Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the government's housing policies are not working for Indigenous people. There are too many barriers in place for Indigenous people to succeed in being a homeowner. These policies are working against our people, not for them.

Madam Speaker, the territorial government receives funds from the federal government to provide housing for Indigenous people however more of our people are homeless. Housing NWT has a homelessness specialist to fix the problem, but the solution is simple: Give public housing houses to current tenants to be homeowners and build more...

For emergency repair, that is another important one too, where there's lots of issues especially for the private homeowners. So that one too also increased, and I just wanted to ask for 20232024 I know it's for 20232024 and I know that they are collecting or they're I know people are applying for the new fiscal year because they're saying that for this program there's no more funds. So when can people start receiving some repair done to their place? Do they have to wait until April 1st, or can they receive funds or help for the emergency repair to their units before April 1st?

Okay, thank you. Well, that's good. I think then we know that, you know, we'll get program will be operating effectively and efficiently and especially for the people and for the elders, you know, that require interpreters and all that.

So seniors aging in place retrofit and repairs, okay, it increases. It increased this year to 20232024, it increased. So I just wanted to ask for the income threshold, what is the income threshold? Is it the same in all the regions or is it different, like from Tuk to Behchoko?

Okay, I just said that it's not just Tlicho communities. There's four Tlicho communities. There's Dettah, N'dilo. There Lutselk'e. There's Fort Resolution and Yellowknife headquarters I mean, North Slave. You know, Yellowknife is for us, it's headquarters. So I'm just how many of this position is allocated in the outlying communities?

Okay. So that North Slave district office here, it says there's you recognize North Slave district office for the active position. And, I mean, for North Slave district, but you recognize Tlicho but there's nothing allocated there. So I ask why is that?

I was just wondering because if that includes the LHO office?

Thank you. I know that within our LHO, they are understaffed in Behchoko, Whati, and Gameti, and there's nothing in Wekweeti. There's no LHO office there. So I know that they are understaffed and they are overworked and, as a result, many of these units are sitting empty. Some of them have been sitting empty for over ten years. And I can tell you there's a house that has been sitting, that's vacant since 2009. To date, it's still sitting vacant. In 2009, it was in good operation. And what the Minister's office should have done was gave that unit to the family member that are living in the area...

Yes, I know there are people that I have been talking to, they want they're waiting. And I sent in numerous emails to the Minister to get in contact with these people. And there's a lot of people that are I know people have different perspectives. Some people in favour. Some people are not in favour. That's up to them. But there are a lot of people that are interested. They want to become a homeowner. And they're waiting patiently. They're waiting from the executive office where all the decisions are being made. So I just wanted to ask the Minister will this be completed within this fiscal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Frank Channel Bridge Replacement. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister responsible for Infrastructure. The Frank Channel Bridge is a critical piece of infrastructure for the Northwest Territories, providing access to the Tlicho communities, Yellowknife, and the mines in the Slave Geological Province region.

I have four questions:

Can the Minister provide a detailed breakdown of the additional costs identified for the Frank Channel Bridge Replacement Project?

Can the Minister provide a detailed breakdown of funding already committed or budgeted by the Government of...

Yeah, no, well this will really free up a lot of housing for the Housing to build more houses in small communities. And I can't believe it that we do have a homeless specialist in our own territory where there's 50 percent of the population are Indigenous and most of the people that are living in those units are Indigenous people. You know, and it is I find it offensive because in our like, we never really had any issues with this in the past. And this goes back to colonization. From the beginning, we've been asked we've been told how to live, what to do, all those things. There's a lot of...