Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to talk about the reality for our people in small communities; and I represent majority of Tlicho people from four communities.

Yesterday we talked about which colonial government to trust, the federal or territorial government. As an Indigenous person, we have trust issues because we know what the colonial government did to our people. Through the colonization, they tried to assimilate us. In the process, they ruined our life and we are still feeling the impact of it. Not only that, pushing us aside while they exploit our land.

Mr. Speaker, we are...

Madam Chair, this is good because I've always been, you know, bringing up arrears. And I do support the forgiveness of arrears for residential school and other people as well. But in my riding there are some probably not just in my riding, it's probably all over in the Northwest Territories with the mortgage as well. There are some residential school survivor who are in their 70s, they still have mortgage payment from the NWT Housing mortgage program. Some of them were refinanced. And their pension, they're paying their mortgage through their pension and it's being garnished. And their...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I think this is really good. It's good for our young people, especially some young people who, you know, are into high performance sports. And I know there are some youth that go to Yellowknife and some of these parents, they need funding to transport to go to Yellowknife. It costs money to come to Yellowknife and wait for your child while the child plays sports. And it's not just that only, but hockey equipment, you know. I know quite a few years ago, there was lots of hockey players and now we don't have as many, and I know that hockey equipment they are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do support this motion because we do have a lot of if you go to our warming shelter, you will see some of the family members who lost their house after parents passed because their name is not on the lease. And that policy created a lot of homelessness in many of the small communities in the Northwest Territories. And we didn't hear about it not just in our riding but in other other community as well because parents are aging, and these are their forever home, and even you know, like I did a Member's statement on it yesterday as well, because when these...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I like this motion too as well. It's a good motion. It's going to help men help each other, helping each other. It's not just men but there's other young men too as well who needs help and support, you know. So but the studies show that it's the girls and women that suffer the most. But I have heard we have heard many times from others as well that men do need help as well. We got to focus on men so that way if they get the help that they need, then, you know, their relationship with their loved ones might improve, which is true, you know. So I...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, if we have more housing in small communities, there would not be any homeless issue. And if housing policy it's a housing policy that created a lot of homelessness too as well. You know, there's, like if you go to our warming shelter in Behchoko, all many of those people are there because of the housing policy. So it's the housing policy if housing policy was fixed, you know, we wouldn't have this issue. But if we all we need is more housing. And another one too is that for young people, okay. There's no support for young people who are between...

Yes. Madam Chair, my comment has not changed from a couple weeks ago. I was born and raised here. We have seen and still continue to see the struggles our people are going through every day especially in small communities. And I said before that this is not about us. This is about the people we serve in our region. And as an MLA, we are a public servant. And we are here to serve, you know, the public in the NWT. And that whatever the public is getting under the UNW collective agreement, that's what we should be getting as well. So for this, I stand with my colleague Rocky Simpson on this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do have issues with this as well too because we've been advocating we've been talking here in the House since I got on, about housing. We have housing crisis in small communities. We need a lot of housing. And improving the health care system in the small communities. We have a lot of aging infrastructure as well, especially in Tlicho region. And I advocated, and my previous MLA too, advocated for a new school in Tlicho region, and we have issues with youth suicide. So with all this, I don't think I'm going to support this bill as well myself. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm if housing NWT is afraid to let go of or sell any of its assets, such as its aging housing stock because the department is department is afraid to lose any operations and maintenance funding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the housing Minister consider transferring ownership of all housing units in the Tlicho region and other regions as well that are owned by housing NWT to the longterm tenants? Thank you.