Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. So no, Madam Chair, this is not. And there's a couple of different line items that we see in the course of reviewing the Department of Health and Social Services broadly, including where they would put money to support the authority. But this is where if someone who has Northwest Territories health care and they go anywhere outside of Northwest Territories, we are billed back. So this is out of territory hospital medical services. It's not residents who are permanently in other facilities or who may be residing in other facilities, you know, sort of longer term for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the item that came forward from education, culture, employment in response to the federal government's decision to take away money from Indigenous students did not apply to Yellowknife exclusively. It does not apply to any individual community or education body exclusively. It is for school boards who are being denied their funding that they were receiving through Jordan's Principal. If a school board is being denied funding anywhere in the Northwest Territories, they can apply to this fund. It so happens that the two largest school boards in Yellowknife...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is indeed a difficult area. There certainly is some work being done in this respect. There's -- you know, obviously the volume of residents who may require this care is one of the areas of driver, but also the type of care that is being required. And then the costs of that care and the cost of specialized medical care, certainly in the last five years or so has gone up faster than what it had been previously, but also there's the costs that may be involved depending on, you know, again, some of the other parameters of just where they may be. Different facilities and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by simply saying that Avens has been and remains an important partner to the GNWT in terms of delivering advocacy and support and services to residents, to seniors, to their families. They've been fulfilling that role for a great many years. And the residents that live there, Mr. Speaker, depend upon that sort of services, depend upon the services of the staff that are there. And so, Mr. Speaker, I do -- I acknowledge that there's -- many residents who were brought here as well as staff were here earlier but, Mr. Speaker, at this point, I...

Mr. Speaker, I don't have the ability to allocate houses. But it does relate certainly to the work that myself and the Minister of housing are actively involved on, and there is shared responsibility in the mandate for the GNWT between Department of Finance and Housing NWT to work on the housing assessment. It's being led by housing. I know that Minister spoke to it yesterday. But the Department of Finance has been involved in support and certainly would be involved in support of arrears, dealing with arrears, and all of those issues in some ways do bundle together, Mr. Speaker, that they'll...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't provide a timeline. I can say that the Minister of housing and myself have actually spoken about this as recently as yesterday and that we are looking to see some solutions for this as quickly as possible. My hope is that there is a solution ready within this fiscal year. Obviously, at this point we've only had some initial discussions, the Minister and I, so I'm a bit hesitant to put that kind of a marker on it but I agree with the urgency. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following six documents: 2026-2027 Capital Estimates; Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization), No. 3, 2024-2025; Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026; Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026; Fall 2025 Economic and Fiscal Update, and the Northern Employees Benefits Services (NEBS) Pension Plan Annual Report for the Year Ended December 31, 2024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that type of information, particularly where they are already under some form of a garnishment by the GNWT for these arrears, that information is held by the comptroller general's office, and I would be happy to get that and make sure that it is shared in an appropriate way. I want to make sure there's not any sharing of information that shouldn't be made public. But certainly the Member can -- I can make sure that using the tools of this House that the Member has that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for this opportunity to provide the Legislative Assembly with the fall economic and fiscal update. This statement will describe the changes that have happened since Budget 2025 was released, review the supplementary appropriations to date for 2025-2026, and outline how we are revising our fiscal strategy goals to better match the uncertain economic times that we find ourselves in.

2025 has, again, been marked by notable natural disasters which were a major focus for many residents and workers over the past few months. The year is not over and still there are active...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 20th, 2025, I will present Bill 32, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act, No. 2, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.