Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So just to confirm, this is work that will begin right away on the part of the housing corporation and not wait for another fiscal year to begin? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, earlier last week, I had the opportunity to speak on the floor of the House with the Minister of housing in regards to strategic data collection and analysis by the department of housing. And both in terms of their clientele but also in terms of homelessness in conjunction with the homelessness prevention strategy and being able to use data collection as a means for further prevention. And so I'm wondering if that work would come out of the executive or where the funding for the hardware and software to be able to do this would come from? Thank...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, that is even for all of those places, and I understand that this is not the only funding pot because I believe Salvation Army also receives money from elsewhere. But if you take out Salvation Army, which we really shouldn't because it is still an emergency shelter, but if you take that out and you have the five remaining shelters in communities, or even if you take out YWCA, one of them, you have about $600,000 for each shelter to work with. It's not enough money to operate shelters notwithstanding the point either that that means we've got...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So just so that I can get this straight, no NGO could afford to operate a shelter at the budget they were given by the housing corporation, so everybody walked away from the table. So housing corporation stepped in and said we are going to operate this shelter because we need a shelter in Inuvik, and the cost of doing that properly is $2 million. So now the government has come back and said it is too expensive to operate a shelter in Inuvik, we're going to get a third party to do it, and we're going to give them a quarter of what we spent in order to operate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that commitment from the Minister. I think this is an excellent program and a really big opportunity for northern students.

One of the things that I also mentioned today in my questions was summer students. Summer is coming. Now is the time where summer students are hired. And I would also like to see an effort on the part of the GNWT to also make sure that summer students are being hired across the Northwest Territories. And so will the Minister of education also commit to talking to his colleagues about ways to make that happen? Thank you...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, that line item has not grown. So in 20222023, it was $2,997,000 and then again in this year it is holding steady at the same amount. And so I do not see an increase of the $2 million that was originally in executive earmarked for the Inuvik shelter. And so I'm wondering why there's no increase if the Inuvik shelter is now coming out of that emergency shelter's pot found under homelessness initiatives? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I absolutely hear the Minister that there are only so many employers in the Northwest Territories willing or able to take on this work and that it is a significant investment to be able to take on a high school student in this kind of capacity. One of the things that the Minister has at his disposal is an entire government, which is one of the largest employers in the territory and actually employs red seal apprentices and skilled trades people in multiple regions across the territory; in fact, Mr. Speaker, in all the regions across the Northwest...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the last question for this section is the Minister did reference, as well as the deputy minister, the homelessness specialist position. And I'm wondering if given the release of the homelessness prevention strategy during this fiscal year, but hopefully for implementation soon after, if there will be a need for additional resources in order to implement that strategy and if one homelessness specialist is enough for the department? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In October 2020, the Speaker tabled the Ombud’s firstever annual report for 20192020. The Ombud’s report made 14 recommendations for legislative changes to the Act. The recommendations were informed by:

The Ombud’s review of legislation in other jurisdictions;

The advice she received from other Ombuds and legal professionals; and

The issues that arose when responding to individual complaints in her first year in the role.

The Ombud made her recommendations "with the intent of ensuring that my office is fully enabled to fulfill the purpose and vision with which the...