Caitlin Cleveland

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Great Slave, that Committee Report 2619(2): Standing Committee on Social Development Report on the Child and Family Services Act Lifting NWT Children, Youth and Families: An All of Territory Approach to Keeping Families Together, be received and adopted by the Assembly and referred to Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, along the same vein as far as affordability of food being a key component of food security across the territory, I'm wondering if the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, specifically income assistance like, I've noticed that that they are not in this mandate or this list of mandate items under this priority, and really the participation of income security is huge as far as being able to afford to put food on the table. And so given the increase to food costs, is income assistance looking at increasing their own amount that goes towards...

Mr. Speaker, no one is more precious than our babies, children and youth.

Every child deserves to live and grow in a healthy home where they are cared for in a stable learning environment. I do not doubt that all parents, grandparents, and caregivers want to give their children the best But not all have the means to do so. In the language of child welfare, the difference that emerges is not what parents and caregivers want for their children; it is what resources they have available to fill those wants and needs.

For too many, safe and adequate housing, nutritious food, health supports, and...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I guess just to carry on where my colleague from Great Slave left off there, I am happy that Nutrition North is part of our priorities and made it into a mandate commitment because it is such a key pillar program of food security in the Northwest Territories because food security really, at the end of the day, is about affordability of food. It's a question of income, and it's a question of ensuring that there is affordability in every household for healthy nutritious foods to make it on to the table. And so this conversation about Nutrition North is...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my question was in regards to tracking. And so I'm wondering how the government is tracking housing needs as it relates to increasing employment in small communities? And I use the example of the communities of Tuktoyaktuk wanting to hire a mental health counsellor but that they could not do that because there was no housing in the community for that person to live in. And so that meant that Tuk was unable to hire that person to work in the community. And so how is that information being tracked by the GNWT and supplied to either Executive or the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's willingness to have this conversation together. Today, many schools are fall are finding that they they follow the process to reach out to secure support services within NTHSSA but that they don't necessarily hear back from NTHSSA about the appointments, the timing to wait for them, or the availability.

And so will Health and Social Services commit to service standards for schools so that schools are able to communicate not only with students and families but also understand what is required to access supports for students...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My next question is in regards to the second piece of this priority, which is work with private sector and Indigenous governments to improve the availability of private market and housing options.

We've heard a lot about increases to public housing options in order to address the waitlist, and then we've also heard, especially even in the sitting of the Assembly, how the availability of private market rentals has had an impact on the ability of, even specifically the Minister of Health and Social Services, to fill vacancies in communities, specifically Behchoko...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a decade ago the Supreme Court of Canada released a unanimous decision recognizing that learning to read is not a privilege but a basic and essential human right when it found that a BC student had a right to receive the intensive supports and interventions they need to learn to read. This year the Ontario Human Rights Commission released the right to read inquiry report on human rights issues affecting students with reading disabilities calling for critical changes to Ontario's approach to early reading and curriculum and instruction screening, reading...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the commitment of pursuing additional funding that the 19th Assembly can also secure for the 20th Assembly as well. I think that's really important to keep that narrative of housing going and the pursuit of access to safe and secure housing for all Northerners going.

My next comment that I wanted to make in regards to that one is that that first piece of work with partners, including the federal and Indigenous governments to increase funding for housing programs, to me housing programs are completely different than the coinvestment fund...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, currently I'm in the line item of work with partners including the federal/Indigenous governments to increase funding for housing programs. It is marked as fulfilled.

Given that this is something that the Housing portfolio is constantly working on and that we don't want to lose sight of, I'm wondering if the Premier will commit to changing the status of that to ongoing so that we are consistently looking for additional funding opportunities. Thank you.