Julian Morse

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, okay, so just to be clear what the deputy minister said there is that they are expecting to bring the land -- the regs forward within this fiscal year, so 2025-2026? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I am excited to hear that from the deputy minister. I'm glad to hear that you've been meeting. Glad to hear that you're making some progress and identifying specifics to move forward on. It's certainly a priority for myself, and I think for the Assembly generally, to ensure that land transfers are happening, and it's a priority for the department as indicated in the business plan.

Can the Minister perhaps elaborate a bit, do we have any legislation -- I know that the Land Titles Act is involved here. So is there anything the Minister can tell us about aspects of that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I can certainly make that commitment, and we'll continue to keep the pressure on the department as I think -- yeah, I -- I've made my point. But if we're talking about streamlining; we're talking about, you know, a high functioning regulatory system that we can be proud of, the audit is the key and so I'll keep the pressure on on that matter. I think that's all I wanted to say about the business plans. I do want to keep a focus on that for now. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just want to continue on my now annual plug for the old Northwest Territories environmental audit. I note in the business plans that there's going to be a 2025 audit. I think the update, it says that they've commenced work on it. And I note that the target in the business plan -- and if they're looking for a page number, it's page 79 of the document, page 35. I'm not sure which of those pages is actually the relevant page. There's two page numbers on the document. So -- but anyways, the point being that the business plan target is that 2025 audit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that incredibly detailed answer. My next question is, Mr. Speaker, if that is our goal, why have we not clearly articulated it -- and I might suggest being a bit more brief -- in the business plans? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have spoken a lot about the need for establishing measurable targets for priority implementation, and today I want to put that lens on our priority for access to health care. When we set this priority, what I specifically meant by it was putting a focus on ensuring everyone in the NWT has access to primary care. Since setting that priority, we have seen the Premier establish the health care sustainability unit and, most recently, the health Minister appointed a new public administrator for the NTHSSA. Together, these changes are heavily focused on the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, certainly haven't poured through that plan in any kind of detail so it's a bit hard to say. But maybe the Minister can help me understand, is the department doing any kind of tracking on sort of identifying high priority communities based on which ones might be most at risk or which ones FireSmarting is kind of most needed and prioritizing those communities, or are we just kind of spreading money around? Because I'm sure there's some communities whose FireSmarting is ahead of others. Certainly we want to get to a place where all communities in the NWT are...

Thank you. Similarly, I'd just note that there's a variation year over year, a much smaller variation in compensation and benefits. Is it for the same reason? Is this related to staffing up or down as need be in order to address any given year's fire activity, or is there a bit more to that story as well? Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, maybe the Minister or her staff could give us an update on kind of on progress that they've been making in advocating the federal government for kind of continuation of these funds or perhaps obtaining new funds. I notice that, you know, when we look at the revenue items on page 262, there's a number of different projects for which we got new funding this year or increased funding. I won't list them off, but I do see a number there. So I'm just wondering if we -- why we haven't made progress on getting funding for programs like this. Certainly, the low-income...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, how do residents find out if they're eligible? How are they going to find out how to apply for this program or if they're eligible for it and how they go about receiving this benefit? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.