Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is tomorrow. It signifies a time of the year when Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed in residential school. The mission was to take the Indian out of the child. We must honour all these children, the residential school survivors, the children who never returned home, as well as their parents, grandparents, families and communities.

Wearing orange is to remember these children and to acknowledge the impacts on Indigenous families and communities.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all people to reflect on...

Yes, thank you. Yes, there's 165 units that's being retrofitted, and three in Tlicho region and with highest population of all the small or of the Indigenous communities. I mean, that is a shame because it's really sad that, you know, some of our homeless populations, when that warming shelter is at its capacity, that they walk over to the RCMP station and check themselves in. I mean, that's wrong. You know, like, I mean it is sad. It's really sad. I don't like that. So I just yeah, and I know that she did say that there is some this current or this past current fiscal year, but there were...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, thank you. Thank you for the information. And it's good to know. And I just wanted to note that for next fiscal year, will the Minister commit to create, you know, our own Tlicho region, part of their budgeting, so that way we will know, you know don't include us in the North Slave because North Slave includes Yellowknife and, you know, Tu NedheWiilideh's riding, my neighbour, my colleague here. And then, you know, we need to get away from North Slave. We need to have our own region or our own so that way we will know, you know, how much is being spent to Tlicho...

Thank you. Okay, the Frank Channel bridge is beneficial for everybody for the Northwest Territories. It's a busy, busy bridge, and I'm very grateful for that because it's going to be providing employment for the people in the regions. It's you know, like, and from Yellowknife as well too. So there's going to be a lot of people benefitting from that so, and that is part of North Slave region. And we are part of North Slave. And so there's nothing actually in the budget for Tlicho region alone. If Tlicho region alone was identified, there would be nothing. And we even had in there where Gameti...

Thank you. This is further to the Frank Channel bridge, Dehk'e. It says here the completion date is going to be 20262027. And now that we know that the contract was you know, the engineer contract was awarded that, you know, it's just been mentioned. So I just wanted to ask when is the actual work going to start for the construction of the Frank Channel bridge?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I see here North Arm. I know territory park accessible shower and electrification. I know this project has been ongoing for quite some time, and I know my colleague did ask too, do you have an estimated date of when this project will be completed? It says 20242025. I know it's not going to be this. But it's just that do we have a date and how much is it going to cost?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, many of these houses, just like she said, yes, they are over 50 years old. No social worker or nurses or teachers coming from the south would want to live in many of these condemned houses. And many of our people are living in those units, and nothing is being done. And there's a lot of boarded up houses in my community in my region as well. So that is why I'm pushing for all those units, if they can change the status from market rental to public housing unit because Tlicho government and other organizations are providing housing for many of their staff...

Mr. Speaker, thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a question for the housing, for housing. Mr. Speaker, I understand about the process, and they are the Ministers. They can direct. We know that nothing gets done without their input or their direction. So I want to ask the Minister, can the Minister of Housing NWT explain why her department doesn't have a policy supporting the sale of market rental units. I still have currently there are some constituents who are living in a market rental housing in my region, and they would like to become a homeowner, and they have been living in those units for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know that this one, it's phase 1 and phase 2, but phase 1 was an important part of this legislation. Phase 1 is the one that, you know, that included to work with the Indigenous government. And I still feel that this Minister missed the opportunity of working with the Indigenous government to modernize the Education Act. This was a step for us, for especially with the Indigenous government and this would have been a good start to the reconciliation. And they missed that. They missed that opportunity. And that is why a lot of Indigenous government, they...

Okay, I see here there's major retrofit, two units for public housing. There's two in Behchoko and one in Whati. And I said this morning too that, you know, in all the Northwest Territories, I know there's housing crisis and even in Behchoko alone, we have a housing crisis where I have there's a family there is a family, there's it's not just this family but there are other family, but this one has seven kids. Seven children, age ranging from 13 years old to one years old that are homeless in my community. And we have lots of housing that need retrofit too as well. There's some houses that...