Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The Minister received valuable feedback at her forum on how to improve the Income Assistance Program. There were dozens of suggestions, and clearly there is not time to work on them all. My question is: what are the Minister's priorities to improve the Income Assistance Program in the short term? Thank you.

I appreciate the answer. I guess I would prefer to see a somewhat independent office looking out for climate change rather than having the government do this directly. I feel that the results may be more credible, but it is what it is, I guess, at this point. I mentioned in my statement about taking a whole-of-government approach to procurement, screening it for how it is mitigating or making worse the issue of climate crisis, and I am wondering if the government is prepared to institute a whole-of-government procurement policy that takes this full-cost accounting into account.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also on the climate, and they are addressed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Given the recent scientific studies about the rate of change, the accelerated change of the climate, it is now being referred to as a crisis. Does the Minister consider the current state of affairs, with the warming of the planet, a crisis? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to talk about climate change, which now, without a doubt, is a climate crisis. I've spoken about this issue before, but today, as wildfires drive people from their homes, I feel a new sense of urgency.

Here's why: The Canada Climate Change Report shows our northern climate is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world. Further, warming is accelerating and it's effectively irreversible. As people have said, there is no plan to refreeze the Arctic. The cause is carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. We can see the results for ourselves in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like this waste strategy may go some of the way towards answering this question. My final question is whether the government has any interest in reviving a program such as the One-Tonne Challenge that focuses on personal action and accountability. Does the government have any interest in drawing citizens individually into this, beyond taxing them with the carbon tax?

Thank you to the Minister for that response. During the consultation on the 2030 NWT Climate Change Strategic Framework, some people suggested that the GNWT create a climate change secretariat, such as exists in both Yukon and Nunavut, to oversee all climate crisis-related work, rather than compartmentalizing responsibilities in one department. Why did government decide to not take this advice?

Mahsi, colleagues. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Here's the thing: we are already paying the cost of the climate crisis, so why don't we invest in mitigation as well? There is no downside, so what are we waiting for?

I appreciate the detail that the Minister was able to provide. I think that he would agree with the statement that, with a waiting list of over 900 households, bringing more 20 more units into circulation, while is some progress, is clearly not enough progress.

Consistently, there has been a low uptake on housing for several reasons. A new one that I learned about at the Housing Summit is the high cost of insurance. Apparently, insurance companies are reluctant to insure homes in communities without fire departments and/or hydrants. My question for the Minister, then: is there anything that the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his response. I look forward to some more detailed information about how the targets set in the Toward Level Ground report or plan have been met, because the Minister's math and the numbers set out in the plan don't match. I am hoping that, now that this program is in year three of three, he will be able to do some detailed reporting on the first two years. When can we expect that report? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I didn't hear any timing around that, but I heard some process responses. As we come to the end of this Assembly, my question for the Minister is whether any of the public housing waiting lists are shorter now than they were three years ago and whether, over these last four years, there has been any increase in the uptake in home ownership?