Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Miss Kim Collins Riffel the vice president of stakeholder services for WSCC, and on my left is Christina Brownlee, legislative counsel with Justice. I just would also say that I would like to thank Kim for the work that she has done just recently as the acting president for WSCC.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for their review of this bill.

The purpose of the amendments to the Workers Compensation Act is to ensure certain provisions are in compliance with past court decisions. It further protects workers with mandatory reporting of industrial exposures, removes restrictions for workers who are seeking medical attention, modernizes the language for clarity and transparency, and aids the commission to ensure the...

One of the objectives that we had when we did the housing summit was that we can bring all of our Indigenous leadership together throughout the Northwest Territories, so that we can actually go and lobby the federal government, as well as our national Indigenous organizations, to see how we can get some of that funding here in the Northwest Territories.

As I have mentioned in this House before, the Inuvialuit has a good partnership with ITK, and they are doing some really good work up in the ISR region. We want to make sure that we can ensure that our other Indigenous organizations throughout...

I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Victoria earlier this year. In our agreement with the federal government, we were committed to providing public housing units for our jurisdiction. I think it is about just over 1,300. We go above and beyond, and I made sure that everybody at the conference knew that we provide the 2,400, and we also look at market rent and other projects that we do.

We do have a number of programs that are going to address this need. For seniors, for singles, I made some comments the other day about the fuel tank replacement issues; Rapid Rehousing, our community...

The Member and I had a discussion around this, and, you know, it can be a little bit complex in terms of what core need is. However, the definition of "core need" is a federal standard, and it is used by all jurisdictions right across Canada. The core needs survey does allow us to look at the number of households affected by each area, and, while the definition of "core need" includes affordability, the majority of our program is used to address adequacy as well as suitability, and that was the exact conversation that I had with the Member earlier today. That is something that needs to be...

I think it comes to the responsibility of all parties involved. I know the Member asked me questions in an earlier session, and I did say the responsibility also falls on the municipalities and the hamlets. We need all leadership. We need the NGOs as well as ourselves as a government providing this kind of funding to work together to see how we can find that type of funding to address the issue. If anything, I will commit to the Member that we will have those discussions.

I think it is something that the next government coming in in the 19th Assembly is going to be something that needs to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To be honest, we have a lot of non-government organizations that do a lot of really good work on behalf of residents of the Northwest Territories, our municipalities, our communities, our governments. As a government, we want to make sure that we can also provide support. This was the case with the SPCA. Previously, when the program was not through the Department of MACA, there was a one-time funding, I believe, of $25,000. As the Member has asked me in a previous session, we did give a one-time funding.

Coming from personal experience, coming from Inuvik, we do have the...

Yes, I have met up with the NWTAC executive on numerous occasions since I have been elected, and I did let them know that the funding that we provide through our capital planning programs is for priorities in the communities. I did let them know that we also need to lobby the federal government and that we continue to need to work together to address the funding gap issue. It's something that's not going to be easily fixed, and I think everybody in this room knows that it's not going to be easily fixed. We need to work together to see how we can find a solution, but it's going to be something...

Let me catch my breath. No, just kidding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The funding strategy will be released prior to the end of this session. I do know that Members are being, I won't say "pressured," but I know they are getting questions on how do we address the funding gap. We will be releasing a funding strategy prior to the end of this session. We have taken input from the NWT Association of Communities since I have been in this position. We have had meetings with the executive. We have let them know that this funding is really for, I won't say the core need, but, you know, what are the...

As Members know, initially, when we were doing these community housing plans, it was a pilot project and something new to the Northwest Territories. I think that it is something that should be pushed right across Canada, especially in our rural and remote communities, on how we address housing issues.

Initially, we had three that we wanted to pilot. To date, I can tell the Member and all Members in the Legislative Assembly that we have 12 that we are working on. I made a statement earlier today that Whati, Paulatuk, and Liard are communities that we are working on. I think that it is going to...