Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that a person with a disability may receive extra funding to pay for things related to the disability; however, I am concerned still around the reporting requirements oh, okay. I thought sorry about that. Those with disability. Is the government looking to make this less burdensome on residents? I know they ask for utility bills, rent, disability assessment form, disability benefit from the federal government, notice of assessment from previous tax year; how often is all of this required? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is not the first time I have spoken in this House about the administrative burden with income support program. The government creates such an onerous process for residents that it becomes challenging to access resources.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about people who are unable to work because of a disability.

Mr. Speaker, we have many people across the NWT that receive disability benefits but also access programs and services through income support. Mr. Speaker, there should be a more streamlined way for these individuals to access benefits...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yes, what I would like to see in this is that more consultation with the Indigenous government as well. Not only with the public government but with the Indigenous government, especially those with the Aboriginal selfgovernment that they have in place. So I would like to see more of that in this because this is important, especially with to lands and resources. So I know that this is important for the people who settled their land claims already. And it's just that I would like to see this the codrafting be done with the Indigenous government, not just...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know I'm grateful, thankful that, you know, Indigenous government were involved in drafting this Bill 74 to its current form. And it's good to see two sides of government working together, the GNWT and the Indigenous government technical working group developing this draft.

I know this is very this is important for the Indigenous people, especially people living in the area that deals with the lands and resources. So I know that it's respecting the rights of the people living in the area, especially Tlicho and other Indigenous people in the NWT therefore...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to hear that. Good positive change.

Will the Minister commit to review the income support policy to reduce administrative burden for elders and people with disabilities? And then he touched base on some of them already too. So that's good.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge today our grand chief, our Tlicho Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty, to the House, to the Legislative Assembly. I would like to welcome him. Thank you.

Yeah, another one too is that so who will be supplying all the materials for the constructions? Like, from the steel to the gravel and all that, you know, to build the to build the bridge? Like, I just wanted to know, because it should will it be supplied by the Indigenous government?

Okay, thank you. I know this year was we had some people staying in North Arm Park area this year. And same thing like what my colleague said regarding the washroom, because I did hear quite a few complaints from the local as well because people are using that area, and the outhouse is in terrible condition. And there was a lot of complaint. And I did send an email to the Minister on that that if there is a contractor, whoever's looking after it should be going out there. And we do we're aware of the fire ban and all those things, but that place was very popular this year. And, you know, to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we lived here forever and we survived, you know. And it is not right the government determining or making you know, going directly and saying people are making a decision of who can and cannot afford the housing. So I just want to ask the Minister would the Minister consider giving existing public units to the people who live in them and use the money and use the money that's saved to build more houses in small communities. We do need more houses in small communities. We have people that are on the waitlist. I have families. There's five families that...

Mr. Speaker, in small communities for many years, you know, there's people do not want to build because there's no market. So that's why housing was the only landlord in many of the small communities. So now many of these people we know what happened when a person who is not on the lease, when the elderly parents pass on, we had a lot of those because of those policy that was in place, many of these people became homeless and some are on the street here, and some have passed on being homeless because of the policy that's in place. So, yes, I understand about that now that she mentioned why...