Frieda Martselos

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very familiar with the community action plan. It's the same thing every year. I've been in leadership in Fort Smith for 14 years as chief. We have two lines: one of them is the priority is drugs; the second is whatever; and the third. Every year has been the same thing, and you've got to sign off on it. Finally, I told them, "Don't come around anymore." Nothing ever comes to fruit anyways. You know, $47.6 million for an independent police force, and have no say on what happens in the community, is unbelievable and unacceptable. I feel very strongly about this.

Sure...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The corrections workplace assessment was a positive document. I want to commend the Minister and the Justice staff for acting on it very quickly. All the changes that happened in Fort Smith are all positive. People are very enthused, and I want to ensure that you pass that on to your staff. I think the way that it was handled, because I was the one who brought this whole thing up in the first place, and I think, when positive change happens and employees are now extremely happy, they actually went and gave a statement and felt safe with that. I think, when that happens...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion is very much in line with my entire life philosophy of improving government for the people we serve. I have been fighting my entire adult life for the betterment of Black, brown, and Indigenous people. As a chief in leadership and now as an MLA, I firmly believe that anything is possible if we work together to make change. Change must come from the top. Change must be felt from the bottom. Only then, we have made a difference.

Racism takes many different forms, especially in government. Gaps in cultural barriers have always been a problem. Affirmative action...

Mr. Speaker, not all racism or racist behaviour is the same. Some moments are more overt and obvious, while others, it's more subtle and covert.

In closing, I must state that I have nothing against the SPCA as an organization. I recognize the good work they do to help animals. In fact, I donate to the Fort Smith animal shelter regularly, and I am an avid dog lover. I am speaking about this because systemic racism takes many forms and can and does take place anywhere. Mr. Speaker, Black lives matter and Indigenous lives matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Policing has always been a problem, with $47.6 million spent on the RCMP, and the visibility within the community is almost zero. That is a problem in my community. We haven't had any drug busts for over 20 years. They're not visible in the community. I've had a problem with that for many years, even as a chief of Salt River. I just feel that more could be done. That's a lot of money spent on an independent organization that doesn't have a lot of communication with First Nations. I have a real problem with that.

How to fix it? I don't know, but there has to be some...

Mr. Speaker, I think this motion is vital to improving how we deal with people of colour, Black people, and Indigenous people. Coming from the heart, I think that it's a very important motion, that we all have to recognize that things are not the way they should be all the time. Having a personal experience that happened to me on February 1st, I have never had that happen to me, and I never felt that way in all of the years that I have lived in the Northwest Territories. I have been very fortunate. A lot of the people that I represent, especially the Indigenous people of Salt River and all of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I am going to talk about seniors' housing in the NWT and speak once again about the Core Need Income Threshold. Twenty years ago, the NWT Housing Corporation created a seniors' housing strategy. The strategy was created to address the needs of seniors in a number of areas, which included over-crowded public housing units while families remained on waiting lists; a lack of proper senior housing; and a lack of public housing units built specifically for seniors.

In the 20 years since this seniors' housing strategy was implemented, the NWT has seen some improvements...

Madam Chair, that would be fine if it was owned by a northern business. I am very pro-business, and I believe in making sure that businesses survive in the North. When it's paid to an outside firm, these tremendous amounts, especially when we used to own the building, that is unacceptable. I don't know how people thought about these things, especially with the legacy building because we owned it. Now, we don't, and now, we are paying that amount of lease on it. We are using public funds, and that, to me, is very unacceptable. It's just a comment. I want to see what the Minister has to say...

Madam Chair, for clarity, the lease payments for Stanton, the main hospital and the legacy building that we don't own anymore, are part of this lease payment in here? Am I correct, Madam Chair?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just wondering about the utilities. I want to go back to the utilities line. When the Minister was answering the question to my colleague, this is under regional operations, and she was mentioning about the utilities of just over $2 million for Stanton, why would it be in this section when it's a territorial hospital, when we are doing regional operations? I just want to ask that question.