Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge today our grand chief, our Tlicho Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty, to the House, to the Legislative Assembly. I would like to welcome him. Thank you.

Yeah, another one too is that so who will be supplying all the materials for the constructions? Like, from the steel to the gravel and all that, you know, to build the to build the bridge? Like, I just wanted to know, because it should will it be supplied by the Indigenous government?

Okay, thank you. I know this year was we had some people staying in North Arm Park area this year. And same thing like what my colleague said regarding the washroom, because I did hear quite a few complaints from the local as well because people are using that area, and the outhouse is in terrible condition. And there was a lot of complaint. And I did send an email to the Minister on that that if there is a contractor, whoever's looking after it should be going out there. And we do we're aware of the fire ban and all those things, but that place was very popular this year. And, you know, to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we lived here forever and we survived, you know. And it is not right the government determining or making you know, going directly and saying people are making a decision of who can and cannot afford the housing. So I just want to ask the Minister would the Minister consider giving existing public units to the people who live in them and use the money and use the money that's saved to build more houses in small communities. We do need more houses in small communities. We have people that are on the waitlist. I have families. There's five families that...

Mr. Speaker, in small communities for many years, you know, there's people do not want to build because there's no market. So that's why housing was the only landlord in many of the small communities. So now many of these people we know what happened when a person who is not on the lease, when the elderly parents pass on, we had a lot of those because of those policy that was in place, many of these people became homeless and some are on the street here, and some have passed on being homeless because of the policy that's in place. So, yes, I understand about that now that she mentioned why...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is tomorrow. It signifies a time of the year when Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed in residential school. The mission was to take the Indian out of the child. We must honour all these children, the residential school survivors, the children who never returned home, as well as their parents, grandparents, families and communities.

Wearing orange is to remember these children and to acknowledge the impacts on Indigenous families and communities.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all people to reflect on...

Yes, thank you. Yes, there's 165 units that's being retrofitted, and three in Tlicho region and with highest population of all the small or of the Indigenous communities. I mean, that is a shame because it's really sad that, you know, some of our homeless populations, when that warming shelter is at its capacity, that they walk over to the RCMP station and check themselves in. I mean, that's wrong. You know, like, I mean it is sad. It's really sad. I don't like that. So I just yeah, and I know that she did say that there is some this current or this past current fiscal year, but there were...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, thank you. Thank you for the information. And it's good to know. And I just wanted to note that for next fiscal year, will the Minister commit to create, you know, our own Tlicho region, part of their budgeting, so that way we will know, you know don't include us in the North Slave because North Slave includes Yellowknife and, you know, Tu NedheWiilideh's riding, my neighbour, my colleague here. And then, you know, we need to get away from North Slave. We need to have our own region or our own so that way we will know, you know, how much is being spent to Tlicho...

Thank you. Okay, the Frank Channel bridge is beneficial for everybody for the Northwest Territories. It's a busy, busy bridge, and I'm very grateful for that because it's going to be providing employment for the people in the regions. It's you know, like, and from Yellowknife as well too. So there's going to be a lot of people benefitting from that so, and that is part of North Slave region. And we are part of North Slave. And so there's nothing actually in the budget for Tlicho region alone. If Tlicho region alone was identified, there would be nothing. And we even had in there where Gameti...

Thank you. This is further to the Frank Channel bridge, Dehk'e. It says here the completion date is going to be 20262027. And now that we know that the contract was you know, the engineer contract was awarded that, you know, it's just been mentioned. So I just wanted to ask when is the actual work going to start for the construction of the Frank Channel bridge?