Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to hear that. Good positive change.

Will the Minister commit to review the income support policy to reduce administrative burden for elders and people with disabilities? And then he touched base on some of them already too. So that's good.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge today our grand chief, our Tlicho Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty, to the House, to the Legislative Assembly. I would like to welcome him. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know, indeed, we do need expert, but what just happened in Northwest Territories, how can an expert let 4 million hectares of land burn? In the past, a lot of people have said, even the veteran firefighters have said the same thing, and elders have said, in the past government used to pick up all kinds of people on the street to fight fires, and it was those people, because of them, our community is still here. A lot of them, it happened all over. And that was the only jobs that a lot of our Indigenous people had at that time. It's not like before. We...

But I do have one more question, sorry about that.

Are ECE and Housing NWT working together to create a more holistic approach to income support and social housing programs? Is there anything being done between the two departments to make it easier for people to access services? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that a person with a disability may receive extra funding to pay for things related to the disability; however, I am concerned still around the reporting requirements oh, okay. I thought sorry about that. Those with disability. Is the government looking to make this less burdensome on residents? I know they ask for utility bills, rent, disability assessment form, disability benefit from the federal government, notice of assessment from previous tax year; how often is all of this required? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is not the first time I have spoken in this House about the administrative burden with income support program. The government creates such an onerous process for residents that it becomes challenging to access resources.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about people who are unable to work because of a disability.

Mr. Speaker, we have many people across the NWT that receive disability benefits but also access programs and services through income support. Mr. Speaker, there should be a more streamlined way for these individuals to access benefits...

Thank you. Okay, the Frank Channel bridge is beneficial for everybody for the Northwest Territories. It's a busy, busy bridge, and I'm very grateful for that because it's going to be providing employment for the people in the regions. It's you know, like, and from Yellowknife as well too. So there's going to be a lot of people benefitting from that so, and that is part of North Slave region. And we are part of North Slave. And so there's nothing actually in the budget for Tlicho region alone. If Tlicho region alone was identified, there would be nothing. And we even had in there where Gameti...

Thank you. This is further to the Frank Channel bridge, Dehk'e. It says here the completion date is going to be 20262027. And now that we know that the contract was you know, the engineer contract was awarded that, you know, it's just been mentioned. So I just wanted to ask when is the actual work going to start for the construction of the Frank Channel bridge?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I see here North Arm. I know territory park accessible shower and electrification. I know this project has been ongoing for quite some time, and I know my colleague did ask too, do you have an estimated date of when this project will be completed? It says 20242025. I know it's not going to be this. But it's just that do we have a date and how much is it going to cost?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, many of these houses, just like she said, yes, they are over 50 years old. No social worker or nurses or teachers coming from the south would want to live in many of these condemned houses. And many of our people are living in those units, and nothing is being done. And there's a lot of boarded up houses in my community in my region as well. So that is why I'm pushing for all those units, if they can change the status from market rental to public housing unit because Tlicho government and other organizations are providing housing for many of their staff...