Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had to Google, just so everyone is aware. Charles is the Prince of Wales. I didn't actually know that. I would be very happy if we changed the name of that. Talking about the Crown is one of my favourite topics. Madam Chair, my question is, I really think and need to emphasize that our museum is for the entire territory, and we have some of the most unique, cultural history in the world here, and our museum's job is essential to preserving that. I wanted to speak briefly about revenues.

I love the museum. Increasingly, it has more and more tourists going through it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It took me some time to realize that income assistance and income security are two different terms. My questions are in relation to Income Assistance. My question right now is: Income Assistance is a great program, but one of the issues I consistently have with my constituents is that they don't have a phone and they don't have the Internet, which doesn't allow them to look for jobs. Often, if they don't have a phone, they miss their appointments, which then means they miss their Income Assistance cheque. Then, it kind of spirals. They lose their housing, and we end up...

I am a little perplexed that, at this point with such a close deadline, the Housing Corporation has not seen the application and isn't aware of the shortfalls. I heard the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation previously discuss not wanting to set proponents up to fail, wanting to make sure, if we are going to provide our funding for any housing project, that we know that it is sustainable. I do not understand how the Housing Corporation is capable of doing that without looking at the response from CMHC and without knowing the shortfalls in the application. My question is: is the...

Yes, thank you, and I recognize that, and that is the complication of me asking these questions. You have committed to reviewing the funding formula, but, to me, the conversation about the funding formula really is not complete without recognition that there are millions of dollars in the system that is not ours. I think that figure is extremely important to all conversations going forward. Moving on, I wanted to Northern Distance Learning. I understand we are in phase 3 right now. Are we meeting our expansion goals, and can you give me an idea of what communities are next?

Thank you, Madam Speaker. There has been quite a lot of talk about the Arnica project over the last weeks in this House. I am happy to hear that there has been a meeting, and it seems there is still some hope for this project to go through, although I am still a little confused on some issues. The Minister had previously clarified that they had not seen the CMHC report and, in fact, relied on CMHC. My question to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation is: has the Housing Corporation seen the CMHC application, and are they aware of the defects in that proposal?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I sometimes wish that I could have a federal Minister in front of me. The fact that there is $15 million and a lot of positions presently being funded by our federal government, do we have a sense of the stability of that funding? I know this is a question a federal Minister would have to answer, but is Jordan's Principle's funding going to disappear anytime? That is a huge amount flowing directly to our schools.

No, I like yeses. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I was confused about the difference between the Hay River complex, the new Fort Smith complex, and the North Slave correctional complex. I'm fully supportive of the Hay River therapeutic community model, I think it is the future of corrections. There seems to be recognition by all parties that these are the steps we should be taking, so my question to the Minister of Justice is: why is the new Fort Smith facility and North Slave not also using this therapeutic community model, if we recognize it as the direction we want to be going?

I am well aware that there are complexities in the implementation of any policy, but there is clear policy direction from the legislative branch that this be done. It is as simple as the Minister providing a ministerial directive to their department to devolve the lands, and then the department figures out the logistics. In the meantime, we have the City of Yellowknife's plan being required to be approved by the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs and any revisions, a process that is taking too long. Will the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs commit to removing the...

I want to express the issue here is that when someone attends a legal cannabis store and there is no cannabis, they go to the black market, which I can assure the Minister of Justice is still very much alive and well in the Northwest Territories. That means we are allowing criminals to continue to sell cannabis as well as not gaining the tax revenue needed from this. My question to the Minister of Justice is: what is currently happening to find new sources that can meet the demand?