Katrina Nokleby

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...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't also really have a lot of questions but I think I'd be remiss if I didn't comment a bit on some of the concerns I also have in echoing my colleagues.

Over the last few years, I've had an opportunity to become more familiar with people that are experiencing homelessness and in particular the youth. I don't think that anybody on the social development committee would argue that that sort of has been one of the reoccurring themes throughout all of the conversations, the engagement, the people that come to us, is this huge gap for youth and housing. Personally, I've...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was thrown off by having to repeat myself for question number two. You know, I really find it quite disturbing that the Minister of MACA is passing off the responsibility to advocate for funding for communities, to not only us on this side but to his colleague the Finance Minister. Can this Minister commit to finding money to address the funding gap of $40 million? If that has to be a supplementary appropriation, I'm sure that Members on this side would be in support of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad the Minister reiterated my Member's statement, but I've asked the question whether or not the department has submitted any forced growth submissions and, if so, were they successful? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, communities in the NWT have been chronically underfunded for years. Every community in the Northwest Territories has been challenged to manage basic services like water, infrastructure, waste management, and community development while also providing critical services like emergency response, community recreation and sport and cultural activities.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT made a mandate commitment to reduce the funding gap by $5 million, and I acknowledge that the GNWT is on track to achieve this. However, Mr. Speaker $5 million does not go far enough. A 2019 report identified that...

Yeah, and I think that it's really one thing for the Minister to really keep in mind that if you do this piece now with these young people, you will reduce the number of people that are then homeless going forward in the future. So this is something where the return on investment here is so strong and so important and it's not just around housing; it's around mental health, physical health, all of that. So, again, just more of a comment but I do hope that the Minister recognizes that prevention is going to save us a lot more money than waiting for these kids to fall through the cracks. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I find that the Minister's comments to me are derogatory and offensive. It is not said with any sort of actual respect towards me on this side. I would ask that the Minister withdraw his remarks and apologize. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'll have to follow up later on to find out what "stuff" is.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT is predicting a $178 million operating surplus for 20232024. Can the Minister commit to allocating some of these federal resources to address the NWT community funding needs? We don't even have to go outside of our door very far to see people and the impacts of the underfunding of our communities. This morning I dropped off coats to people at the solid waste facility who are striking because their community can't afford to pay them properly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.