Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain how Municipal and Community Affairs is engaging community governments and Indigenous governments about shared responsibilities and what input they have had on the formula change? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Committee Report 16-20(1) be received and adopted by the Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Your Standing Committee on Social Development is pleased to provide its Report on the Statutory Review of the Mental Health Act and commends it to the House.

And, Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Committee Report 16-20(1), Standing Committee on Social Development Report on the Statutory Review of the Mental Health Act, be deemed read and printed in Hansard in its entirety. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, that's good to know because she said it, so it's for the record. So I hope there is, you know -- I'm sure there is a contract, there is something in place somewhere. So I'm glad that, you know, she mentioned it.

So, yeah, no, I mean, Whati, you know, they're in housing crisis as well, and I don't see them on the list here. Gameti, and I know Wekweeti only have a few -- few units that belongs to the public housing units, so why they are not on the budget this fiscal year for upcoming fiscal year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Municipal funding gap. Mr. Speaker, on May 29th of this year, the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight tabled a report in this House that noted the municipal funding gap under the current formula would not work without substantial investment. Members discussed a funding formula that equalizes the gap for communities across the Northwest Territories. The government responded on June 13th, noting that MACA recently updated its community government funding policies to, one, provide a more equitable distribution of funding by basing allocations on a needs...

Well, two houses -- two houses are being retrofitted. Is it currently being retrofitted? Because I know one house was already retrofitted and that was not done by the housing; it was done by the Indigenous government that retrofitted that house because they really needed a client to move in there that was a forest fire victim. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I know the need is great throughout the Northwest Territories and there's 12 units that you just mentioned, but I'm just wondering if the Minister can answer me. Does the department really have any money to do work on these units, or is it just to get people's hope up that, okay, there's actually three units that's going to be retrofitted and hopefully the waiting list will go down? Because from what I heard from the -- in Behchoko is that they're asking people to move out of the unit because they're going to fix up the unit, so they're going to do a retrofit when, in fact...

What's that?

Mr. Speaker, this is not good. Well, this is not good for small communities, especially, for example, Wekweeti. It's not really comparable to Yellowknife. Wekweeti relies more on funding because of the high cost of living. It's not just Wekweeti; it's other communities. Even the Sahtu region, we've been getting e-mails about the high cost of living and yet it appears they will be getting less. So can the Minister explain whether there is a different funding formula being used to take into account community size, or is this offset somehow? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I know that, you know, we need the new school and we've said it many times. And so I am glad that, you know, it looks like the Minister is working well with the Tlicho government so -- which is, you know -- I am very -- you know, I appreciate that. So -- and which is, you know, we need -- we need a good working relationship with them to move forward on this project. And so I'll leave it at that.

But there is another one here too, because we're still planning -- in the planning stage and, you know, we still have quite a ways to go and we know what to do in...