Steve Norn

Oh, God, I ask for your guidance today to give us clarity to help the people we serve to the very best of our ability. I ask that you help us maintain our resolve, no matter what obstacles we may face. I also ask you to keep our wits sharp and that we always keep our loved ones in mind while we do our work, with every keystroke, pen stroke, with every word. Amen.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to consider the following documents: Bill 10, Committee Report 1-19(2); and Committee Report 3-19(2). Marsi cho.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to consider Committee Report 2-19(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on Long-Term Post-Pandemic Recovery: Recommendations to the GNWT. Marsi cho.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement today, I am going to join with my colleagues and discuss the importance of caring for our elders and people with mobility issues in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, most of our elders have worked hard all their lives. They have paid their dues and helped lay the foundation of the road before us, so we as a government owe it to them to let them thoroughly enjoy their golden years with peace of mind. When I say they have worked hard all their lives, it's not just in the traditional 9:00 to 5:00 jobs. A lot of our elders worked hard out on the land. My great...

Marsi, Madam Chair. Just looking at this one and some of the motions we passed already, any time you do something with speed, you are going to lose a little bit in translation. It's always hard, but I think this captures a lot of what we are trying to do here. The biggest thing I have heard complaints to about the enforcement is one of the big issues. I get calls from my constituents, "Why aren't we finding these people more often?" People are never going to learn their lesson if they keep doing the way things we were doing. We need to start having more of those discussions and more. There has...

Marsi, Mr. Speaker. Marsi cho, colleagues. Through all this, how does this all tie in with what we're doing here? Again, we need to learn from this. In this House, within the GNWT, for me, I question myself, "Why are we still experiencing high unemployment rates in our small communities across the territories, low graduation rates, disproportionately high incarceration rates? How do we get better at this?"

I look at the history. You look at the dark ages; you had the renaissance. People fought through the way. They opened their minds. I think it's still doable. We just need to fight through...

Madam Chair, I move that we rise and report progress.

[Microphone turned off] …Madam Chair. For me, like I said, this kind of hits home for me. I've lost a couple of uncles to suicide and stuff like that. I wish we had these back then, but we didn't. We do now, which is really good. It's good to see some of these proactive measures taking place. I'd just like to know how much overlap would be, say, with residential healing. They have a lot of helplines and monies being allocated through Health Canada. I know that's being put in place. I'm just wondering how much funding is being put into these programs from the federal government and how much...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm hoping our government can help Lutselk'e in the Internet issues because, if the chief wants and the council want to communicate, it's going to be tough. I'll leave that as a comment. I'm glad that there's extra money allocated for this because it's important. Like I mentioned before, we sat at the roundtable, all the governments. We got together and sat together. There were a lot of concerns there, and I'm glad to see that we're actually showing some commitment there. Marsi cho.