Thank you, committee. We will now move onto the Department of Lands. The committee has previously considered the activity summaries for the department. We will return to the departmental summary on page 58. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? I see none. I will now call the departmental summary. Capital Estimates 2021-2022, Lands, $234,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Does the committee agree that consideration of the Department of Lands is completed?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now move onto the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. The committee has previously considered the activity summaries for the department. We will return to the departmental summary on page 61. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? I see none. I will now call the departmental summary. Capital Estimates 2021-2022, Municipal and Community Affairs, $29,000,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does the committee agree that consideration of the Municipal and Community Affairs is completed?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now move onto the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I will remind committee that the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is including in the capital estimates as an information item and the totals are not voteable. The committee has previously considered the activity summaries and will return to the corporation summary found at page 64. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? I see none. Does committee agree that consideration of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is complete?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does the committee agree that this concludes consideration of Tabled Document 181-19(2), Capital Estimates 2021-2022?
Agreed.
Mr. Norn.
Marsi cho, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 181-19(2), Capital Estimates 2021-2022, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 181-19(2), Capital Estimates 2021-2022, be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Marsi cho, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Norn. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those against? Abstentions? Motion carried.
---Carried
Tabled Document 181-19(2), Capital Estimates 2021-2022, will be reported as ready for consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Mr. Norn, what is the will of the committee?
Marsi, Mr. Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress. Marsi cho.
All those in favour? Against? Abstentions? Carried.
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress.
Madam Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 181-19(2), Capital Estimates 2021-2022, and would like to report progress with one motion carried and that consideration of Tabled Document 181-19(2), Capital Estimates 2021-2022, is concluded and that the House concur in those estimates and that an appropriation bill be based thereon, to be introduced without delay, and, Madam Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Do I have a seconder? Member for Kam Lake. To the motion. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Corrections Act, be read for the third time, and, Madam Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
The Member for Hay River North, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Kam Lake, the Member for Frame Lake, the Member for Deh Cho, the Member for Yellowknife North, the Member for Monfwi, the Member for Nahendeh, the Member for Sahtu, the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha, the Member for Nunakput, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, the Member for Yellowknife South, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you. All those opposed, please stand. Abstentions, please stand. The results of the recorded vote: 17 in favour, zero opposed, zero abstentions. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 17 has had third reading. Bill 18, Minister of Justice.
Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act, be read for the third time, and, Madam Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
The Member for Hay River North, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Kam Lake, the Member for Frame Lake, the Member for Deh Cho, the Member for Yellowknife North, the Member for Monfwi, the Member for Nahendeh, the Member for Sahtu, the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha, the Member for Nunakput, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, the Member for Yellowknife South, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand. The results of the recorded vote: 17 in favour, zero opposed, zero abstentions. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 18 has had third reading. Third reading of bills. Bill 19, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the third time, and, Madam Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
The Member for Hay River North, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Kam Lake, the Member for Frame Lake, the Member for Deh Cho, the Member for Yellowknife North, the Member for Monfwi, the Member for Nahendeh, the Member for Sahtu, the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha, the Member for Nunakput, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, the Member for Yellowknife South, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you. All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand. The results of the recorded vote: 17 in favour, zero opposed, zero abstentions. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 19 has had third reading. Third reading of bills. Bill 21, Minister of Finance.
Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 21, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2020-2021, be read for the third time. Madam Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Monfwi.
Masi, Madam Speaker. [Translation] This supplementary, we had a long discussion yesterday. Some supported it; some did not. I want to say a few words on this topic. Yesterday, there was an election going on in the USA, so some of them may not have listened to our proceedings yesterday. Madam Speaker, when we are here in this House as MLAs, the people are the ones who voted us in, and we, in turn, say whatever they want us to say. It's not my own words; it's my people's words. Once I leave this building, we talk to people, and we get feedback from people; we talk to the people who we represent. Some days, it's really difficult, how many times I have mentioned this. We have a lot of alcohol and drug problems, homelessness in all our communities, and we have talked about this so many times. They are the ones who are giving us this information. They want us to bring it up to this session here, and I bring those forward for them.
