Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one year ago, I asked the Government of the Northwest Territories to transfer child and youth care counsellors to the Tlicho government without restriction. I asked this because the child and youth care counsellors in the Tlicho region are not working but we know how important these positions are to our youth, which is why the Tlicho want to take ownership of these positions to make sure they are culturally appropriate.

We know in our region that families are stressed due to the housing crisis. This has an effect on their mental wellbeing. Our youth see and...

No. No, I think I just well, I'm more interested in the communitybased programs so I just I would like to see more of that in small communities, so. And if there's, you know, a plan on doing something about it, you know, that's good. Then I guess we will just wait and see what kind of plan they have in place. Yeah, thank you.

Well, one of the questions I was going to ask was the position increase for headquarter and three in North Slave, and that's all in Yellowknife. And I have four communities. There's Aurora College campus or office or building in Whati. They don't have their office they don't have a building of their own, but. So there's Whati and Behchoko but there's nothing in Gameti and Wekweeti. And there's, like, 4,000 of Tlicho or close to 4,000 people living Tlicho region. And we have a lot we have the highest unemployment rate in the NWT. And I'm very grateful for the recent announcement that Tlicho...

Thank you. Yeah, Mr. Speaker, Tlicho government want our children and youth to be counselled, mentored, and supported by Tlicho people. It is critical that children and youth receive the support from their own people.

Will the Minister of health agree with me that Tlicho children and youth should be counselled by Tlicho people? Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize our two young girls, pages, Gabrielle Nitsiza and Keira Franki of Whati. They're both attending Menzi Community School, and their chaperone, KerryAnne Franki, and Calvin and Suzie Franki. So I would like to welcome and acknowledge them. And I would like to acknowledge all the interpreters that are here from the regions. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, I would like to see something, you know, like, because I'm sure the people would like to see something because there's a lot of young people that don't want to leave their community. They don't want to because with a housing shortage, people don't want to leave, you know, because if they leave then they're going to lose their housing, especially with the public units and leaving their family, their language, their culture behind is it's hard on some people, some of the young people, so they would rather do a lot of the training. And if we had more of that in small...

No, I am not saying that remove this because we do need this in schools. In the early years in residential school, it had an impact on a lot of our people, you know, because a lot of them lost our language and way of life. And so I will not ask, you know, to get rid of this in school. But I'm just saying that in general, like, here Indigenous language and education secretariat, you know, some of these cultural and heritage, why not transfer some of those to the Indigenous governments so that they can run their program or, you know, like, that they see fit based on you know, according to their...

Yeah, thank you. Another one too is that, okay, Yellowknife, I know they have income counsellors because I heard about them. And I think we don't have any in Tlicho region, you know. So I just wanted to know why Tlicho region does not have income counsellors when we have a lot of people who are on income support that are unemployed? I think we need something similar to what Yellowknife, North Slave has, or headquarters, yeah, regarding employment counsellors.

Thank you, I'm glad you came prepared. So yes, well, thank you. Well still, you know, I mean we could do better. You know, like, I mean and it's good there's 1,650 applicants our applications received. But how many of those were successful or not successful but how many of those because I know that at the list minute a lot of those young people who applied, you know, if there's always a backup plan. So how many of those did actually left the North or actually went to postsecondary?

Yeah. No, no. As long as they're going to be having that discussion, that's okay, that's good, I'm happy. I hope we make some progress in this area because I strongly believe that, you know, Indigenous government running, operating some of these programming and services is good, you know, because they are our language is important to our people. So that's why I was just suggesting that. So thank you.