Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Mr. Speaker, the Housing NWT prohibits homebased business from being in public housing. This works against four separate mandate items of the Government of the Northwest Territories, including one for increasing employment in small communities, which specifically says "amend the NWT Housing Corporation policies to allow appropriate homebased business opportunities within their units." It also goes against at least five Calls for Justice from the MMIWG.

So I'm wondering will the Minister...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my first question is in regards to education renewal and innovation. This line item appears to have come down a little bit. And my concern is that in the following fiscal year, hopefully the 20th Assembly which will be part of that fiscal year, will be able to dive right into the education renewal. And so I'm wondering if the education renewal, in fact, some of it comes out of here or is it largely centered within the corporate management section? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Yes, it was that $5.6 million fund towards SFA that I was looking for. I'm wondering if there is any conversation, given the changes that have happened to income security and student financial assistance, if there's been any conversation with the federal government to increase that amount especially given that one of the most exciting changes that was made to income security was this opportunity for Indigenous students to really go for unlimited terms of education if that's what they so desire. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, in regards to the work that needs to be done to do this soul searching on this plan that might not be used, is there a staff member dedicated to this work, or staff members dedicated to this work, and if so, where within the main estimates do they live? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Committee understands that Northerners have little choice about imposing a carbon tax:

If the GNWT does not impose the tax, the federal government will.

But the madeintheNWT approach does give us a choice on how to spend revenues from the carbon tax. Unfortunately, the government’s chosen approach leaves some households, most businesses, and all community governments, Indigenous governments, and NGOs worse off or at least treated very differently from the large emitters.

In November, Finance released a projection of carbon tax revenues and a breakdown of the associated...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And, Madam Chair, I wanted to talk about integrated case management as well. And I appreciate that my colleague to my left asked some of the questions that I had as well. But it actually led to a little bit of confusion for me.

So I get that ICM is kind of a team of pathfinders that then go and take people kind of from door to door of government departments to help them access all the services they might need whereas integrated service delivery doesn't use pathfinders because the whole idea there is breaking down the silos between departments so that you don't...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm aware of Indigenousled renewable energy projects that can't go ahead because of this 20 percent cap that NTPC currently has. While our energy strategy commits us to reduce emissions from diesel power generation in communities by 18 kilotons every year by 2030, we are turning down proposals for renewable projects.

So can the Minister commit to make changes to the policy so that NTPC will work with any business or community that bring forward green energy projects even if they are above the 20 percent cap? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much, Madam Chair. This is public knowledge. It was in the media, and so I'm going to I'm going to speak to it here today.

When somebody is released to the Salvation Army, sometimes or any shelter across the territory, sometimes that's not either the right fit for that individual or relationships have already been broken, and that is possible, or maybe that facility is already full. When someone when a facility operates on a first come first serve basis and has policies to that effect, for Justice to step in and say okay, this person goes there, it's very difficult when...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I have questions for the Minister responsible for NTPC about greening I know, it's a shocker about greening our electricity mix without making rates less affordable than they already are.

One of the GNWT's main policy tools to green the electricity mix is net metering. But that policy isn't sustainable for ratepayers or for our 2030 Energy Strategy goals. A 2021 policy review found that by 2030, electricity utilities will be losing up to $2.7 million per year on net metering, and that's without going beyond the 20 percent cap on renewables...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my concern is that this funding pot here is not actually providing people with the or maybe, sorry, let me rephrase that. This funding pot is not providing the department with the tools that it needs in order to stop the cycle between homelessness and incarceration. And I understand that there's programming involved in that, it's not just housing, but I don't think that this funding pot actually helps people access stable housing. And so if it's simply housing that people are looking for what I'm okay. People are leaving our correctional facilities and...