Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I cannot confirm at this time that those were completed, Mr. Speaker. I can follow up and provide the information to the Member as soon as I know that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you for the information. Mr. Speaker, in the 20232024 Capital Estimates, CIRNAC is funding five new units public units and retrofitting four public units in Behchoko. Can the Minister provide any updates on the status of those projects?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The status of the projects are ten new public housing units are now under construction in the Tlicho communities, all awarded to Tlicho businesses, including six new public housing units in Behchoko. Four of these are on track for completion this spring and two others will be completed this summer. Two new public housing units in Gameti to be completed this spring. Two new public housing units in Whati to be completed by this summer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
I hope it's going to be completed in Gameti because of that all depends on the ice road.
So, Mr. Speaker, when looking at Housing NWT capital planning documents over the last five years, there have been no plans to put new units or renovate units in Wekweeti. Will the Minister commit to putting a new unit into Wekweeti? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Housing NWT allocates units based on waiting lists and need, and at this time we have to look at all units across the North and need across the North. So I can't commit at this time. But I could follow up with the Member and discuss the capital plan for the Tlicho region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to follow up on my Member's statement today, and I want to begin by saying when I was first elected to city council back in the 2000, the fall of 2000 that is, I was given a book. It was called Dogs, Ditches and Dumps, and what it did is kind of describe the mandate of a city councillor and the jobs you need to do. So since that time, I've elected to become an MLA and I've noticed that the council mandate is not in congress anymore with what it was really intended. In other words, they're picking up programs that really rightly should go on to the GNWT such as the health and social services programs that they shouldn't be doing. Morally doing it, but they shouldn't be doing it.
Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister of Health and Social Services is, is she aware of the women's centre outreach street outreach program, and if so, what is she aware of what it does? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Two questions. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm aware in Yellowknife that there are many programs outreach programs. I mean, there's the shelters. You know, I mean, health and social services is actually operating the homeless shelter and the day shelter or the, sorry, the overnight shelter and the day shelter in Yellowknife. We do fund a lot of different programs within the city. The one that the Member is speaking specifically about, you know, I don't have that information offhand right now but I can look into what the actual program is and get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, the program that sorry, my apologies. The pilot program, I believe has been running for about seven years, and she was a member of the social development committee so I'm sure she's familiar with the types of issues.
Would the Minister be willing to meet with city council before the end of this fiscal year to discuss funding and supporting the program through health and social services through some type of contribution agreement to the city of Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I am willing to do is I'm willing to meet with the city of Yellowknife. I already have received an invite to meet request to meet with them on some of the programs that they have and discussions. Becoming a new Minister, there's a you know, there was a lot of things going and then session. So my office is aware, and we are we don't have a scheduled date yet, but I'm hoping that it will be before the end of this fiscal year. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe this program serves many in our community that are vulnerable. It's a no judgement program. Whether they're there because they choose to be there or their demons get them there, whatever it is, it's a good program, rather than leaving them on the street.
Mr. Speaker, my last question or my previous question wasn't about just the city of Yellowknife. Does the Minister sorry, in the Minister's ability as Minister I mean, she certainly would be welcomed to fund the Yellowknife Women's Society directly and set aside. So would the Minister make sure that any discussion with the city does involve full partnership with the women's society? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned I would be meeting with them and I would be, you know, hearing what the what are the concerns and what are the programs that they are providing and how these programs are being funded. A lot of the funding within health and social services is third party funding. And so when we get funding for certain things in the community and throughout the territory, some of those funding sunset. I can't say it's specifically to any of the funding that's going specifically to the women's you know, for the program that he's the Member's identified, but, you know, if the city of Yellowknife wants to bring that to the table and the Yellowknife Women's Society wants to talk about programs, I am willing to talk to, you know, any member or any community, any NGO, that has programs that are currently or if there's programs that they you know, that there's funding or where we could work with them with funding. Thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, to be clear and on the record, does the Department of Health and Social Services support the street outreach program and if so, would they make sure that that's absolutely committed today rather than leaving people vulnerable on the streets? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, you know, I'm not going to be committing anything on the floor of this House today without any information and a time to speak with the different NGOs and so therefore I've committed to meeting and speaking with the NGO and the city, and I'll leave it at that, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my friend, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, was too modest. I think his hardworking staff is actually overworked staff. So I'd like to ask the Premier, in his responsibility as Minister of Justice, how the government is supporting the access to information regime in the Northwest Territories considering the high demand from the public and the low rate of responsiveness from the government as an entire entity? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the access privacy office has seen an increase in requests and an increase in the complexity of those requests. I'm not sure if there's a huge public demand. It's a relatively small group of people that are being served by that office. There's companies, there's lawyers, there's individuals who are requesting documents that, you know, end up being tens of thousands or thousands of pages. Every single one of those pages has to be found, discovered by someone in say, for example, MACA, who has two people working fulltime to fill these requests for a very very very small segment of the territory. They then have to go to the access and privacy office, and they go through line by line, sometimes tens of thousands of pages, so it is a lot of work. The office has the access and privacy office has seen some vacancies. Those are in the process of being filled, in some cases double filled. And hopefully this month I'm expecting that this month that office will be back to full strength. Thank you.
