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. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think it's pretty clear where this motion is going, but we should make a point of throwing our reasons out there for decisions that we're making.

I see where the Member is getting at in terms of kind of questioning whether now is a time to be growing senior management, and I do I do think that those are questions that are worth raising. With regards to reducing the budget by $200,000, similar to some of my colleagues, I just don't think that I want to see this budget reduced any further than it already is. I mean, one of the first thoughts I had when I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to wave a blue page or a white page or something to gain your attention.

Yeah, on this one I wanted to follow up on a line of questioning I brought to the justice Minister when he was before us, and it was just related to programming we have in place related to addictions, social programming, things like that related to the drug and gang problem that we have. The question that I was putting to him was, you know, whether policing is the best option for this, and I would purport that it is a part of it and fully open to that. But the question for the health Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I I'm going to try and come at this from a slightly different angle just so we're not belabouring the point too badly on extended health benefits. But I wanted to ask specifically about the northern market basket measure and the switch to using this as kind of a determined the ceiling under which people would be covered or would have to kind of cover some of the costs themselves, increasing on a sliding scale from there. So I'd just like to hear from the department the appropriateness of using the basket measure. I know that the NWT has its own that it's kind of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that what was being desired and what was being spoken to in this case is hoping that, you know, care can be provided in such a way that people could be kept at home and not necessarily we're not necessarily talking about people who need to be in a bed or, you know, being provided medical care so to speak but sometimes just kind of some social support. I'm wondering if the Minister could kind of speak to that kind of care, keeping people at home, giving people support where they are, where they need it, so that they don't have to be in the hospital or sent south...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yeah, I would just say to the Minister I hope to see some new programming coming forward to that end to getting people connected with employment.

Mr. Speaker, on a slightly different note, section 24(v) of the income assistance regulations requires people to drain their retirement savings in order to be eligible for income assistance. Is the Minister willing to review these regulations to see if we can achieve the balance of program fairness without forcing people to compromise their longterm future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And in keeping with the theme of the day, I have some questions on income support.

Mr. Speaker, my first question is considering removal of the productive choice and employment requirements, as we've been talking about a fair bit this afternoon already, how is the department proposing to continue work to reduce dependency on income support? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, and I do I do recognize that was a very general and high level question, but I guess the point I was getting at is that we do seem to have quite a focused plan for dealing with crime on the policing side and was just kind of hoping to hear from the Minister what we're doing on the social side. And a lot of that falls under her department. And to the point I mean, I was asked the question myself the other day and had a difficult time kind of coming up with an answer like are we doing enough? I think if we look outside and look to what Members are saying is going on...