Madam Speaker, recently, we have been losing a lot of young people. They are passing on. Even last week, from my region, we lost a young lady. Even though those things are happening in our communities, we still have to deal with all the issues that we have to deal with here. Now, we have this important motion in front of us. I'm having a difficult time to support this motion. I am talking on behalf of the people who are not able to say anything in this House. It seems like we're creating a situation. We've hired all these people with all this money, and when we think about the amount of money we're going to spend for this department and look at home, where we have all these problems, it's really difficult. We are representing the people who are supporting us. Some days, it's really difficult to listen to what's happening here. The amount of money that we're spending, and our people are suffering. Once I leave this building, I go to a coffee shop. I would see people staggering around, and some of them will be asking me for money for coffee or a sandwich. I ask them, "Where are you staying?" or, "Do you have a home?" They have no idea that we're meeting here, so a lot of times they are having difficulties. They have nowhere to go, and they say that, "I have no one to help me, so I'm on the street." I am numbing myself in this way. How many times have I come across people like that?
Madam Speaker, we have this bill in front of us. We had a long discussion yesterday. We did talk about this, and maybe a lot of people didn't hear what we had to say yesterday. [End of translation] [Microphone turned off] ...some of the things I said in my Tlicho language. I'm just going to summarize some of them. I simply cannot support this supplementary as it is. As you know, we had a deliberation last night, late into the night, on one specific item: the secretariat budget of $8.277 million of new funding, new funding for employees of the secretariat. I have no other issues with the supplementary. On the other supplementary items and such, I have no issues, but it is very unfortunate that they're all lumped together. It's all bundled in one package. It should have been a separate item. This is a very controversial issue, but if the government of the day want us to approve one package, then that's what it is.
Madam Speaker, I've been talking about this for the last couple of weeks now. We need to invest into our communities. What is it that our communities need? I did speak in my language about the homeless people out there, homeless people who cannot speak in this House. That's why we're their voice here. I was elected to represent my people. It's not my voice. Once I walk out of here, I usually run into my constituents or other people from the North, and they question, "What are you guys doing? Why are you guys spending so many millions on this so-called secretariat?" They may not use the word "secretariat," some of them, because they're having a hard time speaking English, but in the Tlicho language there is another form. They do not like the bureaucracy.
Madam Speaker, I would just like to reiterate that, due to the US election that was happening at the same time last night, throughout the night, we'd been deliberating this supplementary, a lot of people may have probably missed our broadcast here. I feel that it's very important that they know where we stand on this particular subject matter, on the supplementary, so I just want to reiterate what I said yesterday, just a couple of paragraphs.
Just think of the $87 million over the next four years, what that could do for the people of the Northwest Territories. It could build 300 homes for the homeless who I referred to earlier. There are overcrowded Northerners throughout the Northwest Territories, especially in the most isolated communities. Some households have 15 to 20 people living in one- or two-bedroom houses. That's a real fact. It could construct three new addiction treatment centres plus six badly needed community health centres across the North. It is equal 100 classroom teachers employed over the next five years. It also amounts to cash value for those 3,000-plus struggling northern businesses to a tune of $29,000 per company. Just imagine the economic boost of that. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
Like I said yesterday, as well, I could go on and on and on, but we don't have much time this evening to deal with this. I'm just going to wrap things up by saying that we are losing lives out there. I've touched on this, as well, in my language. Almost on a daily basis, a weekly basis, especially in my region. The past couple of weekends, we lost two young individuals back to back. That was very sad. That was very hard. It's very difficult to be standing here to speak to that. It's very emotional. We need to turn our focus to those in need throughout the Northwest Territories, not create another form of bureaucracy within GNWT. Let's start making a difference for our Northerners. We have lost far too many people, our people of the North. Let's not lose any more, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, in conclusion, for that reason alone, I cannot and will not support the current supplementary that is before us as presented, especially on the category of the COVID secretariat. Masi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Deh Cho.
