Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are losing services in our communities and when we go to regional centres to access treatment, our residents are being turned away and denied access to care. What is being done to ensure there are no systemic barriers to accessing programs and services? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House why residents who choose to travel on their own to seek medical attention are unable to seek immediate reimbursement for medical travel? Especially when they are diagnosed with an illness that would require medical travel out of the territory. Thank you.

I don't want to get into it, but I will do it later, okay.

Will the Minister of health commit to a medical policy review to ensure that residents who access care outside of the NWT, especially in urgent situations that require hospitalizations or treatments that are unavailable in the NWT, can qualify for medical travel? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know, indeed, we do need expert, but what just happened in Northwest Territories, how can an expert let 4 million hectares of land burn? In the past, a lot of people have said, even the veteran firefighters have said the same thing, and elders have said, in the past government used to pick up all kinds of people on the street to fight fires, and it was those people, because of them, our community is still here. A lot of them, it happened all over. And that was the only jobs that a lot of our Indigenous people had at that time. It's not like before. We...

But I do have one more question, sorry about that.

Are ECE and Housing NWT working together to create a more holistic approach to income support and social housing programs? Is there anything being done between the two departments to make it easier for people to access services? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that a person with a disability may receive extra funding to pay for things related to the disability; however, I am concerned still around the reporting requirements oh, okay. I thought sorry about that. Those with disability. Is the government looking to make this less burdensome on residents? I know they ask for utility bills, rent, disability assessment form, disability benefit from the federal government, notice of assessment from previous tax year; how often is all of this required? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is not the first time I have spoken in this House about the administrative burden with income support program. The government creates such an onerous process for residents that it becomes challenging to access resources.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about people who are unable to work because of a disability.

Mr. Speaker, we have many people across the NWT that receive disability benefits but also access programs and services through income support. Mr. Speaker, there should be a more streamlined way for these individuals to access benefits...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yes, what I would like to see in this is that more consultation with the Indigenous government as well. Not only with the public government but with the Indigenous government, especially those with the Aboriginal selfgovernment that they have in place. So I would like to see more of that in this because this is important, especially with to lands and resources. So I know that this is important for the people who settled their land claims already. And it's just that I would like to see this the codrafting be done with the Indigenous government, not just...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know I'm grateful, thankful that, you know, Indigenous government were involved in drafting this Bill 74 to its current form. And it's good to see two sides of government working together, the GNWT and the Indigenous government technical working group developing this draft.

I know this is very this is important for the Indigenous people, especially people living in the area that deals with the lands and resources. So I know that it's respecting the rights of the people living in the area, especially Tlicho and other Indigenous people in the NWT therefore...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to hear that. Good positive change.

Will the Minister commit to review the income support policy to reduce administrative burden for elders and people with disabilities? And then he touched base on some of them already too. So that's good.