Debates of February 7, 2023 (day 133)

Date
February
7
2023
Session
19th Assembly, 2nd Session
Day
133
Members Present
Hon. Diane Archie, Mr. Bonnetrouge, Hon. Paulie Chinna, Ms. Cleveland, Mr. Edjericon, Hon. Julie Green, Mr. Jacobson, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Martselos, Ms. Nokleby, Mr. O’Reilly, Hon. R.J. Simpson, Mr. Rocky Simpson, Hon. Shane Thompson, Hon. Caroline Wawzonek, Ms. Weyallon Armstrong.
Topics
Statements

Question 1310-19(2): Request for Cabinet to Visit Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh Communities

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the last year, I feel the Premier and Cabinet are not working together with the ordinary MLAs in the spirit and intent to resolve their respective community issues. In this consensus style government, this should be a top priority to work together with all Members so all communities have a voice to be heard in this government, and that needs to be respected. From what I could see, this is not happening with this government. There is no consultation or accommodation with MLAs in small communities, especially for my riding, their wants and needs for the respective communities. This is not reflected in their fouryear plan. Again, the NWT Cabinet knows best for my riding. Mr. Speaker, my small communities do matter, and their voices need to be heard and respected. My question, Mr. Speaker, is to the GNWT Cabinet. I know the Premier's not here today, Mr. Speaker. The thing is that I'd like to get a commitment from Cabinet the Premier, Minister Caroline Wawzonek, Minister Shane Thompson, Minister Paulie Chinna, and Minister Diane Archie, and Minister Julie Green, and Minister R.J. Simpson to see if they could come to my riding in the first week of break the House so that they are able to listen to the people in my riding to their issues and concerns. And I just want to see if I can get a commitment here today. I'm inviting you, and maybe the Cabinet could work together to either charter into the community, or we could figure this thing out. But I think it's important that we do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. The question needs to be directed to one person so I'm guessing that'll be Deputy Premier. Deputy Premier.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we as a Cabinet have standing committee meetings on all of our different discussions, whether it be our bills, legislation. We sit in front of committee, and we go through all the all of our work in detail, and we get feedback. And it's you know, it's a wholeofgovernment approach with Regular Members and committee. In terms of looking to commit right now, for me just sitting here asking to go into the community directly, we'd have to individually look at our schedules. Right after we're done session, some of us have FPTs; we have community tours; we have bilateral agreements. I'm not saying no, but I think that we as a government could perhaps look at each of our individual schedules and respond back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for your response. Again, Mr. Speaker, you know, I've been here a year, and there's no Minister no Cabinet Minister has approached me to say, what is it your needs are for your community in your riding. In 2019, all MLAs got together, and they are able to put everything on the table in what they want to see for their riding, and they came up with a mandate for this government. Again, you know, I was never given an opportunity to have a say what should be on that mandate as well. So, you know, we've been advocating for winter roads, dust control, additions, schools in Dettah, and so on. But the thing is I know Cabinet is busy, and I'm just saying that if there's a way that we could have the Cabinet come to our community. Dettah and N'dilo is just down the road. We'd be there in 20 minutes. We could fly to Lutselk'e. You know, we could be there if we go there by charter, in and out, we could do Fort Resolution and so on. So, anyways, I'd just like to see if there's a way we could work together to accommodate that. This is a request on behalf of the community. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, absolutely we have requests often from Regular Members to go as Ministers. Perhaps we've been to your community several times as a result of your request to us. We've gone to some of the other ridings as a request of the Members. I encourage the Member to reach out to our ministerial offices, find a schedule that works for all of us, or perhaps even a couple of us. I mean, you know, we all can't sometimes make it all together, but we will give it some effort to be able to get to some of the communities when and where we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Deputy Premier. For the record, we haven't seen you since last year. No, I'm just kidding. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, and I'll reach out to the Cabinet by email and see if we could try to work together to come up with a day to go into those communities because I think it's very important that we do that. Mr. Speaker, earlier I had mentioned that, you know, there's and I heard the Minister of housing talk about the $30 million that they're looking at putting back into housing. But that $30 million over two years is it's coming from CIRNAC to deal with housing crisis. And in my riding, we have a housing crisis already, and we have housing issues. So I want to know if we are able to work with the government to look at how we could use that money to go back into the communities here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. But your line of questions needs to be to your invitation for Cabinet. We can't go to another line of questioning for a different Minister. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I'll have to ask these questions tomorrow then because they are important. The monies that we're talking about from CIRNAC are $30 million over two years, but that money was spent to fixing the public housing. We still have housing crisis in Northwest Territories. And the money that's been used to address these issues were never addressed. So what I'm saying, Mr. Speaker, is that tomorrow I'll bring this up and say, hey, look, we got to work with Indigenous government to talk about how we're going to we should actually do a contribution agreement with Indigenous government to spend that $30 million. So I'll talk about that tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you. We may have a chance later today, but I doubt it, but just a thought. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.