Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice.

We know that over 700 rental units have mould or pests, across the Northwest Territories, but only three tenants got an order against the landlord to fix the problem. So clearly something is not working, Mr. Speaker. I want to know whether the Minister acknowledges that the current mechanisms to ensure healthy rental housing are not working. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about environmental health concerns in rental housing and the role of government in holding landlords accountable.

Mr. Speaker, this House has heard numerous times about how too many of our constituents are facing appalling living conditions.

In October, my colleague from Tu NedheWiilideh brought up cockroach infestations in his communities. He talked about a family brought to tears when they couldn't cook Thanksgiving dinner because of cockroaches.

In November, my colleague from Great Slave brought up issues at Lanky Court, including...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 90, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 5, be read for the third time. And Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, just listening to the questions and comments that are happening today and I mean, the Member for Frame Lake just spent ten minutes kind of, I believe, getting to this question. And so I am wondering if we can just kind of get on the record whether or not the Minister will commit to working with the GNWT to establish a mechanism for Indigenous governments to track and recruit and report approved opioid damage costs and expenses as defined under "health care benefits" in Bill 72? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 82, Legal Profession Act.

Bill 82 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 30th, 2023 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review. The standing committee held a public hearing on May 10th, 2023 and completed its clausebyclause review of the bill with the Minister of Justice on May 31st, 2023.

Mr. Speaker, the committee reports that Bill 82, Legal Profession Act, is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the piece that's important in that is that information making it from the environmental health office to the rental office so that the rental officer has the ability to then hold those landlords accountable. The environmental health officer doesn't have a mechanism to hold those people accountable. By looping in the rental office, by seeing if there's other issues going on with those rental offices, it brings it to a onestop shop and actually empowers the rental officer to have kind of that bird's eye view of what's going on. And so there...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, sometimes accessibility can be the issue. Saskatchewan provides tenants with an online fillable complaints form to launch an environmental health investigation into unhealthy housing. I'm not aware of a similar ease of use form that's available here that initiates an instant investigation. So I'm wondering if the government will consider a more accessible, efficient mechanism to trigger investigation by the environmental health officer through the rental office? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. There's a lot of friendly and familiar faces in the gallery today. I'd like to acknowledge Kelsey Wrightson of Dechinta. And also Dechinta's hide tanning camp is open to the public and all set up and ready to go, so that's very exciting right now as well.

I'd like to recognize a couple of former Kam Lake constituents as well. There's Jennifer DallmanSanders and above me, who I cannot see but wish I could see their wonderful happy faces, are a team of lifelong northern educators, past Kam Lakers, Colleen Eckert and Arthur Osborne. A huge congratulations to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I would like to say thank you to the other side. I think that there's great opportunity that can come from this, especially for youth who are aging out of care. I'm wondering if the Minister will commit to tabling a status report on this in the following sitting? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would really love to see a portal created for youth so that youth have access to information that they're looking for. So I'm wondering if the Minister responsible for Youth is willing to work on a portal so that youth can access stuff like applications for housing, low income housing, applications for identification; there could be a link to information on student financial assistance. The options are endless. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.