Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am supporting this budget. This budget has an impact on a lot of the people in the riding that I serve who are business owners and who are looking to continue to put food on their tables and the tables of the employees that they keep staffed and working for their businesses.

To me, I absolutely do agree with some of the words of the MLA for Frame Lake and the MLA for Yellowknife North in that the government does need to change the way that it's doing business. The way the government is doing business right now is not sustainable. But I don't feel...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. So over the course of the last 18 years then, we've been slowly watching a decline happen, but there hasn't been a response then from the GNWT to actually address what we now understand to be and quite thankfully, I'm going use this one probably quite a bit the number 1 priority of this government. And I might get a talking to from some Ministers after that, but I'm going to run with it.

Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the NWT Housing Corporation intends to bring forward new legislation specific to public housing, because right now the NWT Housing Corporation's...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. I can say that the Standing Committee on Social Development is very much looking forward to that document and being able to hopefully participate in some feedback from especially small community members that sit on that committee.

My second question, Mr. Speaker, is when the Housing Corporation joined us for the Committee of the Whole review of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation capital estimates, the deputy minister committed to bringing together information to address the end to core need in the Northwest...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories speak to questions on codrafting legislation and comanagement beyond resourcemanagementbased legislation and discuss this concept with the NWT Council of Leaders. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker,

WHEREAS section 40.2(1) of the Public Service Act provides that the Commissioner, on the recommendation of the Legislative Assembly, shall appoint an Equal Pay Commissioner as an officer of the Legislative Assembly, who is responsible for exercising the powers and performing the duties set out in the act;

AND WHEREAS the position of Equal Pay Commissioner became vacant on November 30th, 2021;

AND WHEREAS the board of management was tasked with recruiting an Equal Pay Commissioner and as recommended an individual to the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Assembly is prepared to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we heard previously a lot in this House about how the change in policy from a number of leaders on an annual basis for the seniors home heating subsidy was changed to a dollar amount on an annual basis and the impact that that had on seniors. So even a 10 percent increase would have an impact on the amount of fuel a senior could access to heat their homes. So how is this even 10 percent increase expected to have an impact on seniors across the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I could well, a lot of my colleagues could probably attest to the fact that I'm slightly hard of hearing, but I'm pretty sure I heard a sigh from a lot of artists of the Northwest Territories on that one.

Before I was even elected, before any of us were elected into the 19th Assembly, ITI and ECE did engage with artists across the Northwest Territories. They invested a lot of time and a lot of effort, and it was very well received from the artists of the Northwest Territories. And so I think people would be frustrated in order to go back and say the same things...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's another way that we can do this. We could drive it from the GNWT outwards. It doesn't have to be, you know, continuing on with the whole notion and the age-old anecdote of the "starving artist." We can actually prop our artists up, give them an opportunity to bring in huge amounts of dollars into the territory, and go at it from a GNWT perspective, which I think is what a lot of people are asking for given the GNWT already does have a program that supports artists, and we want to be able to see that organization grow.

And so I'm wondering...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a child I have vivid memories, as my mother's sidekick, as artists discussed the needs of the NWT arts community. Many of the faces that advocated then are the same in today's fabric of arts activists, but they're tired of asking for the same things: core funding, independence, and infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT released the next tenyear art strategy. Despite several suggestions to improve the strategy from standing committees on both economic development and environment and social development, not one suggestion was considered or incorporated in...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and Aurora College take note of this request that engagement timelines are respectful and sufficient for stakeholders to support meaningful consultation and ensure that the timeframes for engagement and consultation concerning the polytechnic university are adequate. Thank you, Madam Chair.