Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I recall in 2023, when I was first elected to the Assembly here and I came in midway through an election, and I was not around when the whole budgeting planning process was starting to happen. Even though I came in, I brought in the wishes of what I heard from my riding and I put it all in the suitcase, and I went to the Premier of the day trying to get that luggage thrown on the train. And the train's halfway through its destination, and the Premier of the day had mentioned that she will do her best to try to get it onto the train. And needless to say that none of my issues never did get on that train. But having said that, in 2024 now, once we got back into this position as the MLA, I brought forward letters to Minister Wawzonek and dated back to March 15th of this year, and I highlighted everything that I could think of that I heard from my riding. It's a wish list, but it's a luggage as well. And also on April 29th, 2024, I also sent another letter to the Premier -- sorry, to the Honourable Caroline Wawzonek in regards to the Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh funding needed for the homeownership, etcetera. So I put that luggage together. Now the train's leaving the train station now on a four-year journey.
Even though we got to -- you know, we're dealing with a $50 million deficit this year, we still got hard times yet to come for the next three years. We still got another 150 next year and for the next three years. It's going to be a very tough time. But having said that, though, Mr. Speaker, I know I'm trying to address the issues in my riding in regards to housing and homeownership repairs and etcetera. That's what I've been hearing a lot. And so when I put this letter together and sent it in, it's my hope to work with the Minister and the Premier and the Cabinet and to look for ways to try to make this a reality, even the situation we're in right now. I always said that I know that the policies are very difficult to -- trying to get help for our people in the small communities, it's like I said the other day, trying to shoot an arrow into a dart board that's in Lutselk'e. But if we work together, we can do it together and we can make sure that we hit that bull's eye.
So, Mr. Speakers, it's the key here is working together. And with my colleagues here, we may have -- we may not always agree or disagree, and same thing with our colleagues on the other side. I served with the colleagues on the side too in the last Assembly. And the key here is continue to build relationships, build partnerships, most importantly work together, but at the same time we got to show respect. And to me when we do that -- because we got good teachings from our elders, and the key here is to listen and to look to bring out the issues that's coming from the communities and to look for solutions. And I think the last four weeks that we've been here it's been really tiring going through the budget process. And for me now as the chair, as the deputy chair coming in, it's been an experience, especially when we're going through the budget process. And so anyway, I know that the situation we're in, but I think we will get through it together and we have to have a balance. And so I look forward to continuing to work with the Cabinet, with my colleagues, in a respectful way. And, Mr. Speaker, I will support the budget. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Colleagues, before I go on to the next Member, just would like to remind you that we use titles and not names in the House here, please and thank you.
To the motion. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are many encouraging things in this budget that will help to set us on a better path as a government and as a territory, both things that were initially proposed by Cabinet and both budget changes and policy changes that the government has agreed to through negotiations with Regular Members. I want to give just a quick rundown of the highlights for me and flag a few key items that are left outstanding that I think need to be urgently addressed as we move forward with this work.
So I'm encouraged to see the transitional housing for addictions recovery program which has been called for a very long time to address the big gap in aftercare, people returning from addictions, and to see the recent commitment to even expand that within the life of this government. I'm encouraged to see that we are continuing to support the transformation of Aurora College to a polytechnic. I'm encouraged to see more money to support better compensation of early learning and child care workers and additional funds put into repair and maintenance of public housing. I'm also encouraged to see the government has committed, in its response to committee, that it will include in its strategic energy plan a goal of reaching net-zero emissions for both nonindustrial and industrial emitters by 2050. I'm pleased that the government has agreed to examine and estimate the cost to introduce an Office of Practitioner Experience in the health care system that would help frontline health care providers get their concerns addressed in more effective ways. We need to change the way we're doing things in the health care system, particularly in terms of staff retention.
Another recommendation that was made by committee in the health care topic was a health care workforce plan. It was derived from a suggestion made by the NWT Medical Association. The government's response, however, was unclear and simply referred us to the HSS human resources plan, which I want to be clear does not accomplish the same thing as a systemic workforce plan. So I will continue to advocate for such a workforce plan so that we can be proactive in deciding, first, what level of health care services are realistic and worth striving for, to plan and budget for appropriate numbers of professionals and appropriate types of health care professionals to be able to actually accomplish that and do it well without constantly straining and burning out our staff capacity.
I continue to be concerned about the elimination of the Office of the Children's Lawyer position. I'm aware that a letter has been sent to the Minister just this week by the Legal Aid Commission, which is the oversight body for legal aid, and it says, I quote: We believe that the role of the Office of the Children's Lawyer is misunderstood by the Minister and the Cabinet.
Now, the commission recommends restoring the full operating budget of the Office of the Children's Lawyer, and legislation requires that the Minister seriously consider any such recommendations of the commission. So I trust that will take place, and I look forward to that discussion continuing.
I also continue to be concerned about the reductions to Arctic Energy Alliance, reductions both to operating funding and grant programs to communities. We have major energy challenges in this territory, Mr. Speaker, and Arctic Energy Alliance has been doing crucial work in partnership with community governments to equip our homes and our communities with cleaner, more energy efficient technologies. This work is often incremental, small, but steady; it's behind the scenes, but it's incredibly important. And I hope the Minister establishes a closer working relationship with Arctic Energy Alliance moving forward to be able to support that important work.
We have much work ahead of us. I hope we can all keep our focus on the bigger picture and the collaboration that we need to make our consensus government work in order to achieve our common priorities. So I thank everyone for the hard work we've put in, but there's much more work ahead. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. To the motion. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has been a long five weeks reviewing and deliberating on the 2024-2025 Budget. I put forward my reply to the Budget Address which spoke to my initial reaction to the budget, which was that I felt we needed to do more to focus or attention on the priorities agreed upon by this Assembly. To this end, I put forward some changes I wanted to see and supported those brought forward by my colleagues, many of which I agreed with, and the majority of which spoke directly to these priorities. AOC put in some long hours and managed to find consensus on a list of changes we wanted to see in order to receive our support for the budget.
I want to thank my colleagues for their hard work on those requests. It was a truly collaborative process and I think showed what committee can achieve when we work together. I was particularly proud that we were the first group of MLAs to put forward our demands publicly so our constituents could see what we're fighting for. I really appreciate that commitment to transparency and want to continue that.
Through the subsequent process of negotiation, I can say that we were able to push both the budget and the government's business plans further towards the priorities I want us to be focused on. I certainly did not get everything I was hoping for, but I'm not sure anyone on either side of the House can say that. And that tends to be the nature of negotiations, Mr. Speaker, particularly in our consensus system. Our system is structured in a way which necessitates compromise both between Cabinet and Regular Members and among all Members of this Assembly. There has been much debate about the merits and challenges of consensus government but time and again, the territories communicated that they want to continue using this system and, in particular, during this recent election I heard loud and clear from my constituents that they want to see us working together effectively and respectfully, and I am committed to doing just that.
I want to speak to a few things I consider small wins we were able to achieve and things I will continue to fight on because we didn't quite get there. As we were working on negotiations, our AOC chair, the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, asked us for our hills to die on, for him and our deputy chair from the Deh Cho to fight for in negotiations.
Mr. Speaker, my first hill to die on was housing. It is the first priority of this Assembly and, accordingly, I felt it needed further emphasis in this budget. Through deliberations, we advocated for and succeeded in obtaining increased money for housing maintenance and also for some specific projects. Housing NWT also laid out during deliberations the impressive amount of work scheduled for this year, which I am pleased to see moving forward.
Perhaps the most important thing that will help us truly move the needle on housing in our territory are the commitments in the business plan to do a comprehensive needs assessment for housing in the NWT and an infrastructure deficit assessment. While we did not succeed in attaching much money to these initiatives in this round, they will help us quantify the problem and provide a foundation of evidence to inform our budgets going forward. I want to thank the Minister responsible for Housing NWT for her strong leadership in pushing the department to get those initiatives completed more with quickly than initial planned. Well done. In return, I am committed to using the information generated by these reports to keep pushing the government to put its money behind ensuring that we are serious about addressing our housing crisis as our top priority.
My second hill to die on was pausing or removing income testing for extended health benefits. This policy change is adding hardship to a number of my constituents who are already struggling with disabilities or chronic illness, Mr. Speaker, and I do not support the change. This one came down to the wire. And although we did not get what I was looking for, I am pleased that we received concession on our request to at least increase the income threshold, which I hope remains in place, and I strongly encourage the Minister to fight to ensure that deductible payments are spread over the year for folks above the threshold to help lessen the blow from this change.
My third hill to die on was restoring midwifery services in Yellowknife. Again, we did not get exactly what we were looking for there, but we did get a concession, which is really not what I was looking to achieve but as I said to the president of the midwives association last night, we have at least opened a door which can lead us to a path to expanding midwifery services in what I hope will become many communities in the NWT over time. To Heather and Leslie and all of the midwifery champions who raised their voices, I continue to encourage you to push hard. We will get there, and you will have my full support along the way.
I also want to acknowledge the significant number of changes advocate the for the health care system which I haven't mentioned here but which were agreed to wholly or in part by the department, and I am hopeful that we can see some meaningful change in our health care system over the next year and will certainly keep fighting for it.
I want to particularly thank the Member for Yellowknife North for her hard work on bringing forward constructive and thoughtful recommendations for policy and practice changes in health, which I think could make a real difference. I also want to thank the Member for Range Lake who has been relentless in fighting for our nurses.
I would note that I haven't mentioned a number of items here which I was glad we achieved; namely, the increase to Aurora College's funding. I have spoken a lot to the importance of education during this session so I'm not going to repeat myself again here, Mr. Speaker, but I want to thank the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake in helping to bring forward some proposals which could help us move the needle on that initiative. It is such an important initiative for our territory, Mr. Speaker.
As an aside, with your indulgence, Mr. Speaker, I would also like to extend a special thanks to my girlfriend Rayanna who has been holding down the house while I've been working long days and nights over the past number of weeks. You mean the world to me and are my number one supporter. I appreciate you so much.
Mr. Speaker, the question I was facing as I phoned constituents and collaborators to tell them that we got some small wins, but not everything we were asking for by any means, was whether I could support this budget. I went to bed with this question not completely settled in my mind but came to work today with a better sense of clarity. I think if I was to vote against the budget now after the hard work by myself and my colleagues to develop consensus, work together on our respective priorities for our ridings, after the finance Minister and Cabinet came to the table in good faith and worked with us to find something we could all disagree with on some level or another, it would not respect the work we all did to find consensus. From day one, I never came here expecting to get everything I want. I like to think that I bring a realistic and reasonable perspective to the table. And part of that is understanding that progress happens in incremental wins, by working collaboratively with our colleagues on their priorities and, in turn, receiving their support for our own and committing to keep the pressure on so that over time, piece by piece, we can turn small wins into big changes. To that end, Mr. Speaker, I will support this budget with a strong commitment to keep fighting for change going forward, to keep putting the pieces in place to ensure that change happens and gathering evidence which will make it harder to refuse the next time we deliberate. I care so deeply about this work, Mr. Speaker, and I will continue to put everything I have into it. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to thank my colleague, the Member from Boot Lake, for showing me, working with me, and I also want to thank the Minister of Finance too. This has been a really learning experience for me, Mr. Speaker. It's my first six months here, learning how to do what we do and how to help people, how to get things moving, how to work together, and especially learning -- well, yeah, learning how to work together. I don't have a big speech like everybody else did but I support that, and I too will be -- and I want to thank -- I also want to thank all my colleagues, like everybody here, working with us. And I remember when I first got here and I said something to the effect of when you have a house, you got to figure out what's your priorities in your house then you figure out after if you're -- whatever you find is not working, you figure out how to fix that. You need money for that so that your budget comes into place and how you spend your money is how you're going to operate your house. So that's the same thing that we should work for, and we work together in this House so that way we have what we need.
Some of us are getting what we really need, some of us are not getting what we need, and that's okay, and that's the way things work. And so with that, I wanted to say I want to thank -- again, thank my colleagues, all the people that work here, and the people, the translators, the technical people. And also my family, my wonderful husband, my daughters, and my son, and do the thing that my daughter told me to do - now take a break. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I will be supporting this motion.
Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. To the motion. Member from Yellowknife South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke substantively yesterday in my role as Minister of Finance. I don't want to rehash that, but I do want to make a few comments, largely thank you's. And firstly, Mr. Speaker, it's to every single person that is in this building. The work of session is long and difficult and it can be very exhausting and emotional, and everyone from our pages to the folks that help feed us to the folks that are cleaning up after us, a heartfelt thank you because it certainly makes the day palatable. But also, Mr. Speaker, to the officials specifically who help keep us all on track and keep things moving. A lot of things have to move often very quickly, and they are the ones that are making that happen. Similarly, Mr. Speaker, the government executive office staff, they too are helping to move things quickly under difficult circumstances and often with fast-breaking changes, and they make it all happen with smiles so a significant thanks to them. Everyone here is a tremendous professional. So one more, Mr. Speaker, and that's the public service who aren't necessarily in this building but who are often watching us, who are often sending us information, sending us documents, responding to requests. And particularly in the budget session and particularly this particular negotiation, a lot of things were having to change across departments and often quickly. A lot of departments were being asked to revise, to review, to reconsider, to reexamine, documents, business plans, budgets that they had spent months putting together and they were being asked to quickly look at it and try to see what they could do to make change. So a lot of the ability to be in a consensus government but that thanks goes back to the entire, entire public service that is behind all of us that you happen to see here.
Mr. Speaker, the chair and deputy chair, very grateful to them. It has been a real pleasure. I think we've gotten to all know each other very much better, and I am very grateful to have them sitting with me and making these discussions. My colleagues here, Mr. Chair, I do want to give them a special shout out. They are very patient with me even when I am very impatient, and I am very grateful to them for that.
Mr. Speaker, very briefly -- again, I'm not going to say a lot. Five years ago was the first time that I had the privilege to take on this role and be in this, this was a financial transaction. It was a financial negotiation. But just as governments evolve and consensus can evolve, it has turned into something very different from that, and I am very proud of the fact that the kinds of discussions and the kinds of effort that our colleagues have put in has resulted not only in the items that I spoke to yesterday, I do hope that folks will look at the tabled document today, will look back at the asks that were made, because the document today outlines the entirety of what was agreed to. And, Mr. Speaker, it's eight pages long, has 41 items of change. I'm not going to read them all in. But there's significant business planning change, policy work, legislative proposals are being discussed therein, timelines, dollars are changing, how the dollars should be spent, so it's not only about a cash transaction here. It really is about government and how we can be a consensus government. So, again, with all of that gratitude, Mr. Speaker, I'll end there. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife South. To the motion.
Question.
The Member for Yellowknife South. The Member for Kam Lake. The Member for Hay River North. The Member for Hay River South. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The Member for Nunakput. The Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. The Member for Deh Cho. The Member for Sahtu. The Member for Range Lake. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. The Member for Monfwi. The Member for Frame Lake. The Member for Great Slave. The Member for Yellowknife North. The Member for Thebacha.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand. All those in favour, 16. Opposed, zero. Abstentions, zero. The motion has been carried. Bill 10 has third reading.
---Carried
Third reading of bills.
Colleagues, our new Commissioner, the Honourable Gerald Kisoun, is unavailable to join us today as he is in Ottawa on official business. I am pleased to announce that Abigail Crook of Hay River has been appointed as our Deputy Commissioner.
Ms. Crook is a mother to three sons, a grandmother of eight, and a great grandmother of four. She is a lifelong advocate on social issues, including justice, culture, and languages, with a long history of community involvement. Ms. Cook has decades of experience with the friendship centre movement and has been a key leader with the Soaring Eagle Friendship Centre for many years and is the current president of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Council of Friendship Centres.
Colleagues, we are fortunate to have Ms. Cook as our new Deputy Commissioner. I'm also pleased to let you know that her official duties will be providing assent to the bills today.
Please be seated. My first language is Cree, so I'm going to say a few words in Cree.
First of all, I want to say [No translation provided].] meaning thank you with respect. [No translation provided]. Meaning our friendship, people and friendship. I'm here to be part of your Assembly and to be a friend for whatever you need.
So I'd like to say tansi, Mr. Speaker, Premier, and Members of the Legislative Assembly. It's a pleasure to be in the House with those who serve the people of the Northwest Territories.
I wish to acknowledge we are gathered today on Chief Drygeese territory. We are grateful to be on this land and all the lands home to many Indigenous people, including the Dene, Inuvialuit, Metis, and Inuit. I am honoured to be here at my first event as Deputy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. I couldn't memorize this so I'm going to have to read from it.
I'm looking forward to working with Commissioner Kisoun and getting to know the people of the Northwest Territories. I want to thank my family and my friends and the community for their support, and I hope I will make you proud. It's important that we all work together and support our communities, and particularly the youth. Listening to the voices of the youth will make our future brighter for the Northwest Territories, and I always believe in acknowledging our future leadership, which is the youth, and I continue to support their endeavours in any way I can.
So now as Deputy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, I am pleased to assent the following bills:
Bill 2, Missing Persons Act;
Bill 9, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025; and,
Bill 10 Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2024-2025.
Mahsi. Merci Beaucoup. Mahsi cho. My friend taught me how to say this word and I think I forgot already. Quanani and Koana. [No translation provided].
People that don't understand, there's different levels of different dialects of Cree. And I'm a very proud Cree woman and proud to speak my language. So [No translation provided].
You're leaders of our people, and you are also there to help all our members in the Northwest Territories, and I wish to thank you. Mahsi.
Colleagues, I'd like to thank the Deputy Commissioner, the Honourable Abigail Crook, for being here today to provide assent to our legislation. It was an honour to have her join us in this Chamber.
Colleagues, before I adjourn today's sitting, I want to take the opportunity to say a few words. I promise to keep them short, maybe, because I know we all have places to be and people to see.
First and foremost, I want to say thanks to each of you for a productive sitting. There were some long days and some long evenings, but you were able to accomplish the work before the House. This is no small accomplishment, and you should be proud of what you have achieved. We've seen estimates considered and approved, committees have delivered reports, motions have been debated, and important legislation has been passed on or introduced and referred to standing committees. I know you have not always seen eye to eye, but I am pleased that you were able to remain respectful towards one another and even during difficult discussions. Our residents expect to see and hear respectful debates in this Chamber, and I thank you for living up to their expectations.
I'd also like to congratulate you for the passage of the first full budget of this Assembly. During my first term in office, I was a Regular Member. And during my second term, I was a Member of Executive Council, so I have seen the budget process from both sides. I know the learning curves can be steep and that it takes a lot of work, communication, and compromise to get through a budget. I know that everybody may not be completely happy with the end result. As my former colleague, the Minister of Finance said, not everybody's going to be happy. That means you've done a good job. So thank you very much. You got it right, folks.
Communication and compromise are the keys to effective consensus government. I can tell you as being the Speaker, I had the opportunity to meet with the finance Minister and the Premier to discuss my concerns on the budgets, and I have to say thank you for that opportunity.
I'd like to thank both Cabinet and the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight for continuing on what consensus government is about. Congratulations on a job well done. This is true consensus government, what you guys did and achieved.
Colleagues, I want to thank the pages who joined us for this sitting. It is refreshing and inspiring to see the youth in this Chamber. They are our future. And colleagues, let me tell you, we will have a bright future in their hands. Thank you very much to them all, and please give them a round of applause.
---Applause
Finally, with great personal importance to me, I want to thank our interpreters. As an institution, we strive to honour, respect, and strengthen the languages of the territories. The hard work and dedication to our interpreters make it possible for us to do so. So, again, thank you very much, and I think we need to give them a big around of applause.
---Applause
Colleagues, this House is not scheduled to sit again until this autumn, but I know that we will all be busy with the ongoing work of the government and committees. Although our work will continue and keep us busy, I encourage you to enjoy those days ahead with families and friends. It is their support that makes it possible for us to do our job. I encourage you to spend some time with those closest to you, let them know how much you appreciate their support and assistance.
Colleagues, our summer is short, but our days are long. I hope each of you have the time to get out and enjoy all that spectacular territory has to offer, the Midnight Sun, the land, the water we call our home, and the warmth and welcoming people. We have world-class festivals, beautiful campgrounds, and some of the most stunning landscapes on earth. Please get out and enjoy all our territory has to offer. I look forward to seeing all of you back in Chambers in October for our next sitting.
Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Orders of the day for Thursday, October 17th, 2024, 1:30 p.m.
Prayer
Ministers’ Statements
Members’ Statements
Returns to Oral Questions
Oral Question 297-20(1): Wellness and Addictions Recommendations
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Acknowledgements
Oral Questions
Written Questions
Returns to Written Questions
Replies to the Commissioner’s Address
Petitions
Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills
Reports of Standing and Special Committees
Tabling of Documents
Notices of Motion
Motions
Motion 36-20(1): Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Tabled Document 118-20(1)
Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills
First Reading of Bills
Second Reading of Bills
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Report of Committee of the Whole
Third Reading of Bills
Orders of the Day
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Clerk.
This House stands adjourned until Tuesday, October 17th, 2024, at 1:30 p.m.
---ADJOURNMENT
The House adjourned at 4:47 p.m.
