Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister agree to the board chair and president of Aurora College appearing in front of a standing committee should the committee make such a request? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I note that a new president has been appointed to the college, and I congratulate Ms. James on her appointment. Can the Minister tell me what role she or the department had in the recruitment process?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciated the Minister's earlier statement about Indigenous Languages Month. The GNWT has been clear about the need for language revival and preservation in this year's Indigenous Languages Month campaign, which I will quote from directly: The loss of Indigenous languages is an ongoing challenge in our territory and around the world. To reverse the loss of language and culture and keep Indigenous languages alive and thriving, they must be spoken in homes and communities.

While the statement about homes and communities is true, and we should be proud that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a followup question to the Minister of health from some of my questions yesterday.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has said that there will not be job losses associated with COVID  COVID funding sunsetting but it is not clear to me what changes may occur to where staff were placed in the system. Can the Minister describe in more detail what changes are proposed and how that will affect frontline operations at Stanton? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No further questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the importance of nursing aides to our health care system. My question is for the health Minister. What actions are being taken to mitigate staffing impacts associated with federal COVID funding ending? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, that's an interesting response from the Minister. I guess my question is I believe that people were given the impression there would be layoffs. There was a story in the news. I've heard from constituents about this. So how is the department been communicating about these changes and how did we get to the point where we're in a miscommunication about whether there's going to be layoffs or not? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the past five years, nursing aides have been indispensable members of nursing teams in the NWT, particularly shining during the pandemic as unsung heros alongside nurses. Their expanded roles during the pandemic included providing crucial support and companionship to isolated, critically ill elders, going above and beyond to ensure no one passed away alone by offering comfort and conveying messages of love from family members. Their presence not only facilitated medical care but also preserved the dignity of patients in their final moments.

Beyond the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the housing Minister. First off, why is maintenance chronically underfunded? I'm curious to know what circumstances caused this challenge so we can better understand it as we're priority setting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Another question I have about Housing NWT is why do we cap the number of units in a community? And to give an example, Mr. Speaker, the Minister announced that the 50unit project in Yellowknife, which I'm very excited about, but that won't actually result in more units of NWT Housing units in the community. So I'm curious to hear from the Minister why that is.