Kate Reid

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Infrastructure.

Very similarly to the Minister of Health and Social Services just earlier, will the Minister please work with her colleague at ECE to make sure that folks with expiring work visas can have an extension on their driver's licenses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Speaker, expiry dates of health care cards for temporary foreign workers are tied to their work visa expiry dates. So if a work permit expires, so does a health care card. So how many compassionate extensions of health care cards have been provided since the pause to the nominee program in July of 2024? I realize this is quite a lot of detail, but maybe the Minister could speak to it broadly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know they're getting a lot of calls. They're not returning all those calls. But I am worried that more people will find themselves in limbo waiting on work visa renewals and paperwork headaches that are associated with territorial services, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister speak to what work she is conducting with her Cabinet colleagues and federal counterparts to ensure that folks who are classified as implied status are allowed to extend their health care coverage or driver's licenses, for example. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to help people who want to make NWT their home. And who can blame them? It's one of the best places on earth as far as I can tell.

Since 2009, our nominee program has supported over 1100 foreign nationals and over 660 of their dependants in accessing permanent residence from the federal government. Since its inception, over 200 different NWT employers have accessed the nominee program to assist them in filling their workforce needs in every region of our territory.

Mr. Speaker, our territory has a tremendous amount of hard-to-fill roles. From a purely...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that. So maybe my request to the Minister could be to sort of get a fulsome picture of what the security breakdown looks like for units both owned and leased in Yellowknife. Thank you, Madam Chair.

And I guess I have one final question sort of for this section while I still have time on the clock which is it's much more of a larger territorial scope question, but could Housing NWT advise as to how many new units they anticipate to enter their stock by the end of the Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So one thing in that list of items from fiscal restraint that caught my ear just now was a reduction in translator training. Could the Minister please explain why that was a choice that was made? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And just one final question. In both -- in the main estimates on page 59, both culture and heritage and Indigenous language secretariat, both have seen a reduction since the 2023-2024 actuals, and I was just wondering if we could get an explanation or substantiation of that. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for that clarity. And thank you, Madam Chair. On page -- sorry, there's two page numbers on this, 36 or 38, I apologize. But it's in our business plan policy initiatives, speaking to Indigenous language service standards. I realize those standards, I believe, have been released recently, which is fantastic news. But I am curious what monitoring and evaluation plan for review of that rollout, what benchmarks the standards are meant to reach. Is there an available documentation of any monitoring or evaluation that might be occurring for these service standards? Thank you, Madam...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions for this section. In business plan, page 28 for the Minister, it speaks to ECE's desire to include heritage resources in emergency planning. So I note that ECE has updated its business continuity plan. But could the Minister explain if this is just for GNWT assets, or is the department working to support other cultural organizations that it provides financial assistance to? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, specifically, I'm interested in the action under access to health care, continue to promote this program as a tool to attract internationally trained health and social service professionals to the NWT.

Madam Chair, will the Minister have anything to pivot to that she is aware of to help us seek out those health professionals in any federal discussions she's had so far? Thank you, Madam Chair.