Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. If we're still on the page 387, public housing program. From last fiscal year, it went down, but according to the business plan, the mandate commitment says that increased housing availability for all residents by working with partners to address the gap, and the target minimum a 20 client each year and a minimum spending of $50 million per year from housing, and to achieve this it says $50 million per year from outside organization on housing. Can the must explain this further. The business plan on page 4.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my statement is on immigration and marriage fraud.

Mr. Speaker, Canada is a desirable location for many people seeking a new start and has welcomed many newcomers through different federal programs. Canada's immigration policies fill labour shortages and support family reunification. Recently, it was announced that provincial and territorial nominee program allotments would be decreased.

Mr. Speaker, with this reduction in spots available, I am worried that other means of entry to Canada will be sought. There are cases where people are using marriage...

Okay, thank you. Thank you for that information because I talked to some of the clients, and I know that, you know, some of them have lived in the unit for over ten years. Some, they like the agreement that they got from the Housing NWT which means that it was just transferred to them at no cost. So I know a lot of them would like to see that being carried forward. It does -- a lot of those units do need a lot of repair. So I would like to see that respected in Tlicho region and other region as well too. So not at a great cost because there's no market to buy and sell houses in small...

Okay. Well, I'll send her an email on this after just so that I can get the number of how many in my region are successfully -- or were successfully transferred to homeowner. And you met some of the people, the potential that are still in the HELP program, and they want the unit to be transferred over to them so that they can start doing their own construction, fix up the unit that they have resided in for many years under the HELP program. And so the HELP -- approve HELP application, 12 in Tlicho region, but it doesn't say the year. So I want to ask the Minister -- maybe she might not have...

Yeah, thank you. That's good. The reason why I asked is because in Behchoko alone, you know, I'm glad that, you know, you guys came, that, you know, Housing NWT visited the community. And there's a great need for housing, and we have, like, looking at this, 25 space each year. We have over 130 people on the waitlist and a lot of singles, and it's families, and some elders. So how are we going to achieve this for Behchoko? I know that we cannot solve all this, like you know, to accommodate 130 people, but at least building some houses. And I like what I see now that there's a -- you're...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know that I did express my frustration too before. It would have been nice if there was more notice given to us to close the community learning centres. It's not just me, but my other colleagues have said the same thing too where we asked the college to do more community-based training or offer more community-based program. Because some of our young people are not too eager to leave, but there's not much in the community. If the community learning centre program was not working, then they should have done more to deliver or to work with the community...

Yes, thank you. Thank you, I know you got carried away. It is okay. But you being a parent, and I know you probably seen it all and, you know, us too as well in small communities.

I know that we all want our young people to do well in life. We want them to succeed in life. We want them to start working. We don't want them living on the system or, you know, like, income support to be dependent. We want them to be independent. That's what we all want for our young people because they are our future generations. And another one too is that SFA.

I know lately I've been hearing lots of parents...

Well, yeah -- well, that's a good information to know. And it's not just only with the Indigenous -- with Aurora College, but this could be done in partnership with the Indigenous government or organizations because the schools are doing their part, but we need more. And it's kind of disappointing that, you know -- that we had to get rid of that program. But it would be nice if we can build on other programs to promote the Indigenous language. It doesn't have to be in the regional centre but each region can do their own. But I think this is where the partnership is important with the...

Thank you. For the Indigenous language, to promote, that's good. I see here Indigenous language broadcasting. And it's -- it did went down from 2023-2024. Because I know that there's -- I mean, that's another way to encourage and support Indigenous language, to promote Indigenous language. Can the Minister explain why Indigenous language broadcasting went -- if there's a decrease in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Thank you.

No, even my colleague have been asking about that, you know, like, so I just -- is there a review happening of this program, income assistance? Because we do have an issue, especially in small communities, people are making a living out of it and, you know, it was supposed to be a temporary. Even my colleague from Mackenzie Delta have been asking that and with the productive choice. We need to do something for our young people because as soon as the young people who are unemployed, they go to income support the day that they turn 19, and it shouldn't be, you know, like, we should be providing...