Katrina Nokleby

Growing up in western Canada, I never knew anything about Black history or the history of African-Canadians in our country until, as an adult, I went to Halifax and first heard of Africville. It has come to my attention that literature around Black history is all but absent in our school curriculums and systems. What is the Minister doing to change this in our educational institutions in the North?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at the actuals for 2019-2020 for compensation and benefits at $847,000. It has gone back to its original estimate of $1,096,000. I am just curious to know: there are no changes to positions within this area of the department, so I am just wondering why there was that drop over the last year. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. February is Black History Month in Canada and throughout the world. Here in the North, we have a thriving Black community that, in June, organized a rally to protest racism against Black people. This rally was organized to coincide with a growing international movement in protest of rising incidents of violent acts against people of colour.

From this, a group was formed called the Black Advocacy Coalition up North, or BACupNorth, with the goal of providing community support to Black Northerners. Its mission is to end racism and dismantle barriers to equity in law...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Does this fund apply to all of the 33 communities, or does it have a tax base, regional-centre-type distribution? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to get a bit more information on page 348, the water and sewer services funding. Could the department explain: is that for operations and maintenance of water and sewer services, or are there any new projects or any capital that ends up out of this budget? Thank you.

Thank you for that explanation. I think that the hiring of relief staff, I'm not really sure how much you need to analyze the fact that you need relief staff and you need to have other management requirements that are not currently being met, so I'm not really sure that another study on what is lacking, it's my understanding the department actually has quite a good understanding of what's missing in this department, from a staffing requirement. Has the department looked at potentially moving Med Response out of 911, since there seems to be a lack of communication or working together there...

I don't have another question, but I am just going to take a moment to plug for the seniors. I don't think that we should do the income testing because I think they contribute in so many other ways, and we do want them to stay. As one pointed out to me, we get $37,000 a year for them, so I will just leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you for that. I agree that we don't want to just give people money and set them up for failure. However, to go from such a large amount to nothing, and then just from the conversation that I have had with them, it sounds like this is hurting them and their bottom line and their ability to deliver services. While maybe that $250,000 was a one-time thing to do a certain role, they are crying out for money and funding. They provide good services, so I would like to encourage the Cabinet to think about adding a line here at least to give them some additional funds, particularly in light of...

Mr. Speaker, yesterday marked the United Nations' International Day of Women and Girls in Sciences; sadly, something I wasn't aware of until after I had done my Member's statement for the day. However, as I think every day we should be focused on this important topic, I've decided to speak on it today, as well.

My career prior to politics, for those who may not be aware, was in engineering, and one of my passions in life is advancing the opportunities for women and non-binary people in the field of science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM. You may have heard me quote the statistic in...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would actually even ask maybe a little bit further, if this funding is not accessed for specifically National Indigenous Peoples Day or the Treaty Days, that you do just open it up as a general pot to the communities to put on well-being events or high spirits type of events. I can't get my language right after five days of this. I really do think that the more the government can do to raise the spirits of our people by funding events in communities, that will not only put dollars into those communities, they have an effect of raising people's spirits, and I think...