Thank you. Does the Premier believe that filling those vacancies will correct the issue, and we'll see the rates of timeliness improve? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm confident that the timeliness will improve. I'm not sure if the issue at large will be corrected. Across Canada, governments are struggling to fulfill these ATIP requests. Because of the parameters around them, they're very labour intensive. They take a lot of resources. And I recall conversations back in the 18th Assembly when this legislation was being considered, and we really shot for the moon. I was on the standing committee with the Member from Range Lake that is back then it was Kam Lake and, you know, we did push for these tight timelines and we got them. And now I'm in the position of having to fulfill them and realizing that they're just they're not feasible. So we are going to conduct a review of the ATIP Act and review those timelines because we want to live up to our obligations but we can't set goals for ourselves that are just not achievable with the resources that we have. So we could you know, we could make cuts in other areas and throw a bunch of resources at fulfilling these requests in a more timely fashion, but I think we really need to look at where our priorities are and weigh those against things like this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the Minister and I have been able to coordinate to work successfully on this in the past. I'd like to work with him again. When will this review be completed as access to information, the public's right to know, is a fundamental priority of any public government. So when will this new review be completed and we could consider it? Thank you.
Thank you. There is a statutory requirement in the act to conclude the review within 18 months of the start of the 20th Assembly. So it must be done before the summer of 2025. Hopefully sooner, but that remains to be seen depending on what the priorities of this Assembly wind up being. Thank you.
Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister it sounds like no additional resources are coming, so is the Minister contemplating a bill that can correct some of these timelines so we can ensure we're meeting them and we're not putting additional pressures on our staff that are just ensuring that the system fails? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there needs to be some relief for the staff and this process needs to be one that is doable and achievable. And so based on that review, we'll make a decision about which direction we go. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that setting some more reasonable timelines is on the table. So we'll be looking at everything, including the timelines. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This question is actually for the Minister of Housing, Housing NWT.
Continuing on though on the theme of renewable energy, I understand that last year Housing NWT completed its Energy Management Strategy 2030, which included objectives about more energy efficiency and introducing more renewable energy such as biomass. So my question is, has funding already been identified that would allow Housing NWT to meet those objectives that it set in its strategy, or what's the plan to ensure that the implementation is fully funded? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. Housing NWT adopted its energy strategy in 2023. Housing has accessed multiyear federal funding to support work identified in this strategy, including approximately $4 million in the 20242025 Capital Plan. Housing has partnered with GNWT departments on funding for feasibility studies for potential district heating opportunities and renewable fuel sources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Member from Yellowknife North. Oral questions.
Pursuant to section 21 of the Human Rights Act, I wish to table the Northwest Territories Human Rights Commissions Annual Report 20222023.
Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table an excerpt from the Government of Nunavut's Public Service Annual Report 20212022, specifically highlighted the pages are around direct appointments and its reporting info brackets. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Tabling of documents. Notices of motion. Motions. Notices of motion for the first reading of bills. First reading of bills. Second reading of bills.
Call to order. What is the wish of the committee? Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the chair rise and report progress.
Thank you. There is a motion on the floor to report progress. This motion is in order and nondebatable. All those in favour of the motion? Motion carried. All those opposed? Motion carried. The motion is carried.
Carried
I will now rise and report progress.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Minister's Statement 420(1), Minister's Statement 520(1), Tabled Document 1320(1) and would like to report. And, Mr. Speaker, I move the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Do I have a seconder? Member from Inuvik Twin Lakes. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? Motion passed. Reports in the Committee of the Whole.
Carried
