Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 23, An Act to Amend the Children's Law Act.

Bill 23 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 13th, 2025 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

The standing committee held a clause-by-clause review of the bill on October 20th, 2025, with the Minister of Justice. The committee moved to amend four clauses in Bill 23 at the clause-by-clause review. The Minister of Justice concurred with all four motions.

Mr. Speaker, the committee reports that...

Mr. Speaker, [Translation] I am going to be talking about, what I'll be talking about is I'll be talking about the elders that are living.  This is not my words, the words of the elders that I'm raising here.  A lot of them are in the past, in the past.  A lot of our elders always talk, some day, some day -- so someday the young people will become elders but still some different times, it is up to, it is up to us to make sure that you work very well, work very well with the people because we don't know what the future holds for us. 

As of today, there are not that many elders like us there once...

Thank you. Thank you. Well, you know, the $13 million that you're talking about, okay, how many of those are elders? And there's a lot of old houses. You know, there's a lot of people that are living in these units, and they are paying for old house from 1970s. A lot of my community members are complaining, saying -- they're paying, like, $1,500 for a house from -- it's a total write-off. And some of the elders, I have senior citizens living in a market rental unit. I mean, my goodness. You know, like, I mean, don't lecture us about that. I don't know why if -- if GNWT is not going to do...

Thank you. I know that earlier in the year, too, Minister of Finance and Minister of housing have said it too that, you know -- they talked about Tlicho region, and even the stats says that we're -- based on the data that Tlicho has the worst overcrowding and homelessness. And we all know, so housing is a social determinant. It has an impact on health and education. Knowing that number, knowing the stats in Tlicho region, especially in Behchoko, we have ten houses, ten public housing replacement, and five units were major retrofit. And so I just want to ask the Minister how did they determine...

Thank you. Yeah, the Minister said monitor. You know, I mean, I guess what the department is doing is that they watch, you know, the fire burn, burn our land and animals that we survive and, you know, the animals that we rely on, because especially the woodland caribou in our area. And it's not just us. It's across the NWT. So the monitor, it doesn't sit well with me, you know, because like I said, it's all -- it's all related to the forest fire management policy. If the policy is changed to fight the fire as soon as it starts before it gets out of control, I know that we will not only save...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to a review, she said she is, but of the public housing program to explore rent-free option for seniors, especially in light of growing concerns about affordability and aging in place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given that seniors currently receive a $1,000 monthly income deduction when calculating rent, what is preventing the GNWT from going further and eliminating rent entirely for seniors in public housing? Mr. Speaker, I am serious about this question; I don't want no chuckle. Thank you.

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I see it says here, you know, service gap relating to educational support assistants. Why, why only this? Why not on speech and language, OT, etcetera, to help improve the outcome of our students, the educational outcome for our students, especially those starting at elementary, JK? The overall picture here should have been focusing on improving the education outcome. You know, in small communities we have on average less than 50 percent graduation rate compared to over 80 percent in Yellowknife, you know. The outcome for YK is better than small communities, and we know it has always been like...

Thank you. Okay, because I know this $14 million came about because the majority of the people -- or majority of the positions affected Yellowknife school. You know, like, I think we were talking about, like, 75 positions that were affected. And I have an issue with that, you know. If we don't know why $14 million -- or why JP application were denied in -- especially in Yellowknife, was never a major issue for us in small communities because we know the majority of the -- are Indigenous, so it's being utilized well. So why are we spending $14 million? So where is this $14 million going to come...