R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the public inquiry is being sold as the only way for the public's voices to be heard and as the only morally upright option that we have. But neither of those are accurate. I caution Members from making this an issue of good versus evil. I think the Member from Hay River South spoke pretty eloquently about his connection to the evacuations and the wildfire season. I have a similar one. It's been two years now where it's been constant disasters, constant evacuations. And when I went door to door, this is the one thing, this was on the top of everyone's list...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'll do my best of course. The Minister of Finance isn't here today, and so I know that questions directed to other  it would normally go to other Ministers than come to the Premier when the appropriate Minister is not here. Just a bit of education to the public on why I'm answering these. So I'll do my best. It's a big question because there actually is a lot happening. This was a huge focus in the last government as the Member recalls, and so a lot of work has begun. So I can't go through everything that is happening but if you look at the Indigenous Recruitment...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many of those contracts are based on federal funding and so we have very limited abilities in those situations. When it's GNWT funding, there's a greater ability to collaborate. But I'll just take a guess that we could probably do more collaboration. I think we can always do more collaboration, and that's going to lead to more to better results and more satisfied organizations and people. So it is you know, I've been preaching about this for quite some time now, so I look forward to enhancing our collaboration with the NGOs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, there is no centralized collection of those. There is a number of departments and agencies with contracts and contributions with nonprofits, but I can say that the as part of our homelessness strategy, A Way Home, the integrated services delivery team is tasked with compiling those into a central repository. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So if the Member wants to provide the Minister of Finance with some specifics about the instances he's talking about, I'm sure the Minister of Finance will be happy to look into those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And once again, I think this is great timing for these questions because as we embark on implementation of the homelessness strategy, those are the types of actions that we will be undertaking how can we ensure that NGOs have stable funding? You know, I don't think that the Member needs to convince me of anything. I agreed with much of what she said in her statement. NGOs can provide they do provide core services often at a much lower price than the GNWT can, and so we need to strengthen that partnership as we go forward and try to live within our means as a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the government has relationships with the NGOs and so is aware of the turnover within NGOs and even just personally, you know, I'm aware of my constituency of the issues NGOs have in retaining staff. And so, yes, we are aware of those staffing turnovers.

To the Member's question about organizations and whether or not those same organizations are delivering services, I'm not sure what awareness the department has but I think they must they probably have a pretty good sense as well. They're the ones who are signing the contribution agreements. And I know from my own...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Caroline Wawzonek will be absent from the House for the remainder of the week to attend the meetings for federal, provincial, territorial Ministers responsible for transportation and safety in Montreal. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, February 23rd, 2024, I will present Bill 2, Missing Person's Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As that's not in my department, I'm going to have to take that on notice. Thank you.