Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I think that I I'll just make the comment that I think it would be nice to see the department speaking to outcomes they're looking to reach in the business plan just because this one, I believe, is quite an important item, and I think it's something that has been, you know, recently audited in the department. There was definitely some gaps found and so I think it's something that should be top of mind for the department in terms of the plans that they're making and the outcomes that they're trying to achieve. So I'll leave that as a comment for future updates to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to refer to business plan, page 11, just give the Minister and her staff a second to find that. In particular, the item that speaks to continuing implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action. So I note that that Call to Action, particularly action number 7, speaks to closing the gap between Indigenous and nonIndigenous education outcomes in the country. And that one is directed at the federal government. But, of course, there was an audit done by the auditor general recently of this system, came forward with a bunch of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly won't need 20 minutes to speak on this one.

Mr. Speaker, I'm also rising to speak in favour of the motion. Mr. Speaker, when I served on Yellowknife city council, the issue of access to lands was on ongoing frustration. When I asked staff at one point, you know, in a particular moment of frustration, whether any other jurisdictions in Canada have systems like this where lands within municipal boundaries have multiple layers of jurisdictional management? The answer that staff gave me at the time was no, that the NWT is unique.

Mr. Speaker, I understand that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, although I have felt a strong sense of responsibility since the day I was first elected, I must say, the weight of what our territory is facing in the near future has felt heavier still as I have been considering the 20242025 Budget and the new reality of the Government of the Northwest Territories. At the time when our territory is most in need of investment in housing, education, critical infrastructure, health care, and climate change adaptation, amongst other things, our government is at the cusp of hitting its debt ceiling and has little to spend on...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Continuing on the arts theme, you know, as was raised, the switch to ITI has been announced as part of the Budget Address, and so I think that there's  you know, there's reason for a little bit of concern from the arts community that, you know, the optics of putting the arts under ITI as opposed to, you know, a cultural department is that it kind of indicates that what we're moving toward is trying to kind of treat the arts as sort of a monetized or economic development initiative. And I would say that I think that, you know, investments in the arts is a big piece of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, the one that kind of caught my eye here was that, you know, the arts organization operating funding. I know that operating funding  funding for just kind of keeping the lights on, keeping the doors open, is what NGOs and arts organizations alike continue to tell us they need. And so it looks to me like operating funding for arts organizations has been reduced a bit. It was previously $470,000. It seems to be reinstated as $321,000.

Can the Minister just explain, are there any organizations who are losing operating funding through this change? Are there any...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I do yeah, I do note that I actually have notes for myself on Aurora College on the next page. It can be where we're going night after night here, it can be hard to keep track of all our notes. But, you know, the line item is here also so it seems like a fair place to also ask the question.

Just to be clear here, the Minister suggested that Aurora College had almost $2 million in reductions simply with vacant positions that weren't filled, is that correct? Or is there maybe a bit more to that story?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I appreciate those answers. And now kind of to the business plan itself, looking at that business plan it was just the continuing implementation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, it just highlighted for me to kind of have a look at those calls, and that number 7 stood out to me particularly considering the auditor general's report that the department is responding to. So I guess my question is on the business plan, I don't see any commitments or targets being sought to reduce the gap between Indigenous and nonIndigenous youth. I'm not seeing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the interest of time, I'm not going to repeat the compelling arguments made by the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake but did just want to reiterate my support for what he was saying, and I just state for the record I would wholeheartedly support supplementary appropriation coming forward from the department to better fund this area because it's important to my riding also. And, yeah, just want the Minister to be aware that the support is there for it if she's able to bring something forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm excited and proud to acknowledge Frame Lake resident Morgan Stabel who recently won the national youth bowling championship while representing the NWT in the senior girls division. Morgan is the top Canadian five-pin bowler in her category, and she is the first NWT resident to win gold at a national bowling event in Canada in 22 years.

Mr. Speaker, that is an incredible feat and an inspiration for all NWT athletes. Congratulations, Morgan, on your big achievement.