Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a couple of questions. The first one I'll talk about the northern distance learning, and I note it's $850,000 decrease to that. That is a program that I know was piloted out of Inuvik for students in remote communities to be able to access the academic programs they needed through online services. Can the Minister speak as to what that reduction of $850,000 is a reflection of? Thank you.

That's it on this section. But more money. I want that $7 million in here.

I find this very frustrating. I do. Because this is such an important issue, and we look at you know, we regularly have we approve supplementals for infrastructure projects that are tens of millions of dollars over budget that we either mismanaged or got out of control. We can blame COVID and so on and so forth. And something like this, something like this that's just so important, to keep professional people in our territory, not only providing the services of whether it be doctors or nurses or teachers or lawyers or child care workers, but also coaching our kids in hockey and buying the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to follow up a little on my colleague from Range Lake's comments around the funding.

First of all, I mean, you know, we've moved the needle a little on this for sure in the past few months. I keep in regular contact with the Children's First Society in Inuvik, and I know the Minister's been working hard with the territorial society as well and we have moved the needle a little up there, and it looks like they're not in the dire situation they were in and that it seems like their operation is now moving forward, which is great. And the $10 million is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just briefly, I support this motion. I've heard from Mayor Clarence Wood several times since I've come down, since I was elected, that it's been an issue for the town of Inuvik, whether it's for the expansion of the Inuvik satellite station facility or just accessed land for more R2 and R1 residential property which, as you know, is being scooped up right now by our Indigenous governments, which is great. So just wanted to reiterate my colleagues' echo my colleagues' sediments that, yes, it is an issue and we realize that it is being looked at by the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the main estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister Kuptana. Obviously, that speaks to the need, Mr. Speaker, that we need, you know, additional housing not only in Inuvik, and I'm sure that's, as the Minister says, throughout the territory, especially in our regions, smaller communities.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit to prioritizing housing for the elderly and disabled? I'm not sure how many of those families or how many on those lists for the onebedroom are elderly or have disabilities, but can the Minister commit to prioritizing for disabled residents on the waitlist and elderly residents...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the activity education in the main estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I give my question, I do want to have a quick congratulations to Minister Semmler and Minister Kuptana and their Member statements today and congratulate them on this special day as well.

Mr. Speaker, I spoke about the waiting lists and the issues around housing in my community. My questions are for the Minister of housing. The first question is how many vacant units are there currently in Inuvik, Mr. Speaker?

It's surprising, because when the president of Aurora College sat in front of committee, it certainly was made very clear to us that if there's one thing that they could get to continue would be that $500,000 funding to ensure that program continued on. So I'm a little surprised that it wasn't brought forward to the department as well. The department obviously is aware that they do require that funding for that training, that particular program, to ensure that they can qualify the programs would qualify the insurance requirements to become a polytechnic. So has the department had any...