Jane Weyallon Armstrong

We know that a lot of people have different view on the Indigenous language, and some are saying okay, our language is dying; some are saying our language is thriving. So what I would like to see from this government is that this government should give the Aboriginal language fund to the Indigenous government because they are the authority over the language and culture, you know. They should have more say but they should give the funding to the Indigenous government. And I don't think I don't feel comfortable in support somebody from ECE having the authority over this language. So I would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have some elders in the community who they did they entered into refinance agreement, and some of these elders are in their 70s. I mean, that should have been forgiven long time ago. I mean, that is not acceptable. That is unacceptable, Mr. Speaker. And we have some refinancing that was done with 20 years old and that the agreement is not in their name; it is in the parent's name. The family moved into the house before the child was born, and this is where they are doing refinancing agreement with a child that who got their first job. There's quite a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have mortgages that we know people cannot pay. We have a collection policy that shows our ability to forgive residents who are in this situation.

Can the Minister explain how Housing NWT administers its collection policy and how often people are assessed and forgiven from their debts based on their ability to pay those back, those debts? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT has accumulated $16.5 million in arrears. Of that, $4.9 million is owed in mortgage payments. The role of Housing NWT is to provide safe and affordable housing to residents. It is not to set up people for failure, entering into mortgages with people only to evict them later because they cannot afford the mortgage.

Mr. Speaker, I have residents who renewed their mortgage with Housing NWT when it was clear they were unable to keep up with costs of that mortgage. I agree that we need to promote homeownership, but Housing NWT must consider a person's...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do have an issue with this too as well because we've been asking on Highway No. 3 to have cell service because that is the busiest highway and even you, Minister of Finance, said it before that it is a safety risk that, you know, since there's there's no cell service. I just I have a serious concern about that because we've been asking for cell service on Highway No. 3. We have a lot of incidents. We have life lost. And even last year when there was an incident on the highway, you know, like, I was talking about this young man at Boundary Creek, like, in...

Well, this is just in general too as well. You know, like, so I just wanted to know how GNWT is working with agency and other GNWT departments and Indigenous governments to support recruitment efforts of health care professionals in many of the small communities? Thank you.

Well, that is a disadvantage for us because our vacancy rate is growing in small communities, and we are at risk of losing staff, particularly in the health care field. So I just wanted to ask the Minister can the Minister tell the House how the health care recruitment plan will support our small communities in attracting and retaining health care professionals?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to also acknowledge and recognize our Tlicho grand chief, Jackson Lafferty in the audience. I am happy he moved on to be our grand chief, and I am grateful to be part of this 19th Legislative Assembly. So I am grateful he's he is our grand chief. And I would also like to recognize Michael McLeod in the audience and Sholto Douglas who is originally from Behchoko. So I would like to acknowledge and welcome Sholto Douglas as well. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Okay, I know that work is being done to support the recruitment. But I need to know how or if our community how our community are being thought of in this whole process. Can the Minister explain how the headquarters empowers our region to attract and retain health care professionals?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know, this is further to what my colleague just said. In the past, in our region, TCSA and other GNWT departments, had power to work through human resources process to support our residents in the communities and now these functions have been centralized to Yellowknife office and our region do not have the flexibility to recruit and attract, you know, outside especially with the health department, to recruit more health nurses, you know. We have a lot of vacancy just like Minister Green said, that there's 40 percent vacancy. We have problems recruiting nurses, speech...