Steve Norn

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

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that the ruling regarding the point of privilege raised by the Member for Monfwi on March 10, 2020, be referred to the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures for their consideration;

AND FURTHER, that the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures provide a report to this House within 120 calendar days of this referral. Marsi cho.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. I think I went down the rabbit hole. I am going to ask a little easier question here. Some of my constituents, in dealing with that, use Hope's Haven here in town. I just want to see here: does that fall under the emergency shelters? Does emergency shelters fund that? That is a question to the Minister.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair, and thank you for that response. I had a loaded question, there, but I guess I'm going to ask it again. I'm going to ask the Minister again: is there an intention here to lean on the co-investment fund to kind of offset some of these decreases? Marsi cho.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What I'm hearing right now still is that this is mainly a Yellowknife program. Was there still access for people in the regional centres and the smaller communities for this program? Is a lot of this money being used for those areas?

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for that answer. Moving on, I'm looking at another item here, the rent supplement leasing. This number seems to have fluctuated in the last couple years. Can the Minister just explain to me what this rent supplement we see is and is this final number going to be adequate for this fiscal year? Thank you.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. If I could turn your attention to page 363, I had a question on heating fuel. I noticed from the actuals from a couple years ago now to the mains, there hasn't been much change in that. I know that heating fuel is very expensive in a lot of the small communities. I am just wondering why this number from the actuals from couple of years ago now to the mains, there hasn't been much change in that. I know that heating fuel is very expensive in a lot of these small communities. I'm just wondering why this number is staying the way it is. Does the Minister believe this will...

Just to give a little context on this one here, I used to work for Diavik and for the community's department, and we used to go to places like Wekweeti and Whati and stuff. I remember going to school. We were trying to explain trades to very young grades, and we couldn't get through to them. Finally, I said, "You know, I think I have a good example." I told a grade 6 term, "You know how, in Star Wars, there's Jedi's? You don't just become a Jedi overnight. You have to become a Padawan first. You have to train under somebody, and then you become one. That's how trades works."

I guess, on that...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Just going back to my Member's statement on self-employment and trades, I have questions for the Minister of ECE. My question is: what programs are available in the NWT for those interested in the trades vocation? Marsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I want to speak a little bit about small businesses and self-employment in the NWT and the state of our economy, and our unemployment rates. Last week, on March 6, 2020 the NWT Bureau of Statistics released a report on the labour force activity in the NWT. As of February 2020, the employment rate in the NWT is 63.5 percent and appears to be trending downwards. This is concerning to me.

I feel that, as a government, we need to ask three main questions when we observe a statistic like this. First, what are we doing in each of our government departments to help keep...