Steve Norn

Mahsi cho, Madam Chair. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Justice at this time. Mahsi cho, Madam Chair.

Mahsi cho, Madam Speaker. I have some written questions on educational facilities directed toward the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment:

What standards or methods do the Department of Education, Culture and Employment have or use to assess whether educational facilities meet the physical requirements for existing educational priorities and teaching methods?

Has the Department of Education, Culture and Employment conducted an audit of the existing learning space at Kalemi Dene School to determine whether the present-day educational priorities and teaching methods are being met for...

Thank you for the response from the Minister. That's encouraging. I think, if our ancestors are watching, I think they would be very, very happy to hear that. My next question is: would the Minister be open to having an interactive "welcome" and "good-bye," so to speak, in all our official languages at our points of entry? What I mean by that, our visitors' centres and our border at the NWT-Alberta border as well?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress. Mahsi cho.

Mahsi cho, Madam Speaker. I want to speak today about the state of our 11 official languages and what I would like to see our government doing to keep these language programs running and alive. Language preservation is important to me. It's an important part of our culture and identity here in the North, and in my opinion, if you do not use it, you lose it.

When you go for a drive on the road, you will often see signs with the kilometre markers and landmarks, such as parks, and they are primarily written and English and French. I am not okay with that. Moving forward, I would like to see more...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you again for that response. Helping elders in the middle of winter like that sounds good to me. That sounds dignified. I'd like to hear more of that and hear that from other departments. That's just a comment, and that's all I have to say. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just looking at two line items here, and a quick comment, then some questions. I'm looking at the Senior Citizen Supplementary Benefit and Senior Home Heating Subsidy, those two line items. There's not a whole lot of change in there. I want to make some comments on our mandate, with our mandate item to enable seniors to age in place with dignity. We had a couple of commitments, and that's to increase the Senior Home Heating Subsidy and to create a separate Income Assistance program for seniors or persons with disabilities, in our mandate. I would like to ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister for his response. I did hear the word "entrenched" going forward. To me, that sounds like at some point the Minister one of his colleagues will be lobbying for more federal funding for this program. Is that what I'm hearing? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Minister for the response. Just judging from what was just said, outside the SAFE program, there are no other programs available for residents who have no land tenure in their homes? Is that correct?

Mahsi cho, Madam Speaker. Today, I would like to talk about financial security and the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories. Last week, on Friday, February 28, 2020, the NWT Bureau of Statistics released a report on the state of financial security for residents of the NWT. The findings were based on the results of the 2019 NWT Community Survey. Overall, the results were pretty bleak, in my opinion, for many people across the territory.

Madam Speaker, 20 percent of households, that's one out of every five households across the NWT, have reported they had difficulties in making ends...