Kate Reid

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, as I've spoken about in this sitting, there are a lot of folks in the territory who are struggling with extremely high property insurance renewals and, unfortunately, my inquiries to the Department of Finance and the Minister of Finance have not proved very fruitful in that regard. We don't really have a lot of legislative levers under the Insurance Act. However, we do have, in this section, consumer affairs and MACA has this really fun brochure that says, hey, that's not fair - a Guide to Consumer Protection in the NWT. And I was reading through it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting this motion today. I don't think anybody in this House could say that the Member for the Sahtu is nothing but not determined, is not speaking and advocating for his region extremely well over these last 15 months we've been together. And fundamentally, Mr. Speaker, a part of why I voted on the capital budget was to support the access that he is -- to projects that he's been talking about on the winter road these last few weeks. So all that said, Mr. Speaker, it's fantastic that he's trying to seek every avenue for his people, to make...

I just thought it might have some interplay with MACA due to your assessments. But what input will you be providing? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks. Well, I'm hoping that's hinting at more collaboration, more ability to be locally appropriate for Housing NWT and the LHOs. But I -- again, I don't want to preclude those conversations; I just want to sort of understand the vision. So unless the Minister has anything further to add, I'll leave it there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on page 388 of the business plan and at the end, the legislative initiatives, it speaks to revision of the Housing Northwest Territories Act, and substantive amendments are anticipated. But in the business plan, it speaks to the fact that there would be information gathered on potential areas for change to this Act at the housing symposium, and I'm wondering if the Minister can elaborate on how those discussions went and what particular changes are being identified. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Would that also include renovating units? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. I was trying to relay an example of urgency and decision-making, and I know that more cooks in the kitchen sometimes slows thing down, but is the Minister finding that there are clearer targets and pathways forward for these kinds of transitional and supportive housing pieces? It's -- I recognize there's lots of work going on in the background that we may not see as Regular Members, if it's -- you're basing your work off of the homelessness strategy, the Premier is basing his work off the homelessness strategy. But I just want to...

Thank you very much. So in the item of emergency shelters, I'm just curious can the Minister please confirm that the reason the funding for that line item has dropped since 2023-2024 is because of a change in which department is actioning that line item or a different reason? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's a lot of information and great, that explains everything I wanted to know.

I do have one further question. I note that the clean water and wastewater fund on page 377 has been deleted, similar to other departments that have participated in this work. I know HSS has found money to continue and is looking for continued funding around that work. My question to the Minister is will MACA still be participating in assisting HSS with this work? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Premier's staff have let me know in writing that the regional partnership will be the means used to implement the NWT homelessness strategy here in Yellowknife. So many former members of that -- of an ad hoc working group on the encampment last summer are part of that table. So, Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell me if the options that are identified by these partners are also being considered in the near to mid term for transitional and supportive stock? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.