Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the final day of the 18th Assembly, the government quietly tabled a study. The study was a strategic response to the municipal funding gap. It contained some dire findings. Specifically, it showed that from 2014 to 2019, despite increased GNWT funding of over $8 million, the municipal funding gap was basically unchanged at $40 million. Communities' cost to maintain and replace infrastructure grew faster than the GNWT's funding. And that study showed that from 2014 to 2019, community infrastructure costs increased by an average of $2.7 million per year.

In...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know that health and social services is also currently working on a supportive living review, and I just wanted to clarify, do the two documents speak to one another and work in conjunction together so that they are are collaborative, I guess, in that sense?

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And I think without even seeing the number, that we can all probably agree that housing people on an emergency basis is generally far more expensive per person than it is to keep people housed, which is what I'm looking the question I'm looking to answer there with that number.

And so I want to just kind of put in a plug here for the work that is being done by the Housing Corporation as far as renewing their mission, vision, values, and the policies that go with that, and what I'm hoping that we see is a system that values keeping people housed over evictions...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm going to start off by turning the page. And so we've got about $4.2 million in homelessness initiatives across the NWT. I'm wondering if the Housing Corporation has a number of people that that serves? That might be too detailed for right now but if it is, I'm willing to wait for the answer as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the comments on both Friday and today from my colleague from Frame Lake in regards to funding for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. And one of the things that was said on Friday struck me. It was in regards to the process for requesting funding from the Financial Management Board Secretariat and the process of budgeting for the government, which is where the Housing Corp sticks to the standard of budgeting that is expected of them for the main estimates process and that they're essentially playing by the rules for the government...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I do admit that I'm sometimes longwinded when I try to ask a question. That, I will take as a pointer for the Minister. Thank you.

But the point I'm trying to make is that we have a responsibility or the GNWT has a responsibility to provide options for mental wellness so that our mental health professionals aren't overburdened and how can we support as a wholeofgovernment approach mental wellness in communities.

For example, the government has the child and youth mental wellness action plan, and within that, there is an objective in there to support...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that there are a lot of expectations on all of us right now, especially educators and mandating something like that, through maybe a ministerial directive, can be a tall ask sometimes. But when the when the repercussions of not doing it are far too great, when the repercussions of not using informed language are far too great, sometimes making that extra step to mandate something is worth it and is important.

Even here in the Assembly, as busy as all of us are, especially our ministerial colleagues, we took the time together to do a...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister can define "significant uptake" and if the Minister is willing to work with school boards to mandate this training for educators who work in the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for challenging each of us to celebrate the UN's Indigenous language's decade.

I came into this job with a love and appreciation of the power of language. I believe language to be a tool to see the world different at a time when we desperately need a new lens. But language is more than a lens.

Over the last two years, I have had the opportunity to meet many new people. When I reflect on some of the commonalities between the stories people have shared, language revitalization has been an...

I'll just ask one question instead of the three I snuck in there. No, the Canada Housing Benefit I'll ask about in another section. My question was specific to the rent supplement leasing and the increase to that, and can the Minister please speak to what that increase is getting, if it's getting more leases to more units in the territory through market rent? Thank you.