Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll accept the Minister's offer of that. That said, the next question is do we have any policies that restrict the use of cameras intended for security that do not record sound on any of our assets as a territorial government? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to get back to the Member as to whether there is a policy on cameras that restrict sound, if I understand that correctly. I suspect there probably is not such a specific policy, Mr. Speaker, and so if there's a particular issue that the Member's trying to get at here, I'd be happy to hear it. Thank you.
The reason I say sound is because if I understand it correctly, although I'm not a lawyer, but you're not allowed to record unsuspecting peoples' conversations, etcetera. So that's why I'm saying without the sound piece, just to be so I go back to the question, is the Minister aware of any video cameras providing security on any NWT assets? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If it's on any NWT asset, that is a fairly large number of assets, Mr. Speaker, and so I will want to ensure that I am providing an accurate response. I'll have to take that away and see if there are cameras on any asset across the portfolio of the Northwest Territories government. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
I'm pleased to narrow it down, Mr. Speaker. I'm more referring to office buildings. I'm sure airports have video cameras, etcetera. I'm more referring to office buildings and that similar type of nature where we have employees and daytoday clients. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that there are cameras that are in use for security purposes. Exactly, again, across the entire portfolio of assets and nature of each one, I'll want to just confirm so that we're always being accurate. And I do want to assure the Member there is work in place right now to ensure there's a policy for the use of any cameras, whether on current or future assets as it may be required. And we'll be happy to take the Member's suggestions to ensure that we have abiding by whatever rules or laws appropriate as they pertain to those cameras. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was feeling ignored. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services about medical travel policy. So I spoke of a terrible circumstance that happened to a constituent of mine when they were sent to Edmonton under emergent circumstances and were incapacitated and very much on death's door. And thankfully they've now recovered. Their spouse was denied on their claim to go down and provide care and support. So I'd like to know why do we have why is it okay for a spouse to travel on a scheduled trip but not during a medical emergency when end of life decisions may be required? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, generally, clients who are in the care of medical escorts are not provided with or sorry, with medical escorts are not provided with nonmedical escorts. So that would be in the instances if somebody is medevaced. Air ambulance and emergency services are excluded under the NWT medical travel Policy. But the department is aware that and does acknowledge that there is an emergency service policy that could include escort criteria. Again, as I've just obtained this department and I know we're going to go through a fulsome review of our medical travel and how we move people around, you know, we know that this is another gap in the area; however, when we are moving patients like, the escort policy, the nonmedical escort policy, does not pertain to when someone is medevaced unless that person is a minor and falls under the criteria that it is although there is exceptional circumstances under our medical travel policy that go to the department for an exception request. But the NIHB does this is the quirk that I found out, and so it causes an imbalance and inequity in how services are provided. NIHB beneficiaries may receive a nonmedical escort supported when this kind of situation happens, but those each are approved through the northern region office right through directly through NIHB. So that's separate from the Northwest Territories medical travel policy. And I know when we say medical travel policy, everybody thinks that's just one area. But even my 15 years, 18 years, even as an NIHB navigator, becoming the Minister and trying to get the fulsome picture of this has been piece by piece and so this was a new thing that I kind of realized today. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this is a mandate item as well, to fix this problem, but, I mean, we have when we hear stories of people who are being asked to zoom in to their loved one who is intubated at a hospital and make decisions for them because that's the option instead of flying them down, I don't know how that's compassionate. So will the Minister specifically review this set of circumstances where there are people who cannot advocate for themselves, who are in critical condition and require a spouse or someone who can speak with power of attorney or on their behalf to make those decisions, will she review the policy to make sure those people are covered by medical travel? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can review it, but we do have the exception policy. So the role of the health care practitioner is to make the assessment, provide the recommendation for an escort. That recommendation must be explicit to the reason for a request. A lot of times the request is care and compassion, and I get that you know, if I could give everybody a care and compassion escort, you know, I would not be liked by my colleagues very much. You know, because it's going to be like, the amount of people that are travelling in the Northwest Territories I think we provided a report, and I can find that report and send it off to Members. But I think we move about 40 to almost 50,000 people a year in medical travel and so if every one of those we were to give an escort to, you know, it starts to it adds up. And so but it's also the role of the physician who is making the recommendation to be specific on the needs of what that person is doing. Like the Member said, and I won't speak to individual cases, but they have to be very specific. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I'm not talking about every case, certainly not every all 50,000 people we move. We're talking about a narrow set of circumstances. When people are in critical care conditions, when they are incapacitated or sedated, they're not able to make decisions for themselves, they may be at end of life, can the Minister agree to review the policy around those individuals who require nonmedical escorts to be their advocates when they're in that situation; can she commit to that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have committed to it in the business plan. Like I said, it is in the bigger picture. I understand the Member wants this specific area but then the other Member wants a specific area, and then if I go down the list and throughout the next four years, every Member's going to have their specific instance. So we need to make sure that we have all compiled all those instances and come out with a policy that's fair and equitable for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Mr. Speaker, the story I told, that's $6,000 outofpocket for a retired couple. I have another constituent that's $7,000 outofpocket. People work paycheque to paycheque in the Northwest Territories. They can't afford these costs. Will the Minister take action and commit to solving this problem? There's a whole bunch of problems but this is a very specific one affecting a small amount of people in a very significant way; will she solve this problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to I have answered that but what I'm going to say, it is not a specific instance. I have since Minister, five months, I have received numerous and numerous and thousands and thousands of dollars that people have spent on, you know like, myself, if I had to fly out if my child was sick or my motherinlaw was sick or my you know, my family member was sick and I had to jump on a plane and go and be with them, you know, I would be outofpocket as well. But I do get these BFs constantly and so this like I said, I am looking at it. I know that there is an area that there is a gap, but it will be part of the overall review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Different topic.
Mr. Speaker, how many agency nurse contracts have been utilized since 2021? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that level of detail but I know that the Member did have a written question. I don't know if that I can't recall if that information was in there, but I can get back to the Member if we can compile that data. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have in that question the Minister responded to, I have the dollar amount spent but not the actual individuals. So can the to be clear, how many times have individual agency nurses been brought in to Northwest Territories health care facilities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since 2020, I think that is when we started using agency nurses, I don't have the number of the contracts and that's the level of detail that is. What we are doing is we're using nurses where they're not going to shut down services. And, you know, I hear that the Member this is something that, you know, he's raised many times in this House but then when you go out to the small communities and they're shut down and the services are we can't find a nurse, you know, those are the communities that, you know, may have to utilize a nurse. And so we can continue to talk about how many and how many of this, but at the end of the day, the care that these the residents are getting, having a nurse in the community you know, sometimes we have to wait, you know, does this nurse know the community? Well, the nurse knows their job. So, you know, when we sit here and we go back and forth about these numbers, when right now we have five. We have five nurses agency nurses keeping obstetrics open in the Northwest Territories. And so we can continue to have these discussions on the floor but I am not going to jeopardize this service in this community. And if it was in a health centre, then we'd be medevacing everybody out of that health centre to Yellowknife or to Inuvik or to Fort you know, this is that's the option. So I'll leave it at that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Colleagues, if you're getting really into detail, maybe wish to put it as a written question, so. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the Minister could tell me there are five right now so I thought she'd be able to look back with that recollection.
Mr. Speaker, we're going to keep asking questions about agency nurses as long as nurses who live and work here are upset about it and have a right to raise these concerns with their MLAs.
Mr. Speaker, how many times have agency nurses been used in small community health centres? Thank you.
I don't have that level of detail. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reason I ask that is we're here they're only used for obstetrics, they're only used for these, like, hard to find units, we don't want them to shut down. But the concern is that we're going to lose health centres in small communities. So is the Minister aware of any circumstances right now where a small community health centre is going to be staffed with agency nurses?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Tlicho Service Agency staffs theirs when when they're on the verge of having no nursing and I know that, from my understanding and this is why I know that there's five, is because everybody time I come to the House I always ask my department, so how many agency nurses we have? Because I know this is going to be a question here. And so but I do know that, you know, the Tlicho Service Agency does utilize them to keep their health centres open and they have, you know, vacancies over the summer and so they may have to utilize those if they cannot find nurses to fill those vacancies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For something completely different, we'll like the Maytag repair man, we'll go to questions to the Minister of ECC I guess. He doesn't get a lot of questions. We'll give him a chance today.
So, Mr. Speaker, my question for him today is about the Guardians of the Land. Could he describe what the program is, where it is, and how much it's being supported in the Northwest Territories when he describes what it is. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. That was kind of three questions. I will turn to the Minister of ECC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the questions. The Guardian program is a collaborative program that is I can't speak specifically to the locations at this time, but I would certainly be happy to provide that information to the Member. The Guardian program supports collaborative efforts between the Department of ECC and local Indigenous organizations and governments to work together in the monitoring of activities and wildlife on the landscape. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister said he would provide the locations. I'll accept that offer.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister speak to the specific mandate the territorial government has to support the Guardians throughout the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Guardian program is part of Our Lands Our Future document that is the guiding document that identifies protected areas within the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not specific in the context of this current budget, although that sort of is the answer, but I'm not questioning the current budget, but what is the program funded with? Where do we get our funding and how much do we fund on this?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have that specifically open in my business plan document at the time, but I would be more than willing to provide the Member with a briefing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm curious if the Minister can answer the question with respect to how does a community or region access this opportunity to create a Guardian program? Is there an application, is it an interest of community, is it an interest of a region, etcetera? So can the Minister explain what process to establish them and support them? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Guardian programs are associated with protected areas within Northwest Territories, and those programs are collaboratively engaged with local Indigenous governments. I don't currently have the specifics of how a community would go about applying for that, but I'd be more than happy to provide that information to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Colleagues, our time is up for oral questions. Oral questions. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Replies to the Commissioner's address. Petitions. Reports of committees on the review of bills.
Colleagues, we would like to have a brief break as the time is been over two hours and our translators need to stretch their legs and get a little refreshment. So we'll have a brief adjournment.
SHORT RECESS
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight is pleased to provide its report on the 20242025 Main Estimates.
Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, the committee of course, of the 20th Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories is charged with the responsibility of providing oversight over the business and budget operations of the Government of the Northwest Territories.
The purpose of this report, Mr. Speaker, is twofold:
To provide publicly the position of the committee in their review of the proposed 20242025 Main Estimates tabled by the Government of the Northwest Territories on May 24th, 2024; and, Mr. Speaker,
To identify key policy initiatives and goals that the Government should look to advance through their business plans.
The mandate of the committee, which is comprised of all 11 Regular Members, is to provide oversight and accountability into government budgets and operations. We are tasked to lead negotiations of the proposed main estimates to ensure that outcomes can be achieved and accountability is maximized.
Mr. Speaker, the committee wishes to note that this is the first time that a report on main estimates has been brought into the House. The intent of this report is to draw public attention to what has historically occurred behind closed doors and for the public to better understand how a finalized operations budget occurs through the consensus system.
Regular Members form the majority of the House and it is our role to hold the government to account and ensure that the budget and policy direction of the government are reflective of our shared priorities. Providing the Committees position on the Governments budget and policy direction is intended to bring forward conversations that regularly occur through incamera discussions between Executive Council and Regular Members. Mr. Speaker, the committee will present our positions according to the agreed upon priorities of the 20th Assembly. It is through this new process that additional transparency and accountability can be brought forward for all Members of this House.
Mr. Speaker, housing remains a top priority of the 20th Assembly. The committee was disappointed to see that the 20242025 Main Estimates reflected a decrease in total operations funding for Housing Northwest Territories by $13 million. This decrease does not accurately reflect how this Assembly has chosen its priorities. Mr. Speaker, housing is a key concern for all regions and communities throughout the Northwest Territories. Although an operations budget is before the committee, we will be seeking a commitment to provide $200 million in capital funding for Housing Northwest Territories over the life of the 20th Assembly.
The committee is also seeking a commitment for Housing Northwest Territories and Health and Social Services to provide budgeted initiatives that enhance assisted living options for people with disabilities and supportive living options for vulnerable populations. Only by supporting nonprofit organizations and Indigenous governments in the development of housing options for these vulnerable residents can we see positive changes. Another gap on the housing spectrum could be addressed by cooperative housing Initiatives. The committee is asking that the government provide residentled efforts to protect homes and neighbourhoods by creating incentives and for investment in housing cooperatives.
Mr. Speaker, ultimately the committee believes there is a need to support our municipalities by transferring land to be used for additional opportunities for housing. Too many of our municipalities, Mr. Speaker, face barriers in meeting the current legislated requirements that would allow lands to be transferred to their authority. The committee is seeking a commitment for the development of a legislative proposal from the Department of Environment and Climate Change that streamlines the current challenges posed to municipalities in their abilities to access lands, including the current requirements that a community must develop controls to manage the land, create a community plan, and that parcels must be surveyed prior to transfer. The current requirements far exceed the capacity of municipalities to access land within their boundaries and change is needed.
Mr. Speaker, the committee acknowledges the need to build capacity amongst all residents of the Northwest Territories to support a strong economic foundation. This begins with a call for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to explicitly include an action in their business plan to improve outcomes in basic literacy and numeracy for JK to 12 Students. The importance of supporting the Aurora College transformation captures the bookend of this need as the committee has a strong desire to see investment into the transformation to ensure it can be successful in our effort to build our labour market capacity.
Mr. Speaker, the committee is also concerned with the proposed reductions of $1.1 million to the Small Community Employment Program. The Small Community Employment Program is a key program that creates employment within our communities so that they can support economic activity in a sustainable manner. This program should be restored to its previous funding level and include new parameters that ensure all funding is provided to small communities as opposed to regional centers.
Mr. Speaker, the same sentiment can be made for the Community Access Program. The committee feels that this program, which provides financial contributions towards the construction or maintenance of access roads, trails, docks and wharfs, should be reinstated to $1.5 million. Although there may be implementation challenges with the current scope of the program, this funding is key to support community initiatives such as ice roads. Moreover, this funding should be expanded towards feasibility studies that enable communities to determine how they approach infrastructure needs.
Mr. Speaker, the committee remains committed to reducing our reliance on carbon intensive fuels. We are calling for the publication of a plan that outlines how the utility regulator, the three electrical utilities, the territorial government, and interested Indigenous governments, will work together to develop a short, medium, and longterm roadmap. This should include appropriate planning, regulatory, and policy tools to enable the transformation of the Northwest Territories electrical system over the coming decades in alignment with climate goals and building greater energy independence in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, the committee acknowledges that there is a need for a regulatory streamlining. Calling for the 2020 Environmental Audit to be prioritized, funded, and implemented will support our goal in providing a strong regulatory regime that gives our resources sector the certainty that they require.
Mr. Speaker, the committee acknowledges that improving the accessibility and quality of health care is a multifaceted and complex issue. The committee also acknowledges that frontline health care staff are key to improving the working conditions and culture of our health care system. We are fortunate to have so many hard working and dedicated staff that can support innovative solutions for our health care system. Strategically advancing the territorial health care workforce plan and establishing an Office of Practitioner Experience are all tangible actions that can support our current system. Mr. Speaker, the committee is calling on the Department of Health and Social Services to look internally through job evaluation and labour market incentives to create a more attractive health care workplace. These actions will help support the retention and recruitment of health care professionals.
Mr. Speaker, reducing critical funding for innovative programs such as the midwifery expansion program or including income testing for extended health benefits is not the way to improve access to health care. The committee is strongly advocating to reinstate the $990,000 for the midwifery program and the creation of an action plan that allows midwives to support communities throughout the Northwest Territories and remove the income testing from extended health care benefits. There is a key opportunity to expand the Family Medicine Residency Program from two to four residents per year by the end of this Assembly to build local health care capacity. The committee will advocate for these actions to be advanced to support the priority and our health care system.
Mr. Speaker, the committee has concerns that the nongovernmental organization (NGOs) stabilization fund remains at only $700,000 and believes that this should be increased to $1 million annually to better support NGOs and the critical work they do. Further, to support stability and acknowledge the vital role of the NGO sector, funding should be awarded using multiyear contributions to NGOs. The territorial government has received concrete recommendations on how to better support NGOs. Therefore, the committee is requesting funding for the implementation of the "Strengthening the NonProfit and Charitable Sector External Advisory Committee Final Report".
Mr. Speaker, the committee has heard the government's position that municipalities have a responsibility in emergency management; however, we have not yet seen corresponding financial resources from the territorial government to support emergency preparedness and public safety efforts for municipalities that will build their capacity. The committee is seeking a commitment to adopt a more equitable funding formula that equalizes the gap for communities across the Northwest Territories and offers more meaningful support for emergency management preparedness.
Mr. Speaker, to support safe communities and residents, we need to ensure that communities have appropriate access to RCMP services and that legislation, such as the Residential Tenancies Act, is modernized, and that our legal services, such as the Office of the Children's Lawyer, can continue to be supported.
To support the priorities of the 20th Assembly, the committee has put forward a combination policy direction and budgetary requests for Executive Council. We know that through engagement between the committee and Executive Council, we can build on the successes of previous Assemblies by showing collaboration and consensus decisionmaking that can succeed.
Mr. Speaker, the committee has summarized its recommendations on policy commitments and budgetary changes in response to the Government of the Northwest Territories proposed 20242025 Main Estimates by department, Mr. Speaker.
Education, Culture and Employment:
Provide an update to the business plan targets that highlights the need to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes amongst JK to 12 students;
Restore the Small Community Employment Program Fund to its 20232024 funding levels while changing the program to ensure only small communities, and not regional centres, can access the funding pot;
Aurora College transformation: Mr. Speaker,.
Reinstate the $500,000 to fund the Centre for Learning, Teaching, and Innovation and provide an additional $1 million to fund the Aurora College transition team.
Environment and Climate Change:
Create new legislation in the life of this Assembly that will support the transfer of Commissioner’s land within municipalities, excluding lands currently under the interim land withdrawal and Indigenous lands, resources, and selfgovernment agreements. This legislation should streamline the current challenges posed to municipalities to access lands, including the current requirements that a community must develop controls to manage the land, create a community plan, and that parcels must be surveyed prior to transfer;
A commitment to establish in the business plan how the department will prioritize, action, and implement changes recommended in the 2020 Environmental Audit, recognizing that most recommendations are likely to carry into the 2025 audit.
Executive and Indigenous Affairs:
A commitment to realign all measures within the business plan to match the measures laid out in the Homelessness Strategy;
Establish Services NWT with offices in all regional centres and Yellowknife by 20272028 while also working to enhance the services offered by government service officers to build more singlewindow access points for government services throughout the territory;
Restructure and reissue the Request For Proposals for the OneGov project to give opportunities for northern contractors to advance this work;
Provide for a costed implementation plan of the Strengthening the NonProfit and Charitable Sector External Advisory Committee final report.
Finance:
Mr. Speaker,
Ensure a revenue neutral carbon pricing regime which itemizes how revenues are then reallocated through public reporting;
Create a strategy to reduce TSC chargebacks by 10 percent across the Government of the Northwest Territories; and
Create a plan that allows for a Tlicho administrative region for operations and capital planning purposes, removing it from the North Slave region.
Health and Social Services:
Remove income testing for the new extended health benefits;
Restore the proposed $990,000 reduction to the Department of Health and Social Services and the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority regarding midwifery; and further, develop a model for traveling midwives that ultimately reduces the costs of medical travel for residents;
A commitment to increase the Medical Residency Program from two residents to four residents by 20272028;
Complete new internal job evaluations for all frontline health care staff;
Create a new Labour Market Supplement Program for frontline staff;
Waive the current practice standards for foreign credentials for internationally educated nurses;
Provide a plan to phase out private health care agency nurses by 20262027;
Establish clear targets for Indigenous health care training and recruitment of staff. Mr. Speaker,
Examine and estimate the costs to introduce an Office of Practitioner Experience in the Northwest Territories health care system;
Commitment to expand on the existing Government of the Northwest Territories Physician Workforce Plan by creating an overall health care workforce plan that contains:
An updated territorial model of physician services that is formalized and funded;
An effective Territorial Primary Care Model based on equitable access and continuity; and
A reevaluation of the health systems leadership model.
Provide a proposal for the creation of a dialysis unit and CT scan equipment and operations at the Inuvik Hospital;
Provide options and costing for a mobile xray machine for small communities;
An increase to support not only transitional housing for individuals in recovery of addictions but to also work with Housing Northwest Territories to increase assisted living options for adults with disabilities.
Housing NWT:
Mr. Speaker,
A commitment to invest $200 million in the capital plans for housing until fiscal year 20282029;
Provide cost estimates to the business plan commitment that pledges to help NGOs stabilize their funding, particularly for those running supportive living facilities to keep vulnerable populations housed;
Encourage better upkeep of public housing units by supporting residentled collective efforts to protect their homes and neighbourhoods through the creation of incentives for housing cooperatives.
Industry Tourism and Investment:
Provide an update to the Business Plan that sets goals to increase the value of income, employment and dollars spent on all film productions taking place in the NWT.
Infrastructure:
Restore the Community Access Program funding to 20232024 levels. Furthermore, ensure that this program can be made to be more flexible to support feasibility studies such as the creation of ice roads;
Provide a costed plan that outlines how the utility regulator, the three electrical utilities, the Government of the Northwest Territories and interested Indigenous governments, will work together to develop a short, medium, and longterm roadmap with appropriate planning, regulatory, and policy tools to enable the transformation of the Northwest Territories electricity system over the coming decades in alignment with climate goals and building greater energy independence in the Northwest Territories;
Restore the manager, Enterprise Records Management position at $113,000;
Restore the Electric Bike Rebate of $10,000;
Restore the Community Government Retrofits Program of $190,000 to support energy audits and energy retrofits of community government facilities.
Justice:
Advance the currently proposed timeline for changes to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act with a legislative proposal by the winter sitting of 2025;
Provide a legislative proposal that aims to modernize the Residential Tenancies Act by the winter sitting of 2025;
Restore the Office of the Children's Lawyer by eliminating the reduction of $200,000; and
Provide a plan to allow for a joint RCMP detachment for Gameti and Wekweeti.
Municipal and Community Affairs:
It has been highlighted that the municipal funding gap under the current formula cannot be closed or reduced without substantial investment. The committee is seeking a commitment to adopt a more equitable funding formula that equalizes the gap for communities across the Northwest Territories. This funding formula should fund models and new contributions which capture:
Operations and Maintenance;
Water and Waste;
Capital;
New contributions for Municipal Emergency Preparedness and Public Safety; and,
The ability to implement ground ambulance services to interested communities.
Increase the annual NonGovernmental Stabilization Fund from $700,000 to $1 million dollars. Further to this increase, ensure that all NGO funding and contribution agreements are multiyear agreements moving forward, and that the government works to address inflationary pressures on NGOs through these agreements.
This concludes the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight’s report on the 20242025 Main Estimates. Members acknowledge through ongoing dialogue with the Executive Council we will work together to advance and finalize a budget that can better support the residents of the Northwest Territories.
I'd like to thank AOC and their staff for their collaborative efforts creating this document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Reports on standing and special committees.
Let's go back to Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move that the AOC committee report be adopted, report (audio).
Member from Range Lake. Motion's in order. To the motion.
