Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the Minister for that information and hopefully we can get those repairs done sooner rather than later and that we have the funding certainly allocated to do that.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister provide the current number of clients on the public housing waitlist in Inuvik?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's nice to know that the chair of the board has been listening to session the last couple of weeks. Obviously, he feels there might be an opportunity. Yeah, no, that's it for me on that, I think, Mr. Chair. I certainly appreciate it. And, yeah, we look I mean, again, that funding, I think, is crucial, and I hope the department's considering looking at that program and maintaining that program so, again, we can continue down the path of getting to a polytechnic, where we need to be. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I give my statement today, I would like to join the Premier in congratulating the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation on their celebration of the 40th Anniversary of signing the Inuvialuit Final Agreement. And to my colleagues and friends in Inuvik, have a great day and I wish I was there participating today and flipping hamburgers with them. So have a great day up there.

Mr. Speaker, I too will speak to housing today. Mr. Speaker, long waitlists for NWT residents when assessing public housing is an ongoing issue that has been raised numerous times in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My other question since you have Mr. Saturnino with you is on the college, was the so I've spoken previously about the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Innovation and how important that is for the college to get their accreditation to be able to develop the programming they need to become a polytechnic. I guess my first question is was the Minister and your department aware that this program was actually running and that the funding from CanNor was sunsetting after three years? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a couple of questions. The first one I'll talk about the northern distance learning, and I note it's $850,000 decrease to that. That is a program that I know was piloted out of Inuvik for students in remote communities to be able to access the academic programs they needed through online services. Can the Minister speak as to what that reduction of $850,000 is a reflection of? Thank you.

That's it on this section. But more money. I want that $7 million in here.

I find this very frustrating. I do. Because this is such an important issue, and we look at you know, we regularly have we approve supplementals for infrastructure projects that are tens of millions of dollars over budget that we either mismanaged or got out of control. We can blame COVID and so on and so forth. And something like this, something like this that's just so important, to keep professional people in our territory, not only providing the services of whether it be doctors or nurses or teachers or lawyers or child care workers, but also coaching our kids in hockey and buying the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to follow up a little on my colleague from Range Lake's comments around the funding.

First of all, I mean, you know, we've moved the needle a little on this for sure in the past few months. I keep in regular contact with the Children's First Society in Inuvik, and I know the Minister's been working hard with the territorial society as well and we have moved the needle a little up there, and it looks like they're not in the dire situation they were in and that it seems like their operation is now moving forward, which is great. And the $10 million is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just briefly, I support this motion. I've heard from Mayor Clarence Wood several times since I've come down, since I was elected, that it's been an issue for the town of Inuvik, whether it's for the expansion of the Inuvik satellite station facility or just accessed land for more R2 and R1 residential property which, as you know, is being scooped up right now by our Indigenous governments, which is great. So just wanted to reiterate my colleagues' echo my colleagues' sediments that, yes, it is an issue and we realize that it is being looked at by the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the main estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.