Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was just confirming with my department. When I first took over this position, actually and that's my background, which is in early childhood development specializing within the Social Work area, I talked about having schools as hubs in communities and having daycare providers, having speech pathologists and audiologists being able to be in schools, making it a centre or a hub, or that some parents, hopefully, would alleviate some of the residential fears that come with schools, trauma that comes with that, making it more of a hub.
I'm really pleased to report that our...
I am not 100 percent sure what mandate commitment we are actually talking about, because we have quite a few mandate commitments. I am sorry, but I have to ask clarification on what mandate commitment specifically the Member is asking about.
Thank you. Yes and no. Yes, a lot was done on paper. However, they were using computers, using Excel spreadsheets, et cetera. So, yes, paper, but still using computers. This is a system, and we need to have the proper systems, that will network all of them together. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that the withdrawal of the utility payments by the Housing Corporation was done in September 2018, so we haven't really seen a huge impact of it yet. I should clarify in stating that not everyone that is in housing programs is actually an income support clientele. It is combined.
Our goals within the income support program are to make sure that people have enough to meet their basic needs. We are ensuring that no one that is on income support that is in public housing or outside, not only in public housing, but in market housing, that their utilities...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The ground will be broken, or we will finally have a place, and the construction will begin in the fiscal year 2020-2021. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As a commitment, I know that there are processes, but, if it makes the MLA feel better, then I can commit to, by the end of this week, we will phone Norman Wells' daycare society and actually help them to give them an answer and tell them what they need to go through. It is a process. They need to apply for the health and safety, they need to apply to the fire marshal to get those inspections. It's not as easy as just one department taking this over, but we are willing to work with them as much as possible to make this a reality.
Currently, our nursing students do actually utilize the Stanton Hospital for their practicums. That is very important. Hands-on learning is critical within any university, certificate, diploma, or degree programming, so we will continue to work with Health and Social Services on utilizing that. I do note I hear the Member who is saying: can we make the school there? That, I cannot promise. What I can say is that the campus in Yellowknife has outgrown its current headquarters, and that has to be looked at. At this point, I can't say whether it would be part of the old Stanton Hospital or if it...
Yes, it is definitely important. This is a territory-wide issue. Our future for post-secondary is bigger than the people in this House, so it is important that we work with all levels of government, our municipal governments and our Aboriginal governments, for two reasons: to find out how we can best support the students; and the second one is to look at our vision and look at the strengths and identify areas that we can grow on. So, yes, I am seeing that part of the vision exercise is that we would be consulting with Indigenous governments to see what their vision is, as well.
I've said it, and I'll say it again, that we are committed to making this a reality. We will do whatever we can to support the daycare. I'm not even sure what they're called, but the daycare center in Norman Wells. So, if that means working with Infrastructure, if that means helping them to fill out the applications, if that means walking into offices, we will do what we need to do to make this a reality.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really want to start with saying that I'm really excited about Norman Wells' daycare. One of our mandates is to get daycares in every community, as many as possible. There is lots of research. I could go on and on about the amount of research that says early intervention is the best intervention for children to ensure that they are successful in life. So Norman Wells is one that we've been watching closely. We're working closely with that community. I know that they have submitted their application. There are a little bit of processes: they need to get a fire and a...