Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to make a point for the record about why I abstained from the last motion and I plan to abstain again. This report on the Mineral Resources Act landed on my desk today, still warm from the photocopier, 2 centimetres thick. I haven't had an opportunity to go through it, and I am not part of this committee, so I haven't been in the discussions of the act itself and the development and modification of it. The clause-by-clause review was held on the same evening as the clause-by-clause review for the Corrections Act.

The point that I want to make is that there is very...

Can the Minister confirm that there is money available to implement a solution for the adult day program without having to wait for the next budget process?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Each sitting, I ask the Minister about progress on creating an adult day program in Yellowknife, a program for elders to assist them with social inclusion needs and to provide respite for their families. I realize the Minister has looked at various options, but the fact is there is still nothing in place. I note that the department is surveying seniors about their social activities. Can the Minister tell us more about the survey and what its purpose is? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Standing Committee on Social Development recommends that the department of Justice explore the possibility of allowing for private interviews between an inmate and a facility's Indigenous elder or spiritual advisor, subject to reasonable restrictions.

Residents told committee that programming should be available to all inmates, including those remanded in custody, who make up more than half the inmate population in the NWT. Remanded persons, including those who are eventually convicted, are frequently released without having accessed rehabilitative programs. Even of...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In our mandate, we describe community and family violence as a crisis and determined to take action. Four years on, it's still a crisis, and our efforts have flagged. According to Statistics Canada, the national incidents for intimate partner violence is 313 people per 100,000 population. In the Northwest Territories, the rate is an astonishing 2,906 people per 100,000 population, or about nine times as high. These are 2017 numbers, but they have been at this level for 10 years.

When the Coalition Against Family Violence was still active, it had three priorities. The first...

Mr. Chair, I move that you rise from the Chair and report progress. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I request that you rise and report progress. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We were not given notice of this in advance. There are some differences from the one that was forwarded originally. I realize that we voted on this, but I want to register an objection that we are given motions on the floor with only seconds to consider them when we are talking about matters of great importance to the people of the Northwest Territories. I reject the Minister's methodology here. He needs to work collaboratively. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In some ways, my questions continue on from my colleague. In my statement today I talked about the growth of the Housing First program throughout the NWT and the success it has had moving chronically homeless people out of shelters and into stable transitional housing. It's very clear that the demand for Housing First has outstripped supply. Can the Minister tell us what advice he is including in his departmental transition report on Housing First? Thank you.

I appreciate that, not only does the Minister buy half-page ads to talk about his successes, he also gobbles up question period to do the very same thing. The City of Yellowknife has attempted to count the number of homeless people in Yellowknife, and I would like to know very specifically, without the words "community plan," is that work to understand to full dimensions of homelessness being undertaken in any other communities?