Katrina Nokleby

Yeah, I probably didn't maybe explain my question right; it's been a very long day. So I guess why would we not add more leases? I'm not talking about like so we would actually need more money, not saying that can we free up any money by doing this. More of a sense of, like, is there if there really is and I mean, I guess I'm answering my own question because I don't think you're really going to find any spaces so it's probably a moot point. But I think if we have people on a waiting list and we have the ability to enter into new leases, then we should be doing that to just get people housed...

Thank you to President Young for giving me four more seconds so I can ask one more question there. So, yeah, I do really appreciate that. And actually what I'm hearing, I'm hoping, is that this is now transitioning to more of a wraparound client service or focused thing. So I think that is great and sounds like people have been listening to our side of the House.

So my last question has to do with the Habitat for Humanity line item. There is no money, no contribution. I have only heard good things about this program. I'm assuming we've just sunsetted our contribution. However, can the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm now looking at the homeownership initiative. It's my understanding that the GNWT or the department has halted intakes on this program until the summer and not due to a limit of funds but rather an inability to process all the applications that are coming in. I'm hearing often from constituents and people, particularly as I have a riding that has several apartment buildings but then also several single dwellings, you know, a lot of people are wanting to move between those two and are finding that they just have no options. The fact that they need to move super quickly...

Is that a yes then, it went to okay, I'll move on. I'll follow up with the Minister after.

I am just looking at the preventative maintenance program line item as well, and I do note that it has stayed the same from the revised estimates that's on the same page. Right now, so it's sitting at $1.244 million. When we've done some of our community tours under social development, we've seen units within the different places, and I'm thinking of Behchoko right now, where there's not an obvious reason to an outsider or an untrained eye why that unit isn't being fixed up and repurposed or having...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's lots of good programs here under the grants and contributions and transfers part. And I would be remiss if I didn't ask about the seniors aging in place retrofits and repairs. Noting that it has dropped slightly from the 20222023 and I'm on page 388 of the estimates. I'm just curious to know why we're seeing a little bit of a drop there. And given, you know, I think that we've had lots of conversation around keeping seniors in home as long as possible, it's quite an important topic. So could the Minister provide more information on that? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I'm glad to hear that the Minister is speaking about efficiencies and such. I guess I rise with a bit of a concern that when we look at other areas where the federal government has come in with this great idea or they've made election promises that they want to see fulfilled, and I'll pick on ECE with the Daycare Act. You know, not a lot of flexibility for us to actually do anything or make our own northern or madeinthe-North imprint on it. So how is the Minister, I guess and maybe this is going to be a hard one to answer. How can the Minister ensure that that...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ITI. I've been looking through Canada's critical mineral strategy that was announced I think a couple years ago now. And like a lot of government documents, it's full of a lot of "we should do this" and "we're going to improve the economy by doing things such as this," but there really isn't a lot of sort of tangible actionable items in the plan. Given that the Northwest Territories contains a lot of those critical minerals needed for Canada's green energy strategy, can the Minister speak a bit more about when we...

Thank you. And yeah, and I do appreciate that at the time when we you know, I was raising this issue and the department was responding, and the reason to bring in that southern firm was that training but, you know, as that goes farther, and I hear that we're looking at this contract and this arrangement, I feel that maybe the best way to maybe go forward, and perhaps you have to pull the colleague in from ECE or something is to help or to ITI, is to, you know, help develop the local firms to have that capacity in the North to do that more critical risk control type work, which does, you know...

Madam Speaker, the Northwest Territories has a resourcebased economy. Mining has driven our development for decades. It has built roads and power lines, provided high paying wages, apprenticeships, and other opportunities for Northerners. Mining has also driven significant secondary business development throughout the territory, including within the service industry and through contracting. NWT communities benefit from socioeconomic agreements, and Indigenous governments who have signed onto devolution share in the resource royalties our primary industry creates.

Madam Speaker, without resource...

Actually, this might be a little bit of leeway as well but since my colleague brought up the security at these apartments and it is my understanding the security that has been jointly hired does look after several of the apartments, not just one building in particular. But it is my understanding that the more specialized firm that had been hired earlier on coming from Alberta was is no longer being contracted and it's back to northern security firms. Could the Minister or department confirm if that is truly the case? Thank you.