Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the department anticipated this, we did a review a while back, a couple of years, on where we were going with fire crews. Over the last two fire seasons we've gone to basically having four four-man crews there with casual staff hired in these positions. We're still anticipating hiring these two individuals as casuals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I didn't hear that very last part of the response. I'll continue on with my questions. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why positions were cut from small communities where seasonal and casual employees have no other options to find employment in the small communities?

Upon doing the review of the fire crews for the Northwest Territories, we changed from a five-man crew to a four-man crew and redistributed the resources territory-wide, and what the Member is saying is not totally accurate. We went from 28 crews to 36 crews across the Northwest Territories, and have added additional crews to a couple of communities, I think in Tsiigehtchic and Wekweeti.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the GNWT lays off positions or employees there's a process that help them identify new jobs where P1s have been eliminated. In situations where only the P1 is eliminated, whether it be filled by a casual or a seasonal employee, then that person that's impacted is the only one that has to deal with it. We need to go the extra mile to try to find positions. Can the Minister advise me what efforts were made to minimize the impacts on the change of the crew configuration so that people that used to be in those positions, maybe casuals, are given opportunities within that department or with other departments within the community? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In an attempt to minimize the impact of changes to the communities like Fort Resolution, ENR over the last two years, like I've said, has gone to only permanently hiring four out of the five-man crews. The fifth person for each crew has been hired on an as-and-when-needed basis as a casual for the summer.

Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if he can look at ways to ensure that PYs are restored in the communities. If the fifth firefighter in these communities is actually still there and still working as a casual, then that must mean that there's a function for the individual. I'd like to know if the Minister can restore the PY, whether it be in forest management or other areas that may be of interest to the casual or other areas within ENR mandate or other areas within the GNWT mandate to ensure that those PYs are not lost. Because they're not filled with actual positions, I can't really say employees, but it's just as important that the PYs remain in the small communities. Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand the concern about PY positions in the communities. Moving forward, we will do what's deemed to fit the ENR's business practice as best as possible and we will continue to look at hiring as many people as possible in the communities as the fire season event moves on in the current fiscal year. We will try to hire more people, as needed, and we will be committed to that. ENR is always committed to hiring as many fire personnel in the communities as we can. I look forward to maybe discussing it with the Member. Thank you.

Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my statement, households that depend on government for income are at greater risk of being hungry than other households with low income. The government has acknowledged this fact by raising the food allowance portion of income assistance. Can the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment confirm his commitment to follow through with increases to the food allowance in the next two fiscal years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member's correct in her Member's statement, the last time we increased the income assistance was on April 1, 2015. We're always reviewing our programs and services that we offer to our most vulnerable people and the ones that really need some of the basic needs.

I did field questions on this topic last week. Just some extra information out there. On April 1stwe did increase it by 20 per cent, 2015. We also mentioned that in the Yukon they're looking at indexing, so we've got the department looking at what they're doing in the Yukon to see if there's any way we can reflect that. Obviously, there would be some changes that we would need to make within our regulations with the new announcement of the federal funding with the child tax, and we're trying to adjust those so that our low- to moderate-income families will see a significant increase. We have gone over those numbers yesterday during the business main estimates review in Committee of the Whole. We're working with the Members and we're also looking at what other northern jurisdictions are doing. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that response. I just want to confirm with him that in fact there is a commitment to follow through with the increases scheduled earlier to the food allowance under income assistance.

As we went through our business planning review, as well as our main estimates review, and with the regulations, when those go through we're going to see a significant increase to our low to moderate-families, which the Member is bringing forward with the NWT Child Benefits and how we're going to be assessing those and addressing those now. There will be an increase to our families that have low income to moderate income. It's just going to take time, as we have to go through the regulations. We will see those increases as we move forward.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. Mr. Speaker, what efforts is the territorial government making to ensure that Nutrition North becomes a more useful program in the North for providing nutritious and affordable food? Thank you.

We're always working with other departments on how we can address some of the shortfalls in some of our communities, such as high cost of food. In 2014, we did develop a Northern Market Basket Measure. Every jurisdiction in the Northwest Territories does have a market basket measure, but it doesn't reflect what the costs are living in the Northwest Territories. We work with Yukon and we worked with Nunavut to create a Northern Market Basket Measure. We're using those statistics to reflect how we fund our income assistance. We’re also working with our other departments and with adjusting some of the high costs of food prices in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that answer. What I'm wondering in particular with Nutrition North, which is a federal program, is whether the territorial government is taking a role in trying to make Nutrition North a more useful program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Of course, Nutrition North has been a concern for all Northerners in the last few years. We want to see how we can work with our federal partners to make the program more feasible here in the northern communities, so definitely working with our federal counterparts to address those issues.

Oral Questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I asked questions to the Minister responsible for Homelessness about the Housing First plan. Unfortunately, the information we learned was incorrect. Housing First in the city of Yellowknife has made a commitment to house one person by the end of August 2016 this year, and 20 people over the life of the project, not just one person. I am wondering if today the Minister can explain why inaccurate information was provided to this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.