Shauna Morgan

Mr. Speaker, today I want to highlight a good-news story about community-led affordable housing, something that has been going so well for so long that we hardly pay any attention. It's Northern United Place in Yellowknife which was established in 1976. It provides 125 low-cost housing units for independent people earning less than $60,000 a year, and rent is geared to a tenant's income. The building includes another 41 student housing units that are leased by Aurora College. All of this is run by a non-profit called the NWT Community Services Corporation. They've been able to operate these...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So when are those new strategies or approaches going to be made public? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just to continue along my previous line of questions and also to build upon the questions of my colleague from Great Slave, so we see in the business plan that employee turnover rates between 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 actually got a bit worse. They've been pretty stable but got slightly worse, and employee turnover is about 15 percent. I know the Minister has referred to a new people strategy that we can expect to see soon, but we have been talking about staff recruitment -- sorry, especially staff retention over the last two years and as far as we can tell, we don't see...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So that, I think -- I think that gives us assurance that those positions won't be cut, as far as we can tell.

I wanted to ask, because I did see there was a reduction of one position due to the sunset of Public Health Agency of Canada funding, and it was related to hospitals injury reporting and prevention program. So I am wondering if -- if that -- the hospitals injury reporting and prevention program is concluded now or if that's continuing, but I wondered what was accomplished during the term of that position before it has sunsetted. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so, I mean, the overall purpose of my questions here are just so we have a clear sense of how much the public service and our healthcare providers, how much the staff workforce is growing or not, like at an overall level. And so I wonder if I can also ask at this time about a similar question for the health and social services authorities. And so, similarly, my understanding is that there are federal agreements sunsetting that we expect to renegotiate, and my understanding was there's about 50 positions in the authorities that we expect to renegotiate and would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have four written questions to submit. The first one, 26-20, Application of Waters Act Provisions to the Sale or Transfer of Mining Assets.

There is concern that the sale of mining assets to smaller operators may increase the risk of bankruptcy and unfunded remediation liabilities. The Waters Act contains provisions that allow for financial testing of new owners when licenses are assigned, but the Department of Environment and Climate Change has indicated through correspondence that the applicability of such testing depends on whether a transaction is structured as an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So given discussions around a potential new campus for Aurora College in Yellowknife, is there a role for Housing NWT in brokering discussions between the NWT Community Services Corporation and other GNWT departments, or Aurora College, about being able to use that space as a new anchor tenant? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am not here to defend government, and I am not here to defend Cabinet. What I am defending, unapologetically, is public servants. I would never pretend that the GNWT is a model of a well-functioning institution.

My first job when I moved here almost 18 years ago was with the GNWT, and I found myself in a little unit that was such a terrifyingly dysfunctional place that I quit after only a few months. And I never went back. I swore I did not want to work for government. But I did fall in love with this place and especially its people. This community and communities across the NWT...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we heard several speeches yesterday about this budget. Even though there were some notable contrasts amongst the speeches, there were also some common themes that I agree with, that the North faces both great challenge and great opportunity at this moment in history and that we must take more decisive action quickly and build momentum by strengthening our economic and social foundations. However, I also heard a theory that I vehemently disagree with, the theory that the main thing holding us back as a territory is the, quote, tail wagging the dog, that our...

Okay. Maybe just with some limited time left, I know that one sort of promising avenue for trying to get more retention of healthcare workers is to hire more local students and recent graduates, people who grew up here, people who are from here, people who are already based here and have ties to this community. So how does HSS or the health authorities connect with, say, Aurora College graduates of the nursing program or local candidates for various health care professions to try to ensure that we have more local people taking these jobs? I do see in the business plan that 49 percent of new...