Steve Norn

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.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. I wonder, Madam Chair, what "expansion" means? I'm not quite clear what the definition of that is. Marsi cho.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm okay with that, just as long as we get something. Just so we know, it will give us a good snapshot of where these allocations are going, and I think the people know. Marsi cho.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. I'm just looking at some of these line items. I probably will have questions for any time I see "various" on it because it's good to know, a good breakdown. Again, jobs are hard to come by. Contracts are hard to come by, especially in the small communities, and it will be just nice to know some of the breakdowns of this because it does mean a lot, have an impact on jobs for this fiscal year. Just get the Minister to give us a breakdown, what the various items mean? Marsi cho.

Again, thank you for that response. I think, going forward, it's always good to know where we sit and get a baseline of how all the policies are going from its inception until present. My next question is: can the Minister provide me with some statistics on how much success or perceived success this policy has had since its inception?

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Just to go back to what I said in my Member's statement earlier, it is always good to have more inclusion. I tried tying my Member's statement into how we should go forward with the GNWT and stuff. When I looked at the Affirmative Action Policy, there was a line here I thought that I should quote. I thought it was important. It says here, "No individual seeking employment, training, or career advancement opportunities in the public service should be disadvantaged or discouraged by attitudinal or systemic barriers." I thought that was an important statement because it...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today, I chose to wear my moccasins to feel a little closer to the ground for what I'm about to say. Yesterday, I listened to a few of my colleagues talk about police brutality, racism, and racial inequalities that people are still experiencing and are feeling out there. The key word out there is "feeling." During session yesterday, somebody sent me a photo of my daughter, and I'm looking at it now. She looks so beautiful, Sine, my youngest daughter, taking part in a march against racism yesterday here in town. I felt incredibly proud. I talked to her a bit about it...