Caitlin Cleveland

I like great Kam Lake; that sounds really good. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize Rita Mueller who is the president of the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association. I've had the privilege of knowing her for about 25 years. I first met her when she was principal of Chief Jimmy Bruneau School. And I'd also like to recognize my youngest child who chose to come spend his afternoon here, and that's Dalan Bowden. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this means that we're addressing things like duplication. It means that we're addressing things like gaps. It means that I'm sitting down with, you know, people like the parliamentary secretary for CanNor, which I just did on Friday, less than a week ago, to have conversations about what is next, how do we implement this, how do we work together, and also being able to sit and have very meaningful conversations around scopes of information requests, being able to have conversations around filling board appointments, that are things that were brought forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, central to this MOU is the fact that we have a lot of different projects that are coming at the Northwest Territories. Many members mentioned them today in their replies to the budget address as well as their Members' statements. It was mentioned by the Premier in his address as well. And so those investments are things like the DND funding that we're seeing come to the Northwest Territories, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Arctic economic and security corridor, even the project, the Taltson expansion. And it's really critically important that with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is a program that we -- if we need to -- if somebody qualifies for it and we need to find additional funding within the department, we make sure that we find those dollars. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, within our income support programs, there are appeals mechanisms. And in addition, what we found with the new income assistance for seniors and persons with disabilities is that many people that were on the seniors' home heating subsidy have actually transitioned into the income assistance for seniors and persons with disabilities where 100 percent of their fuel costs are covered within that program. So there may also be instances where people are in the wrong program and actually can work with their client navigator to make sure that they get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to thank the Member for Monfwi because of her advocacy over the course of the last year, this work was done. And this is our first winter with reset and augmented income thresholds for the seniors' home heating subsidy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the investment strategy really is a whole-of-government approach in order to really increase the size of our pie. So it is attracting third party investment from outside the territory to the Northwest Territories and is really looking to, one, build our opportunities, so both for new and emerging sectors here in the Northwest Territories, grow existing sectors, and also connect the rest of the world to the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't want elders to leave their home communities either. If we removed the income threshold for all elders, all seniors across the Northwest Territories, we would have people that would -- that had large pensions that were able to access the program. And so that's why we have the program that is new to this Assembly, is the income assistance for seniors and persons with disabilities so that if people's monthly income is not meeting their needs that that program is where it will help them meet their monthly needs, and it will cover their full...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, this is done in kind of two different fashions. So the first is ensuring that client navigators are serving residents with the supports that they need in order to understand the paperwork that they're completing. We know that sometimes people need supports in other languages. Sometimes they need added support. Sometimes those supports come as well from Members in this House. And then the secondary kind of role with literacy supports is kind of those pathways to training or to supports for education that people might be looking for, supports for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the survey that was done in 2003 that the Member is referring to was done by Statistics Canada, and the most recent version of a Statistics Canada study that was done was done in 2022-2023 and, unfortunately, the most recent study did not include the Northwest Territories. So we do not have updated trend analysis information that would allow us to compare to that study that was done in a similar fashion. Thank you.