Kate Reid

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. When it comes to outbreaks, which of course we don't want to see but, you know, have seen as recently as last year with the TB outbreaks as the Minister mentioned, how are we addressing surge capacity for public health to go out and address outbreaks as they arise? That's an area of concern I'm hearing about. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So identifying surplus land, does that mean there's no inventory prior to this business plan commitment of surplus land of ECE? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the building shelter capacity funding for the $100,000 that we're talking about today was not used to develop the training that the Minister talked about earlier. That's separate funding that the YWCA secured through Women's Shelter Canada.

But my question to the Minister would be that, you know, since the NWT has the second highest rate of family-based violence in the country, families turn to shelters and safe homes more than we want them to, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to working with the Minister to reinstate this funding? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is the Minister and Cabinet envisioning that this process will be perhaps, for lack of better term, a pilot project for legislation that deals with the social envelope, is it going to be more widely expansive, or is it only for the Education Act and you'll take lessons learned moving ahead? I mean, I realize this is all theoretical but I'm just curious from sort of like a 30,000-foot view. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in Committee of the Whole, the Minister of health said that this $100,000 of funding that was cut to the shelter network had to do with their ability to do online training. So my question is, does the Minister believe that training in trauma-informed practices can sufficiently be done through Zoom? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, yeah, that was just sort of a general question throughout the department, so I appreciate that.

Going to the business plan, much like my colleague from Frame Lake, I have a sort of a wider picture question. I know the department is working to revitalize/amend the Education Act. I'm curious if the Minister can speak to what kind of process they are looking at to develop that legislation with Indigenous partners. Is it going to be through the process convention that is established for lands and resources legislation, or will it be a new process? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, Members received a letter from the Family Violence Shelter Network seeking assistance to reinstate funding for the annual building shelter capacity fund in the 2025-2026 Budget. The network is a partnership between YWCA-NWT in Yellowknife, safe homes projects in Fort Good Hope and Fort Simpson, and family violence shelters in Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, Hay River, and Fort Smith. The shelter capacity fund slated to be cut is in the amount of $100,000. These funds are vital to the work the network does to train and build capacity of shelter staff to meet GNWT service...

Perfect, now I understand. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, that was my lived experience as a library staff at the city of Yellowknife many, many years ago. I'm pretty sure it's still the same, but I could be wrong.

So I guess my question, then, becomes if we want to expand public library services and really, you know, make sure we're supporting literacy in every facet of our territory, including adult literacy, of course how we expand those services and how we deliver those services, I think is a really great question to be engaging with the NWT Association of Librarians, and I would really encourage the Minister to speak...

So the $8.8 million is going towards other deficits. What are we spending on medical travel? I'm lost in the sauce, Mr. Chair. Thanks.