Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the grads in the Sahtu this morning. I am quite excited about this grad class as they started their education in grade 9, 2019, when we all got elected. They have too seen us through the pandemic. They have too seen us through the floods and the fires. They continued their education as well. I am proud to say that in the Sahtu, we've got 26 grads this year, and I'd like to name them off and congratulate:
For Norman Wells Cameron Barney, Reece Harley, Briseis Kenny, Izac McKay, Summer Rose, Sommer Wiley, Airiyanna Kakfwi, Danielle Kochon.
And for Colville Lake Jaylene Kochon, Adriana Stewart.
And for Deline Madison Baton Beyonnie, Yehdza MacKeinzo, Tayla Tutcho, Nikki Tutcho, Darrian Tutcho, Isaiah Kelly, Corbin Takazo, Presley Tetso.
And for Fort Good Hope Gwyneth Amos, Joy Kakfwi, Marcus Proctor, Marilyn McNeely, Mason Laffery, Tessa Grandjambe.
In Fort Tulita Mason MacCauleyBayha, and Makhla Antoine.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank the former leadership in my riding and also the teachers who continue to provide opportunity in the Sahtu for the students to become successful. I would also like to highlight the achievements of my riding of Steve Kakfwi and Ethel Blondin who, through their legacy, inspired the Sahtu and the students to become high achievers.
Mr. Speaker, I don't have a story of how I got here to the North. I've been here all my life, and I'm with all of you here today and we continue that legacy in this House. We continue to inspire students coming forward. We inspire them together with their dreams, their ambitions, and their hearts, and soon they will be filling our seats here at the Legislative Assembly. Congratulations to the class of 2023. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's not too many times I get to stand up and welcome people in the Assembly. But I'd like to welcome Manitoulin vicepresident of operations, Mr. Kevin Ramsay, into the House today. And welcome, Kevin, and thank you for all the work that he is doing and all the donations that he does in the Beaufort Delta for all communities. And it doesn't go unnoticed. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Quyananni. I'd like to recognize our interpreters from Inuvik, from the Inuvialuit interpreters, Lillian Elias and Valerie Steffanson. Quyananni for all the hard work that they do for us. And, you know, I often enjoy tuning into the channel and listening and just learning some of the words again. So I really appreciate that. Quyananni, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this whole session I've had two very hardworking pages from Yellowknife South, Mesha Leonce and Morgyn Martiniuk. I was hoping to catch a day when I knew they were both in the room, but I don't know I quite caught that. They're in the building, they've been doing this all week, and thank you very much for their hard work.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife South. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the interpreters as well too who have been with me since 2019. I appreciate their work, I appreciate their broadcasting and interpreting with our proceedings here in the North Slavey language, Ms. Sarah Cleary and Ms. Theresa Etchinelle. Your work is very much appreciated. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Sahtu. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Monfwi.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to acknowledge two Tlicho citizens attending school in Yellowknife, Mika Mckenzie and Emily Bishop. I would also like to acknowledge and thank all the interpreters for a job well done, and especially to Tlicho interpreters Jonas Lafferty and Mary Rose Sundberg. And now I see Lena Drygeese. So I would like to say thank you to all of them. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize a page from Hay River North who has been with us this week, Mr. Nicolas Graham. Right now he's a page, and you might see him sitting around the room but I'm confident that one day he will be sitting in one of our seats. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to thank all the translators, Jonas Lafferty, Lena Drygeese, Tom Unka, Mark Casaway. Also my CA, Shirley Tsetta. Also, I'd like to recognize and say thank you to all the clerks and the staff and the pages, and especially the cooks that were providing meals. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to thank the interpreters, but I also want to apologize to them. I know that I am one of the ones that's all a repeat offender for speaking too quickly in the House, and I know they all bear with me and I appreciate it. I also want to thank the staff and advisors for our work; it's been a tough one scheduling the Regular Members with all of our interests and wants and they work really hard. And as well the pages, because they're always fun to have and I haven't looked once to see my water glass at a low state. And of course my constituency assistant Maggie who is always teaching me and I am learning from. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for those persons that made application for the Evacuee Income Distribution Support Program, can the Minister of Finance confirm if there is a telephone number, as of yet, that applicants can call to follow up on the status of their application? Or if not, is there another option for evacuees to confirm the status of those applications and payment? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I can now confirm that indeed there is a phone number. The contact number is now noted online. The application form is actively being updated as I'd indicated it would be yesterday. The message has gone out to the MLAs of the ridings, or will this morning, with that information.
As I said yesterday, this is a role that public servants weren't occupying just a couple of weeks ago so, you know, I appreciate some patience from folks, but those numbers are there now directly so that people can contact. They'll be going to the manager of financial operations to help work through any details. But the form, you know, again, that's your first stop is the web page with the form and that will have all that information available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, with the roll out of any type of funds, there's always a cutoff date and I just want to make sure that, you know, that any evacuees do not miss that cutoff date because there was some confusion as who may or may not be able to actually apply. So I'd ask the Minister is there a cutoff date for making applications under the Evacuee Income Distribution Support Program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This program does have a start and end date to it. Applications are, again, for anyone who is under an order of seven days or more. Anyone that was under that order and had income disruption should be looking at the form and considering making the application. The end date for accepting those applications is 30 days after the evacuation order was issued. There's not a lot of paperwork involved. There's not a lot of supporting documents involved. That was done intentionally so that folks can get this done as a fairly quick process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I'd like to say thank you to the United Way for all they've done throughout this event, you know, and the support they provided to KFN and Hay River residents. So, Mr. Speaker, the United Way now, I understand, is responsible of disbursing funds raised for evacuees of KFN and Hay River.
Can the Minister confirm how this will be achieved and will the Minister commit to provide a staff person to temporarily assist the United Way, if need be, because I understand, you know, they kind of run on limited staff and volunteers. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there's a lot of good news for United Way today. Obviously, the announcement has gone out from the federal government that they'll be watching donations. We're likely looking at over a million dollars going into the United Way all in the space of less than a month. That is fantastic news. So folks are aware. The United Way works with communities, community governments, local organizations, nonprofit organizations, and then disburses funds to them. So two parts to my message is, number one, if you have a cost and expense and need a concern, that you need some supports with, to reach out to your local organizations because they can work with the United Way to access those funds. But then, Mr. Speaker, since almost the beginning of when the GNWT matched donations, we realized that that's a large influx of money going in. We immediately started to look at what we could do to help support the United Way. They do have some parttime staff I understand, but this is a lot of money and it's coming very quickly. So we are my understanding is that we have now been in touch with their staff, been in touch with their board. Their board chair is on the way back from being out of town, and we'll be working with them to ensure that whatever capacity they need, so letting them be the ones, the drivers of deciding what they need, but that we will be able to support them, whether that's with some staffing or some other mechanism to help them get the money out the door. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a lot of work has been done on this, but the question is has any money been disbursed yet and, if not, when will it be disbursed? Because people are still calling, they're still waiting and, you know, hopefully within these next few days we'll hear some good news that or I'll hear some good news that somebody actually got something. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you might recall yesterday I think there were approximately 80 applications already in, and I can confirm that Department of Finance staff have been in direct contact with a number of those individuals to there was some I mean, the form is quite short but I gather there was some information still missing. So that first crop is going to be processed with either cheques or direct deposits to be issued by next week. And, again, you know, with the exchanges here hopefully more folks will be applying, and then those cheques again cheques or direct deposit, with that information now being on the form, we'll hopefully be able to issue even more quickly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Housing NT explain what the housing stability worker position is and tell us whether the pilot project in Behchoko was successful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you so much to the Member for addressing this issue here. The housing stability worker in Behchoko is very successful. It was actually introduced in the last government and also created by the Premier at that time who held the housing portfolio. We did address the housing evictions, we did address housing needs, wraparound services that may have been required. Since then, housing has created and worked with the Tlicho. We do have a housing working group right now. The decision of that working group is that the Tlicho had wanted to take the position. So we are now working side by side with the Tlicho and looking at how this position will be tailored and we look into the future as to filling of this position in the region. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for that, Minister. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if there's any plans to expand the housing stability worker into other communities and regions beyond Behchoko. As in my Member's statement, you know, this is something that's happening in a lot of our especially in our regional centres, and I'm sure it's happening here in Yellowknife too, so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question, that this is one of the areas that I did highlight, homelessness and housing supports is crucially needed. Throughout the Northwest Territories, we have a variety of different situations that we need to address. Along with mortgages as well, we have units that we need to be transferring. For me, those were the two major highlights while working within this portfolio. I would like to see these positions in every region, to be honest, Mr. Speaker. It is quite needed. It is very much needed. We need to address housing in a different innovative collaborative way, and this is a key on how we should be doing things differently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, talking about this pilot project, it was a pilot project so it was scheduled for two years. The funding, I guess, was for two years. So is there still funding for this position for Tlicho and it's not been filled, or is there something that has to come back? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. The funding was a government position but we did end up providing a community initiative project approach with the Tlicho housing working group. That is how the position is funded right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you for that, Mr. Speaker. You know, when we come in here we try to give our Ministers a little bit of an opportunity to come with the answers but sometimes our as we get our answers, things change. So I guess my last question to this Minister would be would this Minister commit to working with the Indigenous groups in Inuvik to try and create this position there to deal with some of the issues that are going on in housing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I'm very passionate about this portfolio, and I'm quite excited but, you know, I just want to let the Member know is that I would like to see if there's any vacant positions that are not filled within housing and create a position that would soon be able to work side by side with the new housing position that we are creating that is addressing homelessness. I would like to be innovative.
I would like to see things change and address the issue in the Beaufort Delta differently. So I would like to follow up with the Member as well. We do have continuous conversations with the Indigenous governments but I would like to see what we do have available. If this position is able to be fulfilled on a term position, absolutely I would like to I would like to support that and follow up with the Member as well too. We do have a new position supposed to be housed in the northern part of the territory, housed in Inuvik, and if we can get a position to work side by side to address homelessness in the Member's riding, absolutely, I'll bring this back to my department and look for a vacant position to fill that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Calm down. Calm down. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my first questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Earlier this week I delivered a Member's statement about child care struggles in the Northwest Territories. It's one of the top things that I'm hearing about right now from the people that I serve. I also tabled a document that day by the C.D. Howe that outlined potential solutions. One such solution pointed to shared equity mortgage program to increase child care space infrastructure. Is the GNWT or ECE willing to explore creative solutions like this to increase infrastructure specifically for child care spaces in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, of course we're willing to explore innovative solutions. I have not had a chance to look at the report the Member tabled. It seems like every week there is a report coming out on child care and I do get to them as they come out, but I haven't got to this one yet so I'll have a look at it and go from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. Mr. Speaker, the other thing that is currently on the go right now with ECE in regards to child care is determining a wage grid for child care workers. I'm wondering what standards are being used to determine the child care wage grid and will the standards be based on minimum wage, living wage, salaries currently paid to similarly educated ELCC providers based in schools; where is the starting point for this conversation? Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I believe just last week is when the department really went out and started working with child care providers to get a better understanding of the financial situation. Based on the feedback, the wage grid will be based on geographic location, current wages, roles, responsibilities, experience, postsecondary education, other education, and Indigenous knowledge. And as we develop it, there may be more factors to be taken into account. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, child care providers are concerned that given the GNWT cap adjustment in annual revenues that's in place and will also be and also sorry, that they're implementing these wage grids that they will not be able to meet the funding shortfalls that they might see, especially given the rising costs that we're seeing, whether it's through insurance, electricity, food costs. This has been highlighted multiple times in this House over the course of the implementation of the new child care subsidy structures. So how will ECE ensure that funding shortfalls do not close day cares in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So what the Member is talking about is an unacceptable situation where the, you know, implementation of a move towards universal child care will actually cause, you know, a collapse of the sector. So that is the primary thing that we don't want to happen and so we are working diligently to ensure that that doesn't happen. As part of the development of a new wage grid, we are also working on a new overall funding model. So as we work with centres, as we understand their revenues, their costs, their needs, we can put into place something that will ensure that the revenue they receive is more that allows them to be sustainable; it's more predictable. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
