Steve Norn

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Just to do some follow-up questions from my colleague from Nunakput. Can the Minister comment if she has worked with our federal Minister of health on a plan to battle the virus, and if so, what resources are being committed to the territories? Marsi cho.

Marsi, Madam Chair. Thank you to Ms. Young and the Minister for the response. I'm just looking through this, as well. It's always good, when you are doing a new program, you don't want to set it up to fail; you make sure it doesn't go by the wayside. I'm just wondering if the Minister could let me know if they feel like the staffing right now is adequate to keep this program running and if this will be adequate, this number here, this line item, to fund it; if $1.2 million will be enough moving forward. Marsi cho.

Thank you for the response. I'm aware that it's 24 hours, but where are the calls being taken?

Marsi cho, Madam Chair, and thank you for that response. I had a loaded question, there, but I guess I'm going to ask it again. I'm going to ask the Minister again: is there an intention here to lean on the co-investment fund to kind of offset some of these decreases? Marsi cho.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What I'm hearing right now still is that this is mainly a Yellowknife program. Was there still access for people in the regional centres and the smaller communities for this program? Is a lot of this money being used for those areas?

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for that answer. Moving on, I'm looking at another item here, the rent supplement leasing. This number seems to have fluctuated in the last couple years. Can the Minister just explain to me what this rent supplement we see is and is this final number going to be adequate for this fiscal year? Thank you.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. If I could turn your attention to page 363, I had a question on heating fuel. I noticed from the actuals from a couple years ago now to the mains, there hasn't been much change in that. I know that heating fuel is very expensive in a lot of the small communities. I am just wondering why this number from the actuals from couple of years ago now to the mains, there hasn't been much change in that. I know that heating fuel is very expensive in a lot of these small communities. I'm just wondering why this number is staying the way it is. Does the Minister believe this will...

Just to give a little context on this one here, I used to work for Diavik and for the community's department, and we used to go to places like Wekweeti and Whati and stuff. I remember going to school. We were trying to explain trades to very young grades, and we couldn't get through to them. Finally, I said, "You know, I think I have a good example." I told a grade 6 term, "You know how, in Star Wars, there's Jedi's? You don't just become a Jedi overnight. You have to become a Padawan first. You have to train under somebody, and then you become one. That's how trades works."

I guess, on that...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Just going back to my Member's statement on self-employment and trades, I have questions for the Minister of ECE. My question is: what programs are available in the NWT for those interested in the trades vocation? Marsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I want to speak a little bit about small businesses and self-employment in the NWT and the state of our economy, and our unemployment rates. Last week, on March 6, 2020 the NWT Bureau of Statistics released a report on the labour force activity in the NWT. As of February 2020, the employment rate in the NWT is 63.5 percent and appears to be trending downwards. This is concerning to me.

I feel that, as a government, we need to ask three main questions when we observe a statistic like this. First, what are we doing in each of our government departments to help keep...