economy because money that would then be spent on interest and principal payments will then be back into the economy and being spent by people. And I'm always struck by how the communities operate, from what I see anyway, is that any time someone is doing well or has the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in this session I rose to acknowledge my page, and I realized I did not use their preferred name. So I would like to recognize my page Andy Sieben who is here from Great Slave, and all of the pages who have done a wonderful job. Thank you.