Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very appreciative that the GNWT has a contracts website where we can easily see and kind of keep tabs on what's going on with certain contracts within the GNWT because it now appears that a new tender for the SPAR framework opened and closed in June of 2022, then it changed from closed to cancelled in September of 2022. I'm troubled by this because, luckily, I'm hearing from the Minister that this is supposed to be done, but this is really important work that's being done here. For example, when the Standing Committee on Social Development put...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs in regards to the sport physical activity and recreation framework and thank you to the Member for Nunakput for also raising this today.

Mr. Speaker, my first question is MACA's 20222023 business plan reports that the SPAR, or Sport Physical Activity and Recreation Framework, would be finalized in 20222023 and implemented in 20232024. At this point in time, I'm not aware that MACA has, in fact, released this SPAR framework. So can the Minister clarify by what date we can expect to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, NWT Association of Community expects communities to take a financial hit from the increase in carbon tax. Our counterparts in the Yukon take the carbon tax into account for community funding. They've estimated that community governments pay 3.5 percent of the tax which is then returned to them in rebates. If we return 3.5 percent of our carbon tax revenues to community governments, they would receive over $2 million in 20232024. So will the Minister consider including carbon tax offset in the municipal funding formula? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the call for more activities in the NWT communities is one Regular Members have heard multiple times in relation to child and family services, homelessness prevention, and suicide prevention.

Mr. Speaker, there is so much to be learned from sport how to be a team player, how to focus on what we can control and let go of what we can't, and how to release some good old endorphins. Sports connect us, can help us learn to problem solve, and work wonders for our mental health. But activity is more than sport. It's recreation and physical activity that provide a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Mr. Speaker, school boards currently do a pointintime count on September 30th of every year for student enrolment. This pointintime count includes specifications for additional funding like special support needs of individual students. Unfortunately, this pointintime count is not reflected in the school board's funding until 13 months later in the following school year. This makes serving the needs of existing students quite difficult for school boards.

So I'm wondering, can the Minister...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to say thank you to the Minister and both his deputy minister, who were willing to have a meeting about this at 6:30 this morning, to try and so I could learn some more about it and so I can say that they are very receptive to talking about it.

But given that, and given the importance of making sure that our school operations are properly funded for the students that are currently in our schools, will the Minister commit to following up with school boards to have a conversation about this policy and how it can be further tweaked? Thank you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it appears that this piece of kind of the GNWT funding or funding requirements are placing some unnecessary strain on the operational budget of some of our school boards, especially with changes that have happened in the last few years, or changes that can happen from year to year.

So while a pointintime count is done on September 30th, the policy that guides that states that children must be present for 50 percent or more of the month. In other jurisdictions, the pointintime count does not stipulate attendance and looks only at student enrolment on...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we heard in the Minister's statement today that the NWT Housing Corporation is currently completing construction renovation of more than 510 housing units in the Northwest Territories. But this does not adequately address our housing infrastructure deficit in the Northwest Territories. This is primarily required operations and maintenance on existing units and includes a hundred new units over these last four years. When some of this longstanding public housing has been devolved into homeownership already. So I'd like to, instead, talk about the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that correction from the 50 to 60 percent as well.

School boards have indicated that COVIDrelated school closures and on the land absences can have an impact on school attendance as counted for student enrolment. So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to kind of what provisions are in place to make sure that either COVID school closures that had students out of the classroom, or on the land experiences and absences, are somehow accounted for to make sure that school boards are not penalized for encouraging students to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is it reasonable to expect for this to be done before the end of the 19th Assembly? Thank